Senior Innovation and Development Lead

We’re looking for a Senior Innovation and Development Lead to help shape the future of how we grow income and engage customers at the British Heart Foundation (BHF). 

This isn’t about theory, it’s about turning bold ideas into real, sustainable income streams. From new fundraising products to reimagining traditional models, you’ll take concepts from insight → test → launch → scale. 

Responsible for driving innovation that delivers both impact and income you will:  

• Identify new audience problems and income opportunities, using desk research, internal insight and commissioned customer research.  
• Turn insight into new fundraising propositions (including digital, subscription and challenge‑based products), developing and refining concepts with clear success criteria.  
• Test, pilot and launch ideas at pace, using MVPs and a test‑and‑learn approach to decide what to scale, adapt or stop.  
• Build robust business and investment cases, including commercial modelling (e.g. payback, NPV and unit economics).
• Influence senior stakeholders with clear, evidence‑based recommendations.
• Lead successful propositions into BAU.

This is a big role that offers genuine ownership, with all delivery led and delivered in‑house without the support agencies. Visible at senior level the role provides the opportunity to turn insight into real impact.  

About you 

As our ideal candidate, you’ll bring senior‑level experience in innovation, fundraising or product development, with a clear ability to turn insight into action. You’re commercially minded and creative, comfortable with ambiguity, and able to move at pace while staying focused on what delivers real value. 

You’ll have proven experience leading propositions end‑to‑end from early problem discovery and insight through testing, piloting, scaling and evaluation, all delivered in‑house. You’ve built and refined MVPs and pilots through evidence‑based experimentation, and you’re confident making calls on when to scale, pivot or stop initiatives. 

With advance data and insight skills, you can translate complex qualitative and quantitative insight into clear options and recommendations for senior stakeholders. You bring experience building strong business and investment cases, including budgeting and forecasting, as well as taking successful propositions into BAU. Used to working in complex, cross functional environments, you can influence without direct authority and manage interdependencies and governance with clarity. 

Working arrangements 

This is a hybrid role, where your work will be split between your home and at least one day per week, on average, in our London Office. This may vary from time to time, so you will need to work in a flexible way to unlock your best work for our cause. 

Belonging at BHF  
 
We celebrate and value the diversity of the communities we serve, recognising that embracing different perspectives and backgrounds strengthens our organisation and drives innovation. By fostering an inclusive environment where everyone feels respected and supported, we are better equipped to achieve our mission of helping people have a healthier heart for longer.  

To hear from our people, check out Belonging at BHF. 

Our people are at the heart of everything we do. By funding research across six decades, we’ve helped keep millions of hearts beating and millions of families together. We’re investing in ground-breaking research that will get us closer than ever to a world where everyone has a healthier heart for longer.