We are Nesta, the UK’s innovation agency for social good. We design, test and scale solutions to society’s biggest problems. Our three missions are to give every child a fair start, help people live healthy lives, and create a sustainable future where the economy works for both people and the planet.

For over 20 years, we have worked to support, encourage and inspire innovation. We work in three roles: as an innovation partner working with frontline organisations to design and test new solutions, as a venture builder supporting new and early stage businesses, and as a system shaper creating the conditions for innovation.

Harnessing the rigour of science and the creativity of design, we work relentlessly to change millions of lives for the better. Find out more at nesta.org.uk.

Overview
Are you a proactive, analytical and collaborative problem-solver with experience in strategy, either through a top management consultancy, or through an internal strategy role in a dynamic and fast-paced environment? Looking for an exciting and highly rewarding new career opportunity in social impact, at the intersection of government, civil society and the private sector? Energised by Nesta’s vision and the potential to have an impact on millions of lives?

If so, Nesta is looking for a Strategy Manager or Senior Strategy Manager (depending on experience) to become a core member of our Strategy Unit over 12 months (parental cover) and play an important role in helping the organisation deliver and achieve its key missions.

How you’ll contribute to Nesta’s success
Nesta’s strategy sets out an exciting and ambitious goal. Our vision is that by 2030, Nesta will have significantly improved the lives of millions of people through our three missions.

The Strategy Unit plays a key role translating the intent of Nesta’s 2030 strategy into action, while staying alive to new opportunities and continuing to shape the strategic direction of the organisation. The team works closely with others to build a shared understanding of our overall progress in delivering the strategy and identify actions to improve it. The team also takes on special projects to help identify and solve issues of strategic importance and capture emerging opportunities.

The Strategy Unit collaborates closely with others to achieve our missions and deliver social impact, drawing connections between different parts of Nesta and providing deep experience in strategy and hypothesis-driven problem-solving. The team regularly engages with and shares findings and recommendations with the CEO, Executive Team and Nesta’s Board of Trustees. The work will be fast-paced, sometimes with short, competing deadlines.

The Role
This role is a parental cover for an existing member of the Strategy Unit. Working in close collaboration with your colleagues in the Strategy Unit, and beyond, you will help to deliver on our strategy, which sets an exciting and ambitious goal: that by 2030, Nesta will have significantly improved the lives of millions of people. Combining rigour and creativity, we will be a world leader in driving innovation for social good.

Working in close collaboration with colleagues in the Strategy Unit and beyond, examples of responsibilities for this role include:

• Leading and contributing to discrete projects ranging from a few weeks to several months or more, to help Nesta deliver on its strategy. These will likely include helping clarify or revisit elements of Nesta’s strategy, internal planning and coordination, helping identify and deliver improvements in organisational functioning, as well as potential external-facing engagements to help Nesta respond to an ever-evolving external landscape. This includes scoping work, qualitative and quantitative analysis, presenting options and recommendations, and creating delivery plans to operationalise next steps.
• Contributing to the design and implementation of our target operating model that will give Nesta an even greater chance of achieving our three ambitious missions. We have recently updated our 2030 strategy, and this will help bring those strategic recommendations come to life through our operating model, organisational design and ways and working.
• Helping the Strategy Unit develop a view on Nesta’s overall organisational health and performance. This may include helping define targets and measures of success, working with individual teams to synthesise performance information, and/or facilitating action-oriented conversations among senior leaders to identify performance improvements.
• Playing a central role in executing future organisation-wide strategy refreshes and actively supporting the Strategy Unit and wider organisation to frequently ask and answer the key strategic questions underpinning our new strategy (e.g. what work should we do, how should we do it) mid-cycle, to see what has changed and identify potential corrective actions.
• Building strong relationships around the organisation and helping different teams identify and articulate their contributions to Nesta’s overall strategy. This will include both formally and informally engaging in strategic discussion with colleagues, providing support and advice and potentially identifying future projects for the team to take on.

The Person

Essential skills and experience

• Strategy delivery – You’re confident leading end to end strategy projects, either from management consultancy context, or through an internal strategy role. You will be able to coach others within the team and the rest of Nesta on the role of Strategy, and you can effectively apply your experience and knowledge of strategy to Nesta’s context.
• Operating model design and implementation – You have experience translating strategic direction into a target operating model that brings that direction to life. You are confident getting into the detail of organisational design and implementation, while keeping the strategic intent at the forefront of decision making.
• Experience of project-based problem-solving – You have experience leading projects to resolve complex, multifaceted problems with multiple senior stakeholders and no obvious answer. You are able to scope an ambiguous problem and break it down into logically distinct pieces and work in a hypothesis driven way to resolve it.
• Ownership – You default to taking ownership and are proactive in reaching answers. You have a demonstrated ability to effectively balance that with bringing others along and seeking the input and guidance required to reach a quality conclusion.
• Stakeholder engagement – You are a natural relationship-builder and see engaging others in your work as a core part of the role, not as extraneous to it, and plan accordingly. You are able to engage a variety of stakeholders, anticipating their needs and concerns, facilitating efficient and value-adding inputs, and proactively bringing them along with your emerging findings. You can ‘manage up’ effectively to make prioritisations stick.
• Analytical skills – You have strong analytical skills, including competence with spreadsheets and the ability to articulate clear and compelling arguments in PowerPoint/Google Slides.
• Communication skills – You are an exceptionally clear communicator with experience delivering high-quality written and verbal outputs and a demonstrated ability to synthesise complex issues into clear and concise messages for a senior audience.
• Efficiency – You are able to work in an ‘80/20’ way, identifying the 20% of work that will generate 80% of the answer and to quickly and accurately right-size a piece of work, neither over- nor under-investing in proportion to its likely overall effect on the organisation and our impact goals. You make abstract ideas concrete quickly and love to prototype and test before committing significant effort.
• Creativity – You are open to new ways of working and thinking and bring an open mindedness and intellectual curiosity to your work and to the team. You are able to switch modes effectively and sensitively, knowing when to open up a conversation with bold and unusual ideas and when to narrow it down to generate focus and momentum.

Desirable skills and experience

• Knowledge/experience of innovating for social good
• Knowledge/experience in one of our three mission areas
• Experience of working in a purpose-driven organisation
• Strong working knowledge of operations such as communications, legal, finance, HR, systems and processes
• Experience in leading and facilitating strategic discussions at Executive or Board level

Reports to: Director of Strategy