We are hiring a Senior Marketing Manager - Challenge Works

About Challenge Works

At Challenge Works, we design and run challenge prizes to spark innovation in science, technology and society. We are part of Nesta, the research and innovation foundation.

We have run over 100 challenge prizes awarding over £260m, on behalf of public, private and philanthropic funders around the world, including the Longitude Prize on Dementia with Alzheimer's Society and Innovate UK, the Sustainable Cities Challenge with Toyota Mobility Foundation, the Smart Data Challenge with the UK Government Department for Business and Trade and Ofwat’s Water Innovation Fund. Our four priority areas are Climate Response, Cities & Societies, Health and Technology Frontiers. 

Summary

This is a new role leading the strategic use of marketing and communications to advance Challenge Works’ social impact mission and commercial objectives.

You will serve as the organisation’s senior lead on marketing and communications, acting as a trusted partner to leaders across the business, and reporting into a member of our Senior Leadership Team. 

There are two key strands to the role.

1. Driving marketing and communications for Challenge Works with a focus on brand and business development. You will work closely with our priority area leads and Communications Manager to plan and deliver integrated campaigns, digital content, events, stakeholder engagement and PR to accelerate their growth priorities. 

You will also develop and deliver communications strategies to strengthen the Challenge Works brand through impactful thought leadership, and orchestrate the rollout of campaigns that position us as a leader in transformative innovation.

2. Overseeing the delivery of effective development and delivery of prize communications, working with our small in-house communications team and a retained PR agency, as well as any other ad hoc contractors. It also includes acting as an adviser and, where needed, an extra pair of hands on prize communications activity. 

Success in this role requires the ability to think strategically while moving swiftly to action. We are a small team and everyone needs to dive in and be hands-on. 

We are entirely funded through our work on prizes, so our communications and marketing activity needs to show business results as well as supporting our impact goals. Our target audiences are a niche group: innovation teams within governments, research and innovation funders, philanthropic foundations, and other innovation partners and experts, both in the UK and worldwide. Success means building our brand in the long term to generate awareness and trust with those target communities while also delivering opportunity-led communications that drive conversion for specific propositions. With limited resource, all our channels need to work together effectively to maximise impact. 

You will draw on strong relationship-building skills to collaborate effectively across Challenge Works, Nesta and external partners, while bringing the authority and insight needed to influence senior leaders and ensure our communications consistently reflect our ambition and expertise.

The role

• Develop and deliver integrated marketing campaigns aimed at reaching and engaging current and future funders, with a particular focus on owned digital channels and in person stakeholder events.  

• Build the Challenge Works brand across all relevant channels so that it becomes synonymous with transformative innovation in the minds of funders in the UK and around the world.

• Thought leadership. Collaborate with internal and affiliated external thought leaders to nurture a pipeline of authentic, high-impact content that builds the Challenge Works brand and generates qualified leads for prize funders and partners.

• Stakeholder strategy. Collaborate with colleagues leading our BD efforts to develop our stakeholder engagement strategy and guide our approach to stakeholder management across Challenge Works.

• Overseeing retained PR agency to ensure effectiveness and value for money in prize communications and, to generate complementary PR ‘moments’ that contribute to funder engagement and awareness.      

• Provide strong leadership of the communications team to ensure that they are continuing to develop in their roles, maximising innovator engagement and delivering to the high expectations of our funders. Provide advice, expert input, and training across the wider team around communications topics to enable the whole team to embed best practice communications principles in their work. 

• Own the marketing and communications budget ensuring value for money across all activity and budget planning for future strategic initiatives.

• Leveraging our prize communications. Working with the communications team to ensure that we are optimising the opportunities for wider marketing and business development that the prizes (and their communications budgets) will generate.

The person

• A strong track record of developing, delivering and leading the delivery of strategic multichannel marketing strategies and plans, using marketing as part of business development and lead generation in a B2B context

• A strong track record of developing and evolving brand identities in a B2B or social impact context, ensuring brand consistency and resonance across all touchpoints

• Demonstrable understanding of social, political and economic trends and market conditions to provide strategic communications advice to senior staff 

• Deep knowledge and proven understanding of communications functions (media, marketing, events, campaigns, editorial, content development, digital platforms) and how they be applied as part of an integrated marketing or communications approach in the pursuit of a communications objective 

• An exceptional and experienced strategic thinker, with proven ability to think quickly, digest large amounts of information and consult and advise quickly on communications options and tactics across the communications mix 

• Strong interpersonal and collaboration skills, with the ability to work with and support multiple teams efficiency and effectively 

• A flair for communicating clearly, concisely and persuasively, verbally and in writing, with proven ability to translate complex topics around entrepreneurship, business, technology, and science into clear, accessible and effective communications products

• A highly effective project manager, who can plan and deliver against multiple projects and priorities at the same time, keeping work on track and ensuring clear communication across internal teams so all parties know what they are required to do and when they need to do it

• Desirable: Experience operating in a small to medium-sized organisation environment with a small communications function that requires both strategic thinking and hands-on delivery. 

As with all staff employed in a communications role at Nesta, the postholder will also be at their best working in a collaborative, fast-paced environment, have a flexible approach and an appetite for taking on new tasks and challenges. 

What we offer

Salary: circa £39,000 (60% FTE of £65,000) plus an array of benefits, including health cash plans, dental insurance, the ability to buy and sell annual leave, eyecare vouchers and more.

Location: This role is based in Blackfriars, Central London, hybrid working arrangement (with at least 1 day working from the office)

Term: Permanent

Hours: This is a part-time role, working 22.5 hours per week.

Making an application

To apply for this role, please submit your application before 8:00am on 6th April.

Interviews will take place w/c 13th April 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.