Innovate UK has the following secondment opportunity available for employees of Innovate UK Business Connect:

Applications must be submitted by

13-05-2026

Operational Support Administration Executive

The key purpose of this role is to support the Operational Support Manager (OSM) by carrying out a variety of detailed administrative tasks, while maintaining accurate and timely records that reflect daily activity and decision-making, all to a high, auditable standard.

*Please note this advert will close on the 12th of May 2026 at 23.59pm.

Watch our video “Why Join Innovate UK?” here.

Title:                   Operational Support Administration Executive

Band:                 UKRI Band C (UKRI Ts & Cs)

Salary:               £30,895 gross per annum

Reports to:       Operational Support Manager

Location:          Swindon (Hybrid Working)

Contract:          Permanent

Innovate UK recognises the importance of work-life balance and we will be happy to discuss any requests for flexible working arrangements.

Job Purpose:

The key purpose of this role is to support the Operational Support Manager (OSM) by carrying out a variety of detailed administrative tasks, while maintaining accurate and timely records that reflect daily activity and decision-making, all to a high, auditable standard. This is a great opportunity for someone with a great eye in detail and who enjoys working in a fast-paced, collaborative environment. You will be responsible for managing duties that support the financial recovery process, from creating and sending formal letters and invoices, to updating trackers and proactively chasing outstanding payments.

This role requires a well-organised approach to tracking progress, sharing updates, and communication to support the operational integrity, stay complaint and on track.

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities:

The role holder will be accountable for actions associated within 3 key areas, Recovery, Operations Investigation Group (OIG) and Operational Support. Key responsibilities are;

Recovery:

• Review all Impact Assessment (IA) forms in SharePoint to ensure accuracy and alignment with recovery requests, ensuring that discrepancies are identified and resolved with the OSM.
• Create Customer Credit Forms (CCF) collating additional information and ensuring all details are accurate and reflective of the recovery request.
• Draft and issue recovery letters, following the established process and developed templates.

• Maintain assurance insights (AI) records within Salesforce for audit purposes.
• Maintain operational trackers, providing clear visibility into progress and status updates.
• Monitor and follow up on outstanding recovery invoices, support the OSM in addressing customer inquiries regarding disputed invoices and escalating unresolved issues appropriately.
• Ensure timely updates of Workday accounts for liquidated companies or entities undergoing liquidation

Operations Investigation Group (OIG):

• Coordinate OIG meeting preparations inclusive of pack creation and data sourcing to ensure all documentation and notes are accurately recorded, maintained and meetings minuted.
• Implement structured follow-up processes for assigned actions, providing clear direction and expected. timeframes.
• Maintain operational tracking systems, ensuring up-to-date visibility of ongoing investigations and decisions.
• Update Assurance Insights records to reflect OIG resolutions and action points.
• Conduct regular reviews of the CGR tool to ensure accurate reporting and status tracking.

Operational Support:

• Support the OSM in the creation, communication, documentations and tracking of
  • Project suspension letters
  • Project Termination Letters
  • Correspondence resulting from the administration of liquidation of businesses
• Support the relationship with the Innovate UK loans team and ensuring that Innovate UK Operations are aware of any businesses that are in breach of terms and conditions or have been refused loans. The outcome is to ensure that Innovate UK do not fund these people
• Responsible for the Assurance list tracking for review and confirming the current status of businesses that are, in breach of Terms and Conditions, subject to fraud investigations, on suspension or are in the termination process.
• Assist the OSM and additional internal stakeholders to identify areas for improvement.
• Assist the OSM with documenting all processes and investigations for audit purposes.
• Assist in creating and maintaining accurate standard operating procedures.

This is not an exhaustive list and you might be encouraged to undertake any other duties across the wider directorate, commensurate with the Band and level of responsibility of this post, for which the post holder has the key experience and/or training.

Shortlisting criteria

(S) – Assessed at shortlisting

(I) – Assessed at interview

(S&I) – Assessed at both shortlisting and interview

Person Specification:

Experience & Qualifications:

Essential –

• Education to degree level or equivalent experience (S).
• Excellent written and oral communication (S&I).

Experience:

Essential –

• Substantial experience of documenting processes (S&I).
• Problem solving – data gathering and root cause analysis (I).
• A clear track-record of developing and managing highly effective working relationships (S&I).
• A track-record of driving your own work, without the requirement for hands-on supervision (S&I).
• Problem solving – data gathering and root cause analysis (S&I).
• Keen analytical skills, including the ability to quickly understand new and issues, processes of systems and to apply solutions and communicate in a simple and clear way to a wide audience (S&I).
• Ability to manage often conflicting demands of multiple stakeholders whilst protecting the integrity and ownership of the documented processes (I).

Skills:

• Gravitas and the clear confidence to engage effectively and build relationships quickly with a broad range of stakeholders.
• Facilitation skills at every level to ensure wide understanding and buy in to business processes.
• The ability to thrive in agile and changing environment.
• Adaptability and a flexible approach, able to deal with changing demands in a shifting environment –  able to develop based on the changing requirements of the role.

Competencies:

All team members demonstrate compatibility with and capability against our Core Competencies such as:

Thinking and Problem Solving – Stakeholder management – Communication skills – Influencing – Self-awareness/self-management – Strategic awareness – Working with others– Project management

Some of the above competencies will be assessed at interview stage, in addition to the criteria’s listed in the person specification.

Travel Requirements:

Swindon based: There may be the occasional requirement for national travel.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

Innovate UK is a diverse workforce of people. We believe that encouraging these differences and drawing the best from them will build a productive environment in which everyone feels valued, where talents are fully utilised and in which organisational goals are met. Underpinning this is a belief that it is a fundamental right for everyone to be treated equally, with fairness, respect and dignity. We will act directly and use our influence to ensure that this right is promoted and upheld; we encourage applications from all those who meet the criteria set-out in our role profiles.

Equal Opportunities:

We are an equal opportunities employer, committed to employing any person who meets the criteria for our roles. When undertaking recruitment we may require applicants to undertake certain tests or assessments, some of which will be online and others may be in-person. If you have a disability, heath condition or specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia then you may be entitled to support with undertaking this type of assessment exercise. Where you feel that reasonable adjustments are required to support you, we ask that you advise your recruitment point of contact in a timely fashion, providing further information. In confidence, Innovate UK will then review your application for adjustments and provide support as required.

UK Research and Innovation:

Innovate UK is partner organisation within UK Research and Innovation. If successful in securing the position, your employer will be UK Research and Innovation. More information can be found online http://www.ukri.org/.

Employee Benefits:

We offer a benefits package crafted to provide an excellent work/life balance. This includes 30 days’ annual leave, 10.5 public and privilege days, flexible working hours, an exceptional defined benefit pension scheme, and access to a variety of support networks and discount schemes.

Benefits of working at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

Flexible Working:

We understand the importance of work-life balance, and are happy to discuss the possibility of flexible working with applicants.

Pre-employment Screening:

To enable us to hire the very best people we will conduct a comprehensive pre-employment check on successful applicants as part of the recruitment process.

The role holder will be required to have the appropriate level of security screening/vetting required for the role.  UKRI reserves the right to run or re-run security clearance as required during the course of employment.

UKRI supports research in areas that include animal health, agriculture and food security, and bioscience for health which includes research on animals, genetic modification and stem cell research. Whilst you may not have direct involvement in this type of research, you should consider how this aligns with your personal values or beliefs. To enable us to hire the very best people we will conduct a full and comprehensive pre-employment check as a crucial part of the recruitment process on all individuals that are offered a position with UKRI. This will include a security check and an extreme organisations affiliation check.

Applications must be submitted by;

13-05-2026