Head of Regional Innovation & Procurement Partnerships

Application Deadline: 7 September 2026

Department: Built Environment & Local Growth

Location: Belfast

Compensation: £68,890 - £79,386 / year

Location

Belfast

Working hours

Full time

Contract type/duration: Fixed Term Contract 12 months

Band: 4.1

Salary: £68,890 - £79,386 (Dependent on office location and proven ability)

Reporting to: Head of Regional Engagement

Closing date: 10am on the 7th of September

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, 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.

Key Responsibilities

Deeply understanding the needs of relevant partners with respect to bridging the gap between innovation and the market. In doing so:

• Shape, lead and deliver value through guiding innovative delivery projects/ strategy and engagements.
• Lead stakeholder management and relationship building at senior levels to ensure buy in to innovation delivery.
• Interpreting the City Deal, investment prospectuses as well as any other strategies that might shape the role. Contribute to the design and delivery of emerging City Deal initiatives to support the objectives of this Agreement. • Create new pipeline opportunity and support bids/proposals to maximise City Deal investments.
• Identify the role for innovative procurement, new cluster development, business growth and innovation commercialisation in delivering these strategies and identify where new initiatives might be needed.
• Develop and produce recognised thought leadership.
• Contribute to the design and delivery of emerging City Deal initiatives to support the objectives of this Agreement.
• Create new pipeline opportunity and support bids/proposals to maximise City Deal investments..
• Assure the quality of client delivery.
• Oversee programme budgets.
• Act as Senior Responsible Officer on delivery programmes and projects.
• Coach and mentor junior colleagues.
• Maintain own professional development.
• Ensure an ethos of equity, inclusivity and diversity underpin your work activity, contribute to inclusive innovation across all Catapult activities.

Working closely with your peers in Regional & Local Growth Directorate and Belfast City Region:

• Support the team to meet revenue targets, including by generating new investments in the region.
• Lead the development of collateral to support ‘go to market’ propositions and service offerings.
• Work with account leads and teams to support opportunity identification, qualification and contracting.
• Drive new public and private investment into projects and developments in the City Region
• Identify new opportunities to leverage local private capital in clusters of businesses, including advocating for the creation of new investment funds, blended finance and public procurement as means of driving business growth and new commercial opportunities.
• Leverage CPC’s and BRCD’s international and trade relationships to draw in opportunities for inward investment.
• Build new consortia of research organisations and anchor businesses to bid into and access national and international R&D pots.
• Ownership of pipeline management for accounts and business development and CRM process and systems compliance.
• Manage contracting with Legal and Commercial team.
• Measure and report on the impact of CPC in the region.

You may be required to undertake any other reasonable duties to support the Catapult in achieving its strategic outcomes and ensure effective business operations.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

• Provide coaching and feedback that drives development, innovation, creativity, and delivery in team using key metrics and data points, offers challenge and support as required to maintain high performance.
• Use emotional intelligence to create an environment where team members feel safe to experiment, challenge and try new things.
• Seek, encourage and create the conditions for continuous improvements in processes, systems, behaviours and ways of working.
• Manage performance through effective goal setting based on business and role objectives and development needs or desires.
• Provide clarity of expectations and takes ownership of wider team performance.
• Managing change
• Organise the work and team around multiple simultaneous initiatives, with reference to key policies, practices and procedures, effectively prioritises tasks and delegates effectively.
• Use management information to understand trends, gaps, challenges and opportunities and make commercial decisions.
• Actively build an inclusive and sustainability focused team culture that celebrates the value of diverse experiences and perspectives, ensures team compliance with policies, and apply equalities impact assessments on all aspects of work at CPC.
• Demonstrable experience working across public sector and innovation ecosystems, with the ability to build trust quickly with senior stakeholders.
• Ability to translate organisational needs into clear, outcome-led problem statements and delivery plans.
• Strong collaboration and convening skills: able to align diverse partners and maintain momentum.
• Project Management and delivery discipline: able to plan, prioritise, track progress and manage risks across multiple workstreams.
• Commercial and impact awareness: able to articulate value, benefits and routes to market, including social value considerations.

Benefits

• 9 day fortnight for everyone, every other Friday.
• 23.5 holiday entitlement for everyone, with pro-rata calculations for part-time employees, along with a Christmas shutdown period for additional days off.
• Competitive pension, up to 10% company contribution to help you save for your future.
• Two paid days of volunteering leave per year (pro-rata for part-time employees) to support charitable activities.
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) providing 24/7 confidential work/life support services to you and your immediate family members.
• Cycle to Work Scheme encouraging a healthy and sustainable commute.
• Cash Health Plan, offering reimbursement for a wide range of essential and everyday healthcare expenses, promoting your well-being.
• Payroll Giving scheme, allowing regular charitable contributions from pre-tax income, maximizing the impact of your donations.
• Discounts and offers from a wide variety of retailers , enhancing your purchasing power and providing savings opportunities.
• Mortgage Advice benefit, delivered in partnership with Charles Cameron & Associates – provides employees with free, expert mortgage advice and end-to-end mortgage support from the application process through to completion.

Employment here is based solely upon individual merit and qualifications directly related to professional competence. We strictly prohibit unlawful discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, colour, religion, national origin, ancestry, pregnancy status, sex, gender identity or expression, age, marital status, mental or physical disability, medical condition, sexual orientation, or any other characteristics protected by law. We also make all reasonable accommodations to meet our obligations under laws protecting the rights of the disabled.