Reporting to the Chief Business Officer, you will be instrumental in the delivery of Discovery Park’s mission to build and develop a science and technology cluster; supporting science and technology-based start-ups, spinouts, and scaling businesses to commercialise innovation and accelerate growth.

A highly entrepreneurial and commercially astute individual, you will play a key role in proactively identifying new business opportunities. We seek someone with the ability to develop effective relationships with a broad range of stakeholder groups, including current and future bio-entrepreneurs and founders and partners across the commercial, academic, and healthcare community. Working to proactively identify opportunities with commercial potential, you will help to shape and deliver the development pathways to take ideas forward, providing support along the entrepreneurial and commercialisation journey.

An enthusiastic and ambitious individual, you will help shape Discovery Park’s innovation culture, driven by a desire to support the success of Life Sciences and Healthcare organisations committed to providing solutions for global healthcare.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities: 

This newly created role will have several key functions:

1. Seek collaborative partners, funding opportunities and connections for our existing tenant base to help facilitate their growth.
2. Develop relationships with Technology Transfer Office and commercialisation teams within the local and London based Universities and work with them to identify potential occupants for Discovery Park.
3. Create and develop business support programmes to assist our growing tenant base.

We welcome applications from those who enjoy variety, embrace change, and have a strong sense of ownership and accountability.

Educated to at least degree level within a technology or life sciences discipline, you will understand the process required to take innovative ideas from concept through all development stages to commercialisation and a proven track record of interacting with internal and external stakeholders at all levels. Possessing a genuine ability to grasp complex technical concepts, you will be able to create value from innovation, acting as an interface between our tenant base and academic partners across the Southeast and further afield.

In the role of ‘enabler’, you will be an interface between Discovery Park, TTO’s, spinouts, start-ups, and corporates, aligning commercial interest against the sites’ strategic goals and the activities of our existing tenant base. You will have working knowledge of leading and supporting technology translation and developing roadmaps to ensure our companies are successful and that their technology development and product innovation meets market requirements.

A key aspect of this role will involve identifying spinout or start up opportunities that would benefit directly from Discovery Park support (and the further assistance of our partners) building relationships and helping to build our pipeline of potential tenants.

The successful applicant will demonstrate an exemplary level of communication and project management skills, managing multiple stakeholders and balancing  client expectations to the highest level. You’ll develop and maintain an innovation network through multiple channels including events, newsletters, webinars, and social media; working with the marketing team to develop an effective approach to knowledge sharing and dissemination of information across the organisation, to partners and wider ecosystem.

You’ll be expected to attend external events relevant to innovation activity on site and develop and report on effective KPI’s.