Delivery Manager

About Nesta

Nesta is a research and innovation foundation that designs, tests and scales solutions for the biggest challenges of our time.

Driven by a vision to improve the lives of millions of people, our focus up to 2030 is on three missions: breaking the link between family background and life chances, halving obesity and cutting household carbon emissions.

We work with partners across the public, private and third sectors to develop high-potential solutions and test them as they evolve, drawing on deep expertise in qualitative and quantitative research, data science, behavioural science and design.

Once confident in the effectiveness of a solution, we are relentless in the pursuit of scale. We create and make the case for ambitious national policy proposals, develop consumer-facing products and services, spin out and support commercial ventures and harness the power of the arts to shape national narratives.

We extend our impact through two specialised units that help others to solve complex problems and achieve their missions. BIT applies a deep understanding of human behaviour to help clients achieve their goals. Challenge Works designs and runs challenge prizes to spark innovation in science, technology and society.

Together, we are building a powerful ecosystem for innovation that delivers proven solutions to create lasting, positive change.

Whatever it takes

Everyone works at Nesta because we are driven by a deep commitment to our missions. A guiding principle of our culture is that we do whatever it takes to achieve them, bringing our best to all our work. You can read more about our culture on our website.

This role supports an exciting new initiative that Nesta is setting up to deliver work that improves and secures the UK's resilience and agency in an age of AI. Our work on Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) is a key part of this programme.

DPI means the shared digital building blocks that many services can be built on, such as identity, payments and consented data sharing. Our first DPI programme is DPI for Health, which works with national policy stakeholders, industry partners and regional test sites across the UK.

The role

We are recruiting a Delivery Manager for the initiative.

You will manage delivery of workstreams across the programme. Your first workstream is DPI for Health. As the initiative grows, you will pick up other workstreams within our broader DPI programme and across the organisation.

This is a hands-on delivery role. You will run the day-to-day mechanics of complex, multi-partner work: plans, milestones, risks, decisions and the relationships with the organisations we deliver with. You will work alongside researchers, technical specialists, external delivery partners and senior stakeholders in government, the NHS and industry.

Your responsibilities

Deliver the workstreams

• Plan and run delivery for your workstreams. Hold the milestones, track progress against them, and keep the team clear on next steps.
• Coordinate project teams made up of Nesta staff and external partners and specialists.
• Find risks and blockers early, and either fix them or escalate them with a recommendation.
• Own problems end to end. When something is ambiguous, stuck, or falling between people, pick it up and drive it to a resolution without waiting to be asked.

Manage partners and contracts

• Hold scopes of work with external delivery partners and test site organisations. Agree what is being delivered, by when.
• Define milestones, check the work against the scope, and manage invoicing.
• Manage delivery against time and budget. Raise it early when delivery is off track, and agree how to recover it.
• Build working relationships with partners in the public sector, industry and the regional test sites.

Run the rhythms and routines

• Lead the project and workstream routines that keep the team aligned: planning, stand-ups, reviews and retrospectives.
• Support the Head of Delivery with running routines for the programme team and across the wider directorate.
• Keep clear and simple project reporting.
• Use automation. Identify manual, repetitive work and replace it with lightweight tooling, using no-code or low-code tools, scripting and AI.

Support the team

• Help colleagues plan and run convening work, such as government and industry roundtables, workshops and public deliberative sessions. How much of the logistics you hold will depend on your strengths and on who else is in the team.
• Help build team culture. Build relationships across the team and plan moments of connection.
• Coach colleagues on delivery where it helps, and share what works with Nesta's wider delivery community.

We are a new team, and we are testing tech and AI-first ways of working as we go. While it is not essential that you have previous experience in AI-enabled ways of working, we are looking for someone who is excited by and curious about working in this way.

The person

Essential

• Hands-on delivery management experience on large or complex projects, in a structured framework of some kind. We do not mind which one. We want someone who is informed, and who adapts the method to the team.
• Ability to prioritise and schedule work against competing demands and workstreams, with a strong grasp of risks, dependencies and resourcing.
• Experience managing external partners or suppliers: agreeing scopes of work, defining milestones, handling invoices, and dealing with performance when delivery slips.
• Strong communication and people skills for diverse stakeholder groups. You can build trust quickly with team members, partners, technical and policy experts, and senior stakeholders.
• Low ego and a bias towards action. You are comfortable with high autonomy and little process, you adapt when priorities change, and you will step in for whatever needs doing.
• Interest and enthusiasm for the specific focus of our programme - agency and resilience of the UK in an age of AI and digital public infrastructure (DPI). Learn more about DPI in our recent papers on why digital public infrastructure is critical for growth and priorities for action.
• Comfort with technology and automation and an eye for continuous improvement opportunities. You have used tools, scripting or AI to make work faster, or you will teach yourself quickly. Deep technical credentials are not required. Enthusiasm and aptitude are.
• Diligence in managing knowledge for the team, including maintaining key team documents and resources to ensure they are trustworthy and up to date.

Desirable

• Experience supporting workshops, roundtables or public engagement sessions.
• Experience in multi-disciplinary teams that mix researchers, engineers, designers and policy specialists.
• Experience delivering in a consortium with external partners.

We do not need experience of digital public infrastructure. We will help you build that.

What we offer

Salary: £50,700-£67,800, plus an array of benefits, including private medical insurance, dental insurance, the ability to buy and sell annual leave, eyecare vouchers and more

Location: Blackfriars, London, with hybrid working and a minimum of two days in the office

Term: Permanent

Hours: This is a full-time role, but we offer a range of flexible working arrangements and encourage our people to take advantage of them. Many do.

Reports to: Head of Delivery, Agency & Resilience

Making an application

To apply for this role, please submit your application before 8:00am on the 23rd of November 2026.

Interviews will take place w/c the 30th of November 2026.

At Nesta, we believe that a diverse workforce leads to an organisation that is more innovative, more creative and gets better results.

We want our workforce to represent the diversity of the people and communities we serve. We also want our workplace to be one where different experiences, expertise and perspectives are valued, and where everyone is encouraged to grow and develop.

This means that when we are recruiting, we actively seek to reach a diverse pool of candidates. It also means that we are happy to consider any reasonable adjustments that potential employees may need to in order to be successful.

We recognise the importance of a good balance between work and home life, so we do everything we can to accommodate flexible working, including working from home, compressed or part-time hours, job shares and other arrangements.

Please just let us know in your application or at any stage throughout the process (and beyond) if these are options you'd like to explore.