Cities Lab Manager Job Description, January 2014

Cities Lab Manager Job Description, January 2014 The Future Cities Catapult

Future Cities Catapult – Cities Lab Manager £45-55,000 per annum Full time

Location: Central London Responsible to: Head of the Cities Lab Working Hours: 37.5h per week Contract: Fixed 6-month contract with potential to perm Holiday: 25 days per annum, plus statutory holidays Equal Opportunities: The FCC strives to be an equal opportunities employer and commitment to this process will be expected. Date Written: 14/01/14

About Us

We are the Future Cities Catapult, a global centre of excellence on urban innovation. A place where cities, businesses and universities come together to develop solutions to the future needs of our cities.

What's the big idea?

We're one of seven "Catapults" launched by the UK's Technology Strategy Board. The aim for each of them is to become a world-leading innovation centre in its own specialist area.

As you can guess by the name, our Catapult is all about urban innovation. In particular, we're focussed squarely on the challenge of urban integration: how cities can take a more joined-up approach to the way they plan and operate. To improve quality of life, strengthen their economy and protect the environment.

What we do

Based in the heart of London, our role is to get people working together to solve real challenges faced by real cities right now.

Cities sharing what's worked for them in the past. Companies and universities working together. New innovations being road tested at scale. New solutions getting to market. Financiers, lawyers and city governments teaming up to remove barriers to innovation. The Future Cities Catapult is a neutral space where all this happens.

We're making London the place to come for cities that need help with urban innovation. And we're also driving future economic growth in the process. Because

1 Cities Lab Manager Job Description, January 2014 The Future Cities Catapult

we're based in London we unlock global markets for British business, and help UK businesses create the products and services that cities need around the world.

Our strategy and innovation cycle are based around three core capabilities:

 Demonstrating the opportunity: We’re building a world-leading capability in urban futures. Our futures and best practice team will work with collaborators around the world to highlight what ‘great’ will look like for truly sustainable cities, and to define the innovation challenges on which we need to focus.

 Innovating collaboratively: Our central London urban Innovation Centre will provide a neutral space in which businesses, universities, investors, innovators and cities can collaborate, get expert support and develop and test their ideas. A Cities Lab will sit at the heart of our innovation centre. It will be a world-leading facility where live data feeds, advanced modelling, simulation, analysis and visualisation can be brought together to support new, commercialisable solutions to city challenges.

 Breaking down barriers: Deploying innovative solutions at city scale also depends on helping innovators and companies, especially small businesses, to tackle the barriers to market take-off. Tackling barriers like uneven procurement rules, inadequate templates for shared intellectual property and lack of finance will require new financial and business models and collaboration between different professional services. The Future Cities Catapult is ideally placed to broker this collaboration; with an initial focus on access to finance and innovative financial instruments.

We’ve already begun to work with international partners and to develop our networks in places including Singapore, Russia, India, China, Brazil and the US. We’re getting to know the key international financial institutions and international organisations, as well as the leading companies and city leaders around the world.

Our culture

The Future Cities Catapult is a start-up. We are all deeply committed to our mission, and you will need to share that commitment. You will have to be happy working in a fast-moving and sometimes chaotic environment. Our culture is open, collaborative and relatively non-hierarchical.

About the role

The Future Cities Catapult is looking to hire a manager for the Cities Lab, a state-of- the-art facility deploying data science to facilitate innovation. The lab is currently in development and you will manage the procurement, prototyping and installation of the bespoke state-of-the-art hardware and software. Once the Lab goes live, you will manage the day-to day running of the facility.

Responsibilities You will be responsible for The Lab project roadmap Plan and agree milestones and deadlines with the Head of Lab You will manage the project budget and hardware procurement. You will own and manage the project timeline You will work within an interdisciplinary team including data scientist, software engineer and design engineer.

First year outcomes

Each member of our team has a shared responsibility to help take the Catapult from launch to 120 staff, £30 million turnover, a global reputation and a measurable impact in innovating city solutions.

Successful implementation and ‘go-live’ of the Cities Lab - on time & on budget Tested and documented Cities Lab management process One live showcase innovation project ongoing in the new Cities Lab

About You

Competencies

Project management of both integrated software and hardware systems Appreciation of a user-centred design process Able to work in an Agile way with software engineering teams

Able to thrive in a dynamic new start-up with fast-paced environment.

Able to efficiently manage budgets, contracts and procurement.

Able to provide high-quality support to a wide variety of project stakeholders.

Desired Skills and Experience

Strong skills in project management, budgeting and procurement Experience of working with design as well as technology teams Proven roll-out of innovative technology programme Experience of working within an elite agile team Experience of delivering hardware and software Ability to operate in a rapidly changing environment with diverse stakeholders At least 5 years of industry experience The Future Cities Catapult is a dynamic new start-up, so the desired person must have the ability to thrive in fast-paced environment and provide high-quality support to a wide variety of project stakeholders

If you think you meet the requirements and are keen to join the Future Cities and build our Cities Lab, send your CV along with a covering letter addressed to Sarah Campbell to [email protected] Closing date Monday 3rd February First round of interviews w/c 10th February