Senior Innovation Consultant

The Senior Innovation Consultant is a key role at NICA. You will have a passion for, and proven experience of, delivering innovation projects to support businesses in harnessing new opportunities. You will be curious with a growth mindset and inspire others around you with fresh ideas. You will have an understanding of and experience in applying human-centred design methods and processes in practice - ideally with older adults - and enjoy working in a collaborative, multidisciplinary team.
Reporting to the Principle Innovation Consultant, you will take responsibility for the successful delivery of projects and building and maintaining strong relationships with our clients. You will achieve this by drawing on your excellent project management skills and working closely with our citizen's insight network, VOICE , to gain a deep understanding of the needs, wants, desires and motivations of older adults and the people in their lives. Translating these insights into engaging, high-quality outputs for client delivery., Lead on scoping and discovery sessions with clients to help produce project proposals that provide clear and achievable deliverables
Work with colleagues in Legal and Finance to ensure proposals are appropriately costed and contracted
Building and maintaining strong relationships with our clients
Act as the project lead, translating the brief, assigning team roles, planning the approach and building the design toolkit for each phase to successfully deliver on the project
Line manage and support Innovation Consultants as part of your delivery team
Carry out and supervise desk-based research and analysis, drawing on a wide range of resources
Manage a portfolio of projects, providing effective project and budget management against key metrics and milestones
Ensure projects are delivered to cost
Communicate regularly with clients on progress, acting as the main point of contact
Facilitate and moderate interviews, workshops and panels to gather citizen insights that communicate the wants, needs and desires of potential users
Produce detailed outputs, reports and case studies that collate information from a variety of sources and present key findings
Lead on project reviews, analysing lessons learned and ensuring they are applied to future projects
Provide content for marketing and communications staff in the preparation of media and press releases
Contribute to and help further develop our processes and methodologies
Be curious and become an expert in the areas of ageing, longevity, innovation and commercialisation
Any other duties as specified commensurate with the grade

Experience of working with and building strong relationships with commercial clients
Experience of leading discovery sessions with clients to translate their needs and help produce project proposals with clear, achievable deliverables
Proven experience of leading a multidisciplinary, creative team to deliver engaging, high-quality outputs
Excellent planning, organisational and project management skills with the ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously
Experience of applying human-centred design methods and processes in practice - ideally with older adults - through a variety of design methods such as interviews, workshops and citizen panels
Experience of presenting to a wide variety of audiences, both in person and remotely
Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
Proven experience of a range of IT programmes, especially Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite
Willingness to travel nationally and internationally, if required
Desirable
Previous experience of working and delivering in a fast-paced consultancy type environment
Experience or understanding of the opportunities and challenges of working in healthy ageing and longevity
Experience of conducting trend analysis and developing future forecasts
Experience of running prototype and product testing with end users
Experience working with survey software, video software and graphic design tools to translate data into compelling insights that tell a story

Attributes and Behaviour

Projecting confidence:
Projects a positive attitude through personal confidence and enthusiasm to achieve organisational success. Inspires the trust and confidence of others

Planning and organising:
Manages time and resources by prioritising and organising effectively. Monitors and controls the workflow of the team, Educated to degree standard in an innovation, design, social sciences, trend forecasting or technology discipline and/or significant work experience

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society. We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent. We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a silver Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality. We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC. We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

Pulled from the full job description

• Company pension


• Employee discount


• Flexible schedule


 

Full job description

Salary: £33,966 to £36,024 with progression to £44,263 per annum

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits . We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.