Strategy Manager (Innovation) - Waverley Court - 12216_1762253434
| Posting date: | 04 November 2025 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £65,184.00 to £77,845.00 per year |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 18 November 2025 |
| Location: | Edinburgh, EH88BG |
| Remote working: | On-site only |
| Company: | The City of Edinburgh Council |
| Job type: | Temporary |
| Job reference: | 12216_1762253434 |
Summary
Strategy Manager (Innovation) - fixed term until 31/12/2028
Waverley Court
Salary: £65,184 - £77,845
Hours: 36 per week, 52 weeks
This position is part of the City of Edinburgh Council's participation in the Bloomberg Philanthropies Innovation Team (i-team) programme.
Charged with helping city officials and civic partners design and implement solutions that meet pressing local challenges, the i-team will expertly deploy data, collect insight, and collaborate across sectors to develop resident-centred interventions that improve people's lives. The i-team will receive technical assistance from regional and global specialists, and benefit from learnings from peers in city halls across the region and around the world.
To date, the Bloomberg Philanthropies i-team initiative has reached over 100 cities across 16 countries and four continents - representing more than 100 million residents - and inspired hundreds of other local governments to embrace innovation systems and practices.
About the role
Our Council Business Plan outlines three ambitious and interlinked strategic priorities: to create good places to live and work, to end poverty, and to become a Net-Zero city by 2030.
To support these objectives, we are establishing a new Innovation Team (i-team) in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies' i-teams programme. This exciting initiative empowers cities to tackle complex challenges through innovation, collaboration, and data-driven approaches. As part of the i-team, you will work on two key challenges: retrofitting heritage-listed buildings and removing stigma and complexity for those seeking support for poverty. These roles offer a unique opportunity to shape transformative solutions that deliver real impact for residents.
As the manager of the Council's newly established Innovation Team, you will be leading a team focused on driving innovation as well as leading on the development and delivery of transformative innovation programmes that address complex challenges.
About you
The Strategy Manager leads the organisation's culture of innovation by working with senior leaders, stakeholders and communities to design scalable solutions that improve outcomes for Edinburgh's residents.
You will oversee strategic alignment with the council's leadership priorities and corporate objectives whilst also managing innovation portfolios and embed innovation practices across Edinburgh.
The role requires strong leadership, communication and relationship-building skills to guide cross-functional teams and effectively deliver results within budgets and timelines.
The ideal candidate is a natural connector, mission-driven, creative and resilient in complex, fast-changing and politically sensitive environments, with the ability to manage ambiguity, solve problems strategically and drive innovation from concept to implementation. You will not only lead your dedicated team but also work with political leadership and champion a culture of experimentation, learning and co-creation across the Council.
Experience in a UK local government environment and an understanding of urban innovation challenges (like decarbonisation and poverty) in the UK context are highly desirable.
Benefits of working for us
We want to make working for the Council work for our colleagues. We provide a range of employee benefits to contribute to your physical, mental and financial wellbeing and a better standard of living. You can read more about these here: https://iaghme.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX_1/pages/4011https://iaghme.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/site…;
We also offer an occupational pension scheme via our provider, Lothian Pension Scheme, generous holiday allowance and flexible working opportunities.
We support a life-friendly approach for all our employees to strike the right balance between your work and family responsibilities.
Our support includes maternity, partner support, and adoption leave, employee assistance programme, career breaks, flexible working and more.
We're committed to creating a workplace culture where all our people feel valued, included and able to be their best at work, and we recognise the benefits that a diverse workforce with different values, beliefs, experience, and backgrounds brings to us as an organisation.
As part of our goal to improve our organisational culture and create a great place to work together for the people of Edinburgh, we want to make sure that we're bringing the best people into our roles, not just in their skills and experience but also in their approach to work.
To help achieve this, we're changing the way we interview and assess candidates by moving from a competency-based interview approach to a behavioural and technical (skills for the job) based approach. This new way of interviewing will allow us to assess how you think and how you would bring Our Behaviours of Respect, Integrity and Flexibility into your ways of working.
You can find out more on Our Behaviours web page https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/work-us/behaviours" target="_blank">Our Behaviours - The City of Edinburgh Council
Our salary range typically reflects the initial starting salary and annually increases until it reaches the top of the range.
Happy to talk flexible working.
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View Strategy">https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/file/37925/strategy-manager-clim… Manager job description
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