Innovation Manager

Innovation Manager (Secondment - 9-12 Months)

Location: Warwick or London (The Strand) - 2 days per week in the office (hybrid working)
Contract type: Secondment/Fixed Term (9-12 months)
Working pattern: Full-time

About the role

Great Britain's electricity infrastructure is undergoing an ambitious, exciting and vital transformation. Together with industry, we are creating a cleaner, greener system-one that protects the planet and serves generations to come.

This role sits within the Engineering Services function of Strategic Infrastructure, which is responsible for three core remits: asset management, innovation, and technical publications. The team oversees major projects within huge portfolios, taking them from construction through to commissioning.

As Innovation Manager, you will play a key role in accelerating how these projects are delivered by focusing on ideation, brainstorming, and scaling solutions. You'll lead a team of four innovation engineers, working together to identify which solutions have the highest impact, test them, and embed them into the way projects are delivered-ensuring innovation drives efficiency, speed, and sustainability.

You'll be joining a leading UK energy company at the forefront of the nation's electricity infrastructure, helping to shape how major projects are delivered while supporting the energy transition.

About you

We're looking for someone entrepreneurial, creative, and collaborative-able to inspire ideas and turn them into real-world impact. Ideally, you will bring:

• Strong commercial, entrepreneurial, and problem-solving skills, with the resilience to navigate complex organisations.
• A deep understanding of current and emerging global energy trends.
• Technical expertise in grid technologies, experience or understanding of electrical transmission systems (onshore/offshore, AC/DC transmission).
• Experience managing innovation projects and scaling ideas into business cases.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills, with the ability to build relationships at all levels.
• Proven leadership experience, with the ability to lead and motivate teams while fostering an inclusive culture of belonging.

If you're passionate about innovation and the energy transition, we'd love to hear from you-you may be the perfect fit for this role, or another within the organisation.

What you'll do

As an Innovation Manager, you will:

• Lead and mentor a team of 4 innovation engineers, guiding their development and delivery.
• Run ideation and brainstorming sessions to generate and capture new solutions.
• Identify high-impact opportunities and prioritise solutions that accelerate project delivery.
• Scale innovation by moving ideas through discovery, prototyping, validation, and implementation.
• Track KPIs, share learnings, and report innovation outcomes to senior leadership.
• Support funding and business case development for innovative solutions.
• Collaborate with project delivery teams, cross-functional partners, and external organisations to test and deploy innovations.
• Build relationships with vendors, research institutes, and industry experts to bring in fresh ideas.

This is a fantastic opportunity for entrepreneurial leaders passionate about the decarbonisation of the energy industry to shape how the Engineering Services team within Strategic Infrastructure delivers the UK's most significant energy projects-by leading a team of innovators and turning ideas into scalable solutions that transform delivery.

Pontoon is an employment consultancy. We put expertise, energy, and enthusiasm into improving everyone's chance of being part of the workplace. We respect and appreciate people of all ethnicities, generations, religious beliefs, sexual orientations, gender identities, and more. We do this by showcasing their talents, skills, and unique experience in an inclusive environment that helps them thrive. If you require reasonable adjustments at any stage, please let us know and we will be happy to support you.