DASA – Innovation Partner – North West

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. 

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.

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.

We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Working Together
• Leadership
• Changing and Improving
• Making Effective Decisions

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Working Together

Dstl’s full range of great benefits can be found in the information pack which includes:

• Financial: An excellent pension scheme starting from 26% employer contribution (find out more here). In Year Rewarding Achievement bonuses and thank you vouchers. Rental deposit scheme and cycle to work scheme.
• Flexible working: Full flexibility working options include alternative working patterns, compressed hours, job shares and annualised hours. Remote working may be available dependent on role.
• Flexible working hours: Ability to bank hours in a 12 month reference period including the ability to accrue and use 3 days per calendar month.
• Annual leave: 25 days pro rata (rising to 30 after 5 years) plus 8 public holidays with the ability to buy/sell 5 additional days per annum.
• Family: Maternity, adoption or shared parental leave of up to 26 weeks with full pay, an additional 13 weeks statutory pay and a further 13 weeks unpaid
• Learning and Development: Dstl encourages and supports charterships, accreditations and provides employees access to fully funded apprenticeships up to level 7 (Masters Degree). Dstl will pay for 2 memberships with relevant bodies/institutions. Employees also have access to Civil Service Learning.
• Facilities: Onsite parking, EV Charging points, restaurants, cafés and gyms.

The information pack can be found attached to the job specification on Civil Service Jobs. 

Our Diversity Networks

We have a number of support networks to ensure all employees feel supported at work. These include the following:

• Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Network
• Race, Faith and Culture Network
• Parents and Carer Support Network
• Alternative Working Network
• Gender Equality Network
• New Starters Network
• Enabled Network, for people with visible and non-visible disabilities.

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

Job contact :

• Name : Dstl Recruitment Team
• Email : dstlrecruitment@dstl.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : dstlrecruitment@dstl.gov.uk