Head of Incubation

Founded in 1837, the Royal College of Art is the world’s largest community of postgraduate art and design students. It is also the oldest art and design university in continuous operation and has been ranked as the world's number one art and design university for a remarkable nine consecutive years, according to the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2023 – the worldwide survey of academic and industry opinion.

InnovationRCA is the RCA’s start-up/spinout incubation and intellectual property commercialisation centre. To date, InnovationRCA has helped create over 80 companies and these commercially successful companies have gone on to raise over £134million in investor funds, create more than 800 UK-based jobs, and over £200million in sales and exports. Recognised as ‘world class delivering impressive results’ (McKinsey & Company review, March 2017), InnovationRCA has a sector agnostic approach backing early–stage design-led start-ups in a nurturing ecosystem (for example med-tech, climate-tech, agri-tech, tech, and creative brands).

The main purpose of the role is to manage and develop InnovationRCA’s award-winning High Growth Start-up Incubator programme and its Creative Brands Accelerator.  This includes responsibility for helping the RCA portfolio of spinouts and start-ups (currently over 80 companies) to grow and scale. The role also includes overseeing the delivery of student facing entrepreneurial programmes and leading on the delivery of custom accelerators and entrepreneurship development programmes for overseas clients.  The successful candidate will be a team player with significant experience of early-stage businesses and the UK start-up and investment ecosystem.

Closing date: 26th April 2024

If you’re interested in this role, click apply now and you will be redirected to our website to complete your application.

The Royal College of Art (RCA) aims to foster an inclusive culture which promotes equality, values diversity and maintains a working, learning and social environment in which the rights and dignity of all its staff and students and stakeholders are respected.