Innovation Strategy Manager

About the role

BT is entering a new phase of growth, moving from building infrastructure to unlocking value from it. As new products emerge across connectivity, data, platforms and AI, the ability to take innovation to market and scale it effectively is critical. This role sits at the centre of that challenge shaping how innovation happens across one of the UK's largest organisations.

You will join Etc., the innovation and incubation unit of BT. Etc. is a team of product, design, engineering and innovation specialists that work with BT’s Technology Units and Customer Facing Units to identify, develop and incubate new products and ventures. Organised around growth themes aligned to BT’s strategy, Etc. operates with a start-up mindset while leveraging BT’s scale and expertise in connectivity to develop innovative connectivity, data and developer solutions for BT’s priority verticals and customers. The team is also experimenting and incubating products in emerging markets such as drones, autonomous vehicles, robotics, physical AI, cyber and quantum security.

As the Innovation Strategy Manager, you will help BT identify where future growth will come from and accelerate the path from idea to commercial scale. You will shape innovation priorities, improve investment decisions, strengthen innovation portfolio performance, and help bring new products to market across areas such as drones, autonomous vehicles, data, platforms, cyber security, agentic AI and quantum technologies.

This is a highly collaborative role, working with cross-functional innovation squads comprising product, design, engineering, growth, marketing, commercial and delivery teams within Etc. and across BT. You will also build strong relationships with leaders and teams across BT's Technology Units and Customer Facing Units, aligning priorities and driving execution of innovation initiatives.

This is a hands-on strategy role with a strong commercial and operational focus and bias for action. You will lead initiatives from concept through to implementation, shaping strategy, developing business cases, influencing investment decisions and ensuring delivery of measurable business outcomes. Success requires the ability to navigate ambiguity, balance strategic thinking with practical execution, and drive progress across multiple priorities simultaneously.

You will thrive in a fast-paced environment, using influence rather than authority to bring teams together, remove barriers and accelerate the development, launch and scaling of innovative products and capabilities. Acting as a force multiplier, you will enable others to deliver at pace while increasing the overall effectiveness of BT's innovation ecosystem.

What you’ll be doing

Strategy and Growth

• Shape the BT innovation strategy and long-term innovation priorities working closely with the Corporate, Technology and Customer Facing Units.
• Work with product directors and finance to deliver an integrated, coherent, and interlocked product roadmap and Financial Mid-Term Plan (MTP) for all BT innovation products.
• Work with the business and BT’s open innovation ecosystem partners to identify new opportunities (e.g., growth themes, macro and technology trends, products, partnerships, business models) and present compelling board-level narratives and business cases to inform investment decisions.
• Evaluate opportunities in BT’s growth themes and frontier technologies including robotics, autonomous vehicles, agentic AI, quantum technologies, cyber security, developer platforms and emerging network-enabled services.

Product and Commercial Scaling

• Provide strategic and commercial counsel to the Etc. product directors helping shape and prioritise the most compelling growth opportunities within their product portfolios.
• With the Etc. product directors develop product roadmaps and commercial strategies that increase product adoption in the BT customer base, with emphasis on sustainable, recurring service revenue growth.
• Support Growth & Go-to-Market teams responsible for sales enablement, market activation and in‑year revenue delivery, ensuring each product has a clear go‑to‑market strategy, strong commercial model and channel plan that fully leverages CFU capabilities and capacity.

Portfolio and Investment Performance

• Create repeatable mechanisms to evaluate, select, fund and scale innovation initiatives with the strongest potential return across short-, mid-, and long-term horizons by integrating financial targets, customer insights, competitor analysis, and product performance data.
• Establish and exercise group-wide oversight of innovation KPIs, tracking funnel and portfolio performance and risks ensuring efficient resource allocation, a balanced portfolio, faster time-to-value and the timely termination of underperforming initiatives.
• Work with Commercial Innovation to ensure Etc. product and commercial strategies are translated into robust operational and financial plans with clear success criteria and cross-functional interlocks.
• Strengthen investment case submissions injecting rigour into customer research, assumption validation, market sizing, business and revenue model options, competitor, product and unit economic analyses, go-to-market and pricing strategies, financial, risk, scenario, and ROI modelling.

Innovation Capability and Operating Model

• Support the Etc. StratOps team as they design, test and scale new innovation capabilities in Etc. and across BT including embedding the innovation operating model, new funding models, ideas platform roll-out, product-led ways-of-working, fit-for-purpose corporate processes, and adoption of innovation tools.
• Support the build out of BT’s open innovation capability developing an ecosystem of collaborators across academia, start-ups, incubators, venture funds, hyper-scalers, partners and customers.
• Work with Group Data and AI to develop AI-proficiency and implement AI tools in Etc. that compress product development cycles and boost knowledge work productivity.
• Drive a culture of analytical rigour, rapid experimentation, disciplined execution and continuous improvement across all enabling functions.

Essential Skills / Experience

• Experience in a strategy consulting firm, corporate unit or business unit strategy team.
• Deep expertise with market sizing, product unit economics, pricing strategies, P&L and cashflow analyses, financial modelling and valuations, scenario and ROI analyses.
• Experience working with ExCo teams, preparation of board papers, senior stakeholder influencing and ability to articulate complex strategic, operational, and financial narratives with clarity.

Desirable Skills / Experience

• Experience in a growth, commercial or operational role within a start-up, scale-up or innovation team.
• Experience with annual strategy cycles, developing growth strategies, go-to-market plans, operating model design, capital allocation decisions, financial planning, operational planning, and driving investment performance.
• Skilled working in matrixed environments aligning and influencing across product, strategy, commercial, technology, and transformation functions delivering sustainable change.
• Ability to operate successfully in ambiguous, fast-moving environments.
• Demonstrable experience applying AI, automation or data-driven approaches to improve decision-making, productivity or business outcomes.
• Demonstrable experience working in product-led organisations and within product squads.
• Business development, venture building, legal agreement and contract negotiation experience.
• Degree in a scientific or quantitative discipline, e.g., engineering, physics, mathematics, economics
• Post-graduate degree in business or professional finance qualifications, e.g., MBA, CIMA, CFA

Our Package

Tailored benefits make a real difference. That’s why we offer a comprehensive range to support your growth, wellbeing, and everyday life. You can design the package to suit you and your lifestyle. Your core benefits include:

• 10% on target annual bonus
• Access to an online private GP 24/7 for you and your immediate family
• Market-leading paid carers leave with up to 2 weeks off
• Equalised maternity, paternity, and adoption leave – 18 weeks’ full pay and 8 weeks’ half pay
• Discounted EE and BT products, including mobile and broadband
• Market leading Pension scheme – 5% from you and 10% from us
• Holiday purchase scheme

You can select additional benefits, including healthcare, dental, gym memberships and more when you’re ready.

BT Group is the UK’s leading communications group and the holding company behind some of the country’s most recognised brands – including BT, EE, Openreach and Plusnet. Our purpose is as simple as it is ambitious: we connect for good. Our customers include consumers, small, medium and large businesses, public sector organisations and other communications providers.

BT Group’s role is about setting direction, unlocking value and creating the conditions for our brands and businesses to thrive.

Having come through the most capital-intensive phase of our fibre investment, our focus now is on what comes next – simplifying how we operate, using technology and AI to work smarter, and organising ourselves to serve customers better and grow sustainably. Group teams shape strategy, policy, brand, capital allocation and transformation, helping the whole organisation perform at its best.

We have a singular culture that unites all our people: we are customer-first challengers, who are committed, clear and connected. These behaviours unite us as one team to deliver for our colleagues, our customers, our stakeholders and the country. Joining BT Group means working at the heart of a business that matters to the UK, with the opportunity to shape decisions, influence outcomes and help set the future course of one of the country’s most important companies.