Senior Manager, Innovation Strategy & Partnerships (Corporate Innovation)

[What the role is]

About EDB
The Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), a government agency under the Ministry of Trade and Industry, is responsible for strategies that enhance Singapore’s position as a global centre for business, innovation, and talent. We undertake investment promotion and industry development, and work with international businesses, both foreign and local, by providing information, connection to partners and access to government incentives for their investments. Our mission is to create sustainable economic growth, with vibrant business and good job opportunities for Singapore.

For more information on EDB, please visit www.edb.gov.sg

About Innovation Strategy & Partnerships (ISP)(Corporate Innovation)
ISP, Corporate Innovation is the venture building arm of EDB. Our aim is to support the creation and scaling of high potential new ventures from Singapore to become globally leading businesses. To do so, we are spearheading novel ways of partnering with companies on their corporate venturing journeys and with established global founders as they build their next ventures from Singapore. This includes embarking on joint venture building sprints alongside partner corporates / global founders, supporting corporate-startup partnership initiatives, co-investment with corporates to risk-share early-stage growth of their ventures and active portfolio value creation support to scale each venture.

[What you will be working on]

Job Responsibilities

This is an individual contributor role, and you will be part of a dynamic team to develop and execute new strategies and initiatives to drive corporate innovation and venturing, with a focus on startup partnerships.

• Build and cultivate relationships with large corporations and multi-national companies to grow their innovation and venturing activities in Singapore.

• Design tailored engagements with corporations based on their needs, tapping on whole-of-government offerings, and EDB products and services to create value for clients (e.g. capability building, startup pilots, bespoke incentive packages, non-financial support).

• Build sound understanding of corporates’ challenges, as well as local, regional, global industry trends and innovation ecosystems, to identify gaps and opportunities.

• Work with private and public sector partners, multipliers and other ecosystem players, to drive corporate innovation and startup partnerships.

• Design and spearhead thematic or sector-specific partnering initiatives, in conjunction with other EDB divisions and public / private sector stakeholders, to encourage corporate-startup collaboration in areas of interest.

• Lead and organise international publicity and marketing activities to drive greater awareness and profiling of corporate innovation and startup partnerships.

• Design and execute new strategies to deepen Singapore’s value propositions in corporate innovation and startup partnerships.

[What we are looking for]

• 4 - 6 years of relevant working experience in strategy development, account management, new business development and / or partnerships

• Demonstrated ability coordinate multi-stakeholder partnerships and translate strategies into executable outcomes.

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to engage and influence senior leaders and diverse stakeholders.

• Strong analytical ability that can be applied in designing of systems-level programmes, research and understanding of opportunity areas, distillation of qualitative and quantitative data into insights, development and assessment of venture opportunities.

• Possess the following attributes:

• Positive, can-do attitude

• Adaptable, comfortable with ambiguity and change

• Confident, with high level of resourcefulness

• Independent, but collaborative team player

• Strong organisational and time management skills

• Singaporean.

Good to have

• Experience in corporate or startup innovation ecosystem (e.g. corporate innovation or incubation, accelerators, venture capital value creation)

• Practitioners of agile, lean and user-centred design methodologies / market research analysis.

We review applications and interview on a rolling basis. Applicants can expect to receive an application outcome within 8 weeks of application date.