Community & Partnerships Manager

About Us:

Scale Space is an exciting joint venture between Imperial College London (a global top 10 University) and Blenheim Chalcot (the UK’s leading digital venture builder) which is running three innovation centres including c.350,000 sq. ft in the heart of Imperial College’s White City Campus.

Scale Space is a scaleup community, providing access to the people, services and space businesses need to succeed. Our buildings foster ‘collisions’, collaboration and innovation between tenants, including facilitating access to Imperial College London’s research and talent, and to Blenheim Chalcot’s venture building expertise, as well as other universities such as the University of Nottingham.

Scale Space, in partnership with Imperial College London, manages the front of house and community aspects of Imperial’s I-HUB building, with an emphasis on the experience for new and existing members. As such we are looking for a passionate, driven individual with customer satisfaction at the heart of their thinking to help us deliver on our vision for the I-HUB building.

The I-HUB provides fully fitted and bespoke laboratory and office space to accommodate commercial R&D activities, across c.175,000 sq. ft. The I-HUB supports knowledge-intensive companies and the commercialisation of scientific research by providing a home for businesses from around the globe to scale their business and work directly alongside Imperial's world-leading academics. Through this co-location model, businesses, entrepreneurs and world-class researchers can share ideas and turn scientific and technological discoveries into new products and services.

The Role:

This is an exciting position for someone looking for a challenging and invigorating work environment. The priorities of the role will vary from week to week - we are therefore looking for someone with a positive attitude and an outgoing personality, with exceptional communication skills. This role is suited to someone passionate about helping innovative businesses to scale, with a genuine curiosity for the types of R&D companies based in the I-HUB (from life sciences and engineering to digital ventures). The role also requires close collaboration with Imperial College stakeholders, so the candidate should be comfortable working within large, complex organisations such as universities.

You will be responsible for:

• Delivering a great, flawless experience to all users of the building, whether members or visitors.
• Delivering an excellent service to our members, building a culture of customer service excellence.
• Working with the Head of Growth and Partnerships, support members to address their scaling challenges via collaborations within Imperial, Blenheim Chalcot and other partners. This will be facilitated through events, direct connections and information sharing (e.g. via the regular I-HUB newsletter).
• Maximising member satisfaction and retention through meaningful engagement with members and the delivery of valuable targeted events and member
• Proactively seeking out ways to drive the member experience via enhancements to the member journey, process, communications and events
• Representing I-HUB externally to the public and to potential members and users of the building.
• Managing the Front of House team to deliver a branded, “values-led” experience – with focus and dedication to removing hassle for our
• Managing Showcase booking on Level 9 and day to the ‘presentability’ of the space
• Reporting progress, performance, opportunities, issues and proposed solutions to key stakeholders.
• You will be a point of escalation for member concerns and will ensure these are resolved in a timely manner within agreed SLAs either directly or with other service providers. This is a visible, externally facing role, with hospitality and service being at the forefront of your mind.

Your role will include:

Delivering the I-HUB experience to our members

Ensuring that your team deliver:

• I-Hub priorities- Alignment of I-Hub priorities with Imperial’s overall priorities.
• Building Manager- work closely with the Building Manager as part of the overall I-Hub team, noting individual roles and responsibilities within each role.
• Ecosystem - a strong focus on the wider Imperial innovation ecosystem and clear reporting of the actions and outputs.
• The basics
  • Constant availability of key essential member services, and being a friendly, proactive point of contact for member queries and issues.
• Values led engagement
  • Manage and motivate the team to deliver member / visitor engagement in line with our values and brand and create “noticeable positive experiences”, allowing the team to operate with autonomy in ambiguous situations where there is no agreed policy.
• Member onboarding experience
  • Oversee a smooth tailored onboarding and induction / move-in process for new members that includes aspects of building orientation, services provision and routes for user to engage.
• Meaningful events and connections
  • Deliver and support a series of regular, meaningful events for members, working with the Head of Growth and Partnerships on innovation ecosystem events (e.g. Imperial ecosystem fair / Scale Space careers fair) and with the Head of Events on social events.
  • Link members with key parts of Imperial College London and Blenheim Chalcot, as well as external partners, to support the business needs of members.
  • Identify events across the entire White City Campus and engage members in encouraging them to take part (either as participants or presenters).
• Knowing your members
  • Get to know your members - understand their businesses and their needs, and their future plans for growth and feed this information towards the Head of Growth and Partnerships and Commercial Manager, working together to address these challenges as a joined-up team.
  • Hold meetings with member companies to understand and document their growth plans and how we can best support them, uncover and address any issues or concerns they might have with the space or the services and what improvements can be implemented to ensure high levels of satisfaction.
  • Demonstrate a passion for supporting scale-up journeys by helping identify opportunities for collaboration, showcasing member innovations, and feeding insights into the I-HUB team to unlock further support.
• Building communications
  • Deliver clear, concise, community led communications to members with relevant news and updates – across both emails, our member engagement tool, ‘Connect’, and LinkedIn as the sole source of wider social media communication with regular postings.
• Continuous improvement
  • Provide reports to senior management with commentary on any issues and suggestions on necessary improvements relating to member services / engagement.
  • Financial accountability across FTE's; provide visibility across conference & meeting room revenue and occupancy; events and other ad hoc services.
  • Management reporting - timely quarterly reporting against the agreed set of KPIs; monthly flash report.

Staff Leadership

• Leadership of the Front of House team to the highest of standards. This includes setting clear objectives, coaching and developing staff, and ensuring accountability for high standards across all interactions.
• Deliver regular team briefings to ensure that business performance and key focus areas are understood and addressed. 
• Ensure clear expectations are set on the highest standards of customer service, and a positive can-do approach for all members. 
• Identify and deliver learning and development opportunities for the team.
• Ensure that the team are recognised and feel valued for the job well done. 
• Effectively manage the team within agreed HR frameworks.
• Be a visible role model and hold your team accountable to high standards. 

Person specification:

Personality:

• Outgoing, friendly, proactive, approachable, extrovert. 
• Passionate about innovation and motivated to help businesses scale.
• A background in hospitality or customer service, with a proven ability to run a best-in-class front of house operation, is strongly desirable.
• Comfortable with ambiguity. 
• Collegiate approach to working with other 3^rd party service providers and colleagues at Imperial.
• Creative and high energy.
• Desire to learn and develop.
• High professional and personal standards.
• Open to change and doing things differently.

Knowledge, skills & experience:

• Experience within a multi tenanted building environment (experience with deep tech and innovative businesses would be advantageous), or evidence of similar experience in an adjacent industry (hospitality / leisure).
• Experience of working with universities, research institutes, or similarly complex organisations, and an understanding of how to collaborate effectively with diverse stakeholders. A genuine interest in the R&D work of knowledge-intensive businesses (life sciences, engineering, AI, digital) and enthusiasm for supporting their scaling journey. Direct experience of working with, or studying at, a top-tier university would be highly advantageous.
• Leadership experience and an ability to lead a team and inspire them to deliver a great customer experience and to do the ‘right thing’ in line with company values.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong interpersonal communication skills, able to speak clearly, fluently and in a compelling manner to individuals and groups, both internal and external. 
• Able to influence, convince or impress others in a way that results in acceptance, agreement or behaviour change. 
• Broad experience of managing clients, suppliers, direct reports and stakeholders. 
• Proficient working knowledge of Microsoft Suite and some experience of CRM systems desirable.

Benefits:

• Excellent salary and
• Working alongside a dynamic and friendly team across two sites in close proximity. 
• Working with some of the most innovative and creative businesses in London. 
• Regular learning and development opportunities and quarterly professional development team days. 
• Rapid growth organisation. 
• Opportunity for career growth and progression – both within Scale Space, and more broadly across Blenheim Chalcot and Imperial College London. 

Blenheim Chalcot is a proud Equal Opportunity Employer. Diversity is one of our core values, thus making it core to our business. We strive to maximize the diversity of our workforce and welcome applications from everyone. We encourage diversity through perspective, background, identity, and thought whilst also fostering an environment where everyone can express themselves regardless of your race, religion, sex, gender, colour, national origin, disability, or any other applicable legally protected characteristic. We are committed to continuing to nurture an inclusive environment and building a diverse workforce.