Senior Innovation Strategy Manger

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 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 experimenting with and incubating products in areas such as drones, autonomous vehicles, robotics, physical AI, agentic AI, data, platforms, cyber security, and quantum technologies.

As the Senior Innovation Strategy Manager, your job is to increase the effectiveness and commercial impact of BT's innovation activity: helping us make better choices about where to invest, accelerating the strongest opportunities, and building the mechanisms that allow innovation to scale repeatedly across BT.

You will partner with product and technology leaders across BT to co-develop the innovation strategy and unlock future growth opportunities. This is a multi-faceted role, working at the intersection of strategy, innovation, commercial, and product.

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 senior strategy role with a strong commercial and delivery focus. You will lead initiatives from concept through to implementation, shaping strategy, developing business cases, influencing investment decisions and ensuring material business outcomes are achieved. 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 developing BT’s innovation 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

• Own BT's product innovation strategy and long-term innovation priorities, developed with leaders across the Corporate, Technology and Customer Facing Units, ensuring alignment to BT's strategic priorities.
• Partner with Product Directors and Finance to deliver an integrated product roadmap and Financial Mid-Term Plan (MTP) for BT innovation products.
• Work with the business and BT's open innovation ecosystem partners to identify growth opportunities, technology trends, partnerships and business models, and develop board-level business cases to inform investment decisions.
• Lead the strategic and commercial evaluation of opportunities across growth themes and frontier technologies including robotics, autonomous vehicles, agentic AI, quantum technologies, cyber security, developer platforms and emerging network-enabled services.
• Lead horizon-scanning activities to identify emerging technologies, market shifts, customer needs and ecosystem opportunities, translating insights into actionable growth opportunities and strategic recommendations.

Product and Commercial Scaling

• Challenge and support Etc. Product Directors to make portfolio investment decisions focused on opportunities with the strongest customer evidence, strategic fit and commercial potential.
• Partner with Product Directors to develop product roadmaps and commercial strategies that increase adoption and deliver sustainable recurring revenue growth.
• Support Growth and Go-to-Market teams responsible for sales enablement, market activation and revenue delivery, ensuring products have clear go-to-market strategies, commercial models and channel plans.

Portfolio and Investment Performance

• Create repeatable mechanisms to evaluate, select, fund and scale innovation initiatives by integrating financial targets, customer insights, competitor analysis and product performance data.
• Facilitate executive discussions on portfolio priorities, investment trade-offs and resource allocation to support BT's growth agenda.
• Define and track innovation KPIs, providing visibility of portfolio performance and risk to improve resource allocation, accelerate value creation and identify underperforming initiatives.
• Work with commercial and finance teams to translate product and commercial strategies into robust operational and financial plans.
• Strengthen investment cases through rigorous customer research, assumption validation, market sizing, business modelling, competitor analysis, pricing strategy, scenario planning and ROI modelling.

Innovation Capability and Operating Model

• Partner with the Etc. StratOps team to design, test and scale BT's innovation operating model, ideas platform and product-led ways of working.
• Support the development of BT's open innovation capability by building relationships across academia, start-ups, incubators, venture funds, hyperscalers, partners and customers.
• Build innovation capability across Etc. and BT through external best practice, tools and AI-enabled ways of working.
• Champion a high-performance innovation culture focused on analytical rigour, experimentation, evidence-based decision making and continuous improvement.

Essential Skills / Experience

• Experience in a strategy consulting firm, corporate unit or business unit strategy team.

Experience in a strategy consulting firm, corporate unit or business unit strategy team.

• Experience in a growth, commercial or operational role within a start-up, scale-up or innovation team.

Experience in a growth, commercial or operational role within a start-up, scale-up or innovation team.

• Demonstrable experience applying AI, automation or data-driven approaches to improve decision-making, productivity or business outcomes.

Demonstrable experience applying AI, automation or data-driven approaches to improve decision-making, productivity or business outcomes.

Desirable Skills / Experience

• 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.
• Experience with annual strategy cycles, developing growth strategies, go-to-market plans, operating model design, capital allocation decisions, 5+ year 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 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:

• Company car scheme (or cash alternative)
• 15% on target annual bonus
• Private healthcare for you and your family
• 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.