jobs

Details:

CONTRACT TERM:              Full time, permanent

REPORTING TO:                  CEO – Opportunity Peterborough

DIRECT REPORTS:             4

SALARY:                              £50,000-55,000

ABOUT THE ROLE

This is a fantastic opportunity for an experienced, passionate, and driven manufacturing expert to lead on the development and delivery of the Smart Manufacturing Alliance – a new organisation being created to drive the development of a world class manufacturing cluster. You will be joining us at an exciting time and will take primary responsibility for creating, launching, and building the Smart Manufacturing Alliance – from recruiting the team, to designing and developing support programmes, to building relationships with partners, stakeholders, sponsors and members.

ABOUT THE SMART MANUFACTURING ALLIANCE

The Smart Manufacturing Alliance Ltd is a joint venture that is being established by Peterborough’s economic development company, Opportunity Peterborough, and the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority.

The objective of SMA is to build a world class advanced manufacturing and engineering cluster with a clear comparative advantage, and competitive, innovative, and resilient supply chains. It is intended that at its core the Smart Manufacturing Alliance will be a membership organisation. The SMA’s focus of activity will be on the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough region but it will welcome members regardless of their location.

Members will receive access to:

• A diagnostic and brokerage business support service
• Grant funding advice and guidance
• Direct delivery, and brokerage, of training services
• Provision of sector and market analysis
• Enhanced networking opportunities, business visits, events, and workshops
• Facilitation of pilot- and challenge-led innovation platforms

The Smart Manufacturing Alliance will further support growth in the sector by:

• Providing evidence-based analysis to promote the development of supporting infrastructure such as launchpads, incubators, innovation labs, and maker spaces, as well as identifying comparative advantages and supply chain opportunities to help attract new investors to the region.
• Supporting the development of place-based maker communities to achieve more effective networking and sharing of best practice, and build stronger collaborations and supply chains at the local level.
• Promoting career opportunities in the sector to young people, challenging perceptions to help inspire and inform the future workforce.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Reporting to the CEO of Opportunity Peterborough your key responsibilities will be:

• Recruitment, development and leadership of the Smart Manufacturing Alliance team
• Lead stakeholder management and partner development
• Lead innovation/digital platform development and delivery
• Performance management and financial control
• Continuous improvement
• Regular reporting to the Board and shareholders

PERSON PROFILE

Ideally the successful candidate will possess most, or all, of the following experience and attributes:

• Demonstrable experience of driving innovation and growth within the manufacturing sector
• Established industry and academic networks
• Ability to build trust and credibility with manufacturing business leaders and academics
• Ability to create and deliver credible business support programmes for the manufacturing sector covering topics such as enterprise and growth, productivity and performance, innovation and commercialisation, competitiveness and trade, and sustainability and carbon reduction
• Ability to develop and deliver effective innovation platforms
• Ability to build teams and develop staff
• Ability to work under pressure, to tight deadlines, and balance conflicting priorities
• Demonstrable success in winning new business or funding awards

In addition the successful candidate will possess the following skills and characteristics:

• Excellent leadership and management skills
• Ability to think strategically
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to present in public
• Strong use of initiative and the responsibility to deliver.
• Proactive team player with excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to develop robust relationships across the public, private and third sectors at all levels
• Strong commercial and business acumen

ABOUT OPPORTUNITY PETERBOROUGH

The successful candidate will be employed by Opportunity Peterborough Ltd for this role.

Peterborough is an exciting, aspirational and cosmopolitan city with a diverse economy of major companies and innovative SMEs. It is one of the fastest growing cities in the UK and has big plans for the future.

Opportunity Peterborough is the city’s economic development company. We’re dedicated to our mission of supporting growth across the city, improving economic prosperity, jobs opportunities, and life chances for those who live and work here. We do this by engaging with local companies to support growth and development, by marketing Peterborough to attract new businesses, by working with partners at a strategic level to create an enabling environment, and by playing a leading role in the city’s skills agenda to ensure our current and future talent pool is work-ready.

We welcome exceptional, dynamic people to join our small but impactful team and help us make Peterborough an even greater place to live, work, and invest.

Application deadline: 22^nd February

Interviews: Week commencing 1^st March

Applicants invited to interview will be provided with the executive summary of the Smart Manufacturing Alliance business plan.