About the job

Job summary

The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) finds and funds exploitable innovation to support the UK Defence and Security mission quickly and effectively, and support UK prosperity. Our vision is for the UK to maintain its strategic advantage over its adversaries and build a safer future for the country and our people.

DASA is part of the Ministry of Defence (MOD) but we work across all Government departments who have responsibility for national security. We are serious about making a difference to those on the front lines in the armed forces, police and elsewhere who protect us, and we are committed to supporting the innovators who can help.

The Innovation Partner for the North West sits within the Outreach Team and is one of thirteen Innovation Partners who collectively cover the nine English regions, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and International. The Innovation Partner has a key role within DASA, responsible for building up networks within industry and academia but also back into UK Government.

This is a unique and exciting role within UK Government. As an Innovation Partner, you will be highly self-motivated. You will be proactive and engage at senior levels within industry, academia, trade associations and professional bodies to expand your network and seek efficient means of disseminating DASA challenges.

You will anticipate the practicalities of adopting new innovations and work with colleagues across DASA to ensure they have viable exploitation routes.

DASA is an equal opportunity employer, serious about promoting diversity and inclusion, and we offer flexible working and job share opportunities and part time positions. We provide training and support for all our staff. We employ a wide range of skills to deliver our mission.

As well as Defence and Security expertise our staff have experience in communications, banking, analysis, project management, venture capital, industry and technology, amongst others.

If you thrive on wanting to make a difference to national security and prosperity in a friendly, multi-disciplined and diverse team, DASA may be the place for you. 

Job description

As an Innovation Partner you will be responsible for building up an understanding of the breadth of innovation in your region across industry and academia.

The role will cover Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside and will require building relationships and identifying opportunities with partner organisations such as Trade Bodies, Local Enterprise Partnerships, Catapults and national centres of excellence in the region.

You will grow DASA’s network across industry and academia in order to identify new technologies, innovations and ideas that could offer genuine benefit to UK Defence and Security. Through this network you will encourage quality submissions for DASA funding that meet current and future DASA challenges. These challenges will be across the whole technology spectrum, from robotics and artificial intelligence to microbiology and next generation space capabilities.

You will be building strategic relationships at CEO/CTO/Director level in industry and lecturer/professor/Head of Department/Dean of School levels in academia.

Additional responsibilities will be helping to draft DASA competition documents for a non-government audience, seeking operational users of innovative technology internally with the help of DASA’s Partnerships & Impact Team, identifying government specialists to assess bids and identifying benefits wherever they present themselves.

For more information on role responsibilities, please see the Job Profile attached below.

Person specification

The Innovation Partner role will work across all sectors to identify and grow new opportunities which advance the capabilities of Defence and Security, whilst working with DASA’s Partnerships & Impact team to find opportunities for parallel investment and exploitation. The Innovation Partner will be required to communicate to a wide spectrum of partner organisations, both large and small.

We are looking for someone who has:

A career path that can demonstrate successful:

• Experience of working with industry, academia and government to deliver capability
• Experience working with defence and/or security Research & Development, innovation or operational capability teams

Desirable:

• Track record of research and development delivery (project/programme management would be a plus)
• Successful management and exploitation of complex projects that have improved government systems or ways of working

Leadership:

As a leader in Defence you will help shape, role model and bring to life the ‘One Defence’ mindset that will enable us to deliver our vision and strategic objectives. Your leadership style must be inspiring, confident and empowering. Working at every level of our organisation to break down silos, unite teams and create a culture that is trusting, collaborative, innovative, diverse and inclusive. Enabling us to deliver with pace and agility through the skills, commitment and empowerment of our employees and military colleagues.

Important Information:

Our work in defence, security and intelligence requires our employees to be UK Nationals who are able to gain a high level of security clearance to undertake the projects we are involved in to protect us from security threats. For this reason, only UK Nationals will be able to apply for this role. If you are an international or dual-national candidate, and you think you have the skills we need, please consider applying to any of our government, security or defence partners.

This role will require full UK security clearance and you should have resided in the UK for the past 5 years. For some roles Developed Vetting will also be required, in this case you should have resided in the UK for the past 10 years.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £55,014, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory contributes £14,853 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

We want you to have your best chance of success in our recruitment process, so If at any stage of the application process you would like help or assistance please contact the Dstl Recruitment Team dstlrecruitment@dstl.gov.uk and we will do all we can to support you.

Sifting will take place shortly after the role has closed with successful applicants being invited to attend an online interview via MS Teams

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

Open to UK nationals only.

This job is not open to candidates who hold a dual nationality.

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.