Overview

Challenge Works is world-leading in the development and implementation of high-impact challenge prizes that attract and enable innovation to solve pressing societal problems. Our model shines a spotlight on specific problems and opportunities, to inspire and guide the most creative and dynamic groups of innovators to deliver impact.

We are owned by the innovation foundation Nesta and have delivered over 90 high-profile challenge prizes worldwide. From combating antimicrobial resistance to tackling plastic pollution, we have worked with more than 12,000 innovator teams and helped foundations, governments, international NGOs and corporations to direct nearly £250m in prize funding to support the boldest and bravest ideas to become real.

As a team of 40 we believe it has never been more urgent to incentivise innovators to use radical and boundary-pushing technology solutions for societal benefit, and our Operations Manager is key to Challenge Works.

The Role

The Operations Manager will play a critical role in the smooth running of the Challenge Works team, reporting into our Head of Operations and working with our Programme, Communications and Research teams, as well as Nesta’s central Legal, People and Finance teams. You will support the smooth, effective and sustainable running of key operational areas like financial reporting, project budgeting, recruitment, management information and governance, working with existing processes as well as designing and implementing new ones where you see opportunities for us to improve.

You will be excited by our diverse portfolio of work and the opportunity to work at the heart of a team of 40 changemakers. You’ll be proactive and will get stuck into the detail helping Challenge Works operate brilliantly day to day, at the same time as maintaining focus on the bigger picture for Challenge Works and our long term vision. With strong planning and organisation skills you’ll have a track record of building great relationships across diverse teams, designing and implementing processes and systems for getting stuff done efficiently and dealing with lots of different priorities at once.

Responsibilities

Operations

• Reporting to the Head of Operations, support on the design, implementation and running of successful processes and systems across Challenge Works.
• Become an expert on the systems used within the team, acting as a central point of contact for team members.
• Develop reports and dashboards to monitor key metrics and data, using these to guide strategic decision-making at leadership level.
• Working with Programme Managers and Team Leads to keep track of key metrics across the multiple prize programmes (c.10-15) the team is working on, offering support and advice where required on areas such as budgeting and resourcing.
• Championing the use of CRM systems (we primarily use salesforce) across Challenge Works.
• Organise, attend and manage all Challenge Works Leadership Team meetings, preparing agendas papers and taking minutes ensuring deadlines are met with regards to minute distribution and follow up of action points.
• Maintain the appropriate documents, templates and process maps to support the team to follow your best practice in operational processes
• Act as an ambassador for the Challenge Works, building strong relationships with a wide range of internal and external contacts, identifying key information and actions, taking responsibility and ownership of certain tasks or decisions.

New business opportunities

• Monitor new business opportunities across the team, maintaining a new business dashboard to support future decision making, and ensuring internal governance procedures are followed
• Provide support to programme leads on developing budgets and considering resourcing for new proposals

People & Culture

• Support the Head of Operations in Programme Resourcing and Recruitment.

Finance & Legal

• Gather and report on management information across the team to support and guide strategic decisions with recommendations.
• Manage Challenge Works central budget, keeping track of income, expenditure and processing invoices.
• Provide support, advice and signposting to team members across a range of internal finance processes like contract management, budgeting, invoicing, timesheets and expenses.
• Liaise with Nesta Finance Team and the Nesta Legal Team as the subject matter experts for support on areas like State Aid, audit and VAT

Governance

• Ensure compliance with all internal governance processes whilst managing procurement, contracting and relationships with key central suppliers.
• Manage the organisation of the Challenge Works Board, including agendas, board pack preparation and distribution of all relevant papers, minutes and actions.

People Management

• Ensure the effective and collaborative line management of your direct reports supporting their career trajectory, through appraisals, objective setting and productive feedback
• Role model the values of the organisation and inspire a can do culture where people can thrive.

The Person

• Ability to work independently, think creatively, and anticipate team needs, while keeping in mind the big picture, opportunities and risks.
• Demonstrable experience of designing and running administrative systems that support the smooth running of individuals and a wider team.
• Solid organisation, prioritisation and time management skills with a track record of juggling multiple projects simultaneously.
• Capable of working under pressure to deadlines, often to short timescales with a positive and flexible approach.
• Excellent people skills to work flexibly with a diverse range of high-profile partners, team members and stakeholders. Including the ability to upwards manage.
• Ability to problem-solve efficiently and proactively offer improvements to how things are done.
• Experience setting and keeping to a large budget, and familiarity with a range of financial tools such as PowerBI and AdaptiveInsights.
• Good attention to detail, high standards of accuracy and a good completer/ finisher
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, and confident analysing and presenting information in a clear and insightful way (e.g. dashboards, spreadsheets)
• Good PC Skills including Microsoft Office, Google suite, project management tools e.g. Asana and CRM databases e.g. Salesforce, Capsule.
• Clear understanding of confidentiality.