Head of Regional Innovation & Procurement Partnerships (RC359)

Location Belfast Working hours Full time Contract type/duration: Fixed Term Contract 12 months Band: 4.1 Salary: £68,890 - £77,147 Dependent on proven ability) Reporting to: Head of Regional Engagement Closing date: 10am on the 31st of October The Role Belfast City Council and Connected Places Catapult want to build the conditions for high potential businesses to start, scale and stay in the Belfast City Region. We want to increase the number of investment-ready firms in Belfast and across Northern Ireland.

Belfast has strong innovation and R&D capability and a flourishing start-up economy. The partnership between Belfast City Council (BCC) and Connected Places Catapult (CPC) is intended to strengthen the conditions for economic growth by building Belfast Region Deal partner’s (BRCD) capacity to use challenge led procurement, trials and demonstrators as a route to market for innovation. Our focus is on leveraging the power of the public sector as the first buyer of innovation – encouraging the use of innovative procurement activities.

Our vision is that innovative procurement becomes a core part of R&D and accelerator programmes in the region And so Connected Places Catapult (CPC) is partnering with Belfast City Council (BCC) to look for a new Head of Regional Innovation & Procurement Partnerships in the Regional & Local Growth Directorate. This is an embedded, capacity-building role. The postholder will act as a local anchor for Connected Places Catapult in Belfast.

They will work day-to-day as a core team member with BCC, BRCD and Innovation City Belfast (ICB) to convene the innovation and investment ecosystem, coordinate challenge owners and procurement colleagues, and translate BRCD priorities into a clear pipeline of opportunities. The role will also act as a bridge into CPC, drawing in national capability, such as the Innovation Procurement Empowerment Centre (IPEC) and Enterprise Innovation Directorate whilst connecting to other partners and government departments where this accelerates delivery.

This post holder will have two core priorities: Led by the priorities of Belfast Region City Deal Partnership, Belfast Local Economic Partnership and Innovation City Belfast – the postholder will build partnerships across the region which leverage procurement to drive business growth and speed up the journey of local innovation businesses from discovery to commercialisation. Lead CPC's relationship with Belfast City Council, Belfast Region City Deal Partnership, Belfast Local Economic Partnership, Innovation City Belfast as well as stakeholders across Northern Ireland including Invest NI, the Department for the Economy and Digital Catapult in Belfast and help regional stakeholders to reach into CPC's breadth of experience running programmes across transport, construction and infrastructure.

Within CPC, the role is a leadership role and might be asked to oversee, support and line manage individuals embedded in other regional innovation economies across the UK. You will be a member of the Regional & Local Growth Directorate's extended leadership team, working with other Heads across the business - especially the Head of Innovation Procurement - to shape and deliver new programmes that unlock local business growth through innovation.

Find out more about Connected Places Catapult’s approach to local growth, listen to our Managing Director Alan Welby as he speaks to ‘Civil Service World Podcast ’. Find out more about the role of procurement, listen to Rikesh Shah, Head of IPEC also talk to ‘Civil Service World Podcast’, this time about procurement as a launchpad for growth . Find out more about Belfast’s growth ambition, read Belfast Region City Deal, https://smartbelfast.city/ Innovation City Belfast – Smart Belfast This role will sit in the offices of Belfast Council and will involve some travel (roughly monthly) to CPC’s offices in London, Milton Keynes or Birmingham.