Geovation Technology & Incubator Lead
Full Time | £70,000.00 - £84,647.00 including London Weighting (dependent on experience)
London based with 3 days a week minimum in the Farringdon Hub
About the role
Help shape the future of geospatial innovation and the next generation of location powered products.
Geovation is OS’s externally facing innovation, research & development function — working with startups, founders and partners to explore new applications of location data and help ideas become reality. Our Farringdon hub is a vibrant, collaborative environment where entrepreneurs, technologists and geospatial specialists come together to solve meaningful, real-world problems.
As we continue to grow our ecosystem, this role sits at its innovation focused core: guiding research led experimentation, accelerating the development of innovative products, and translating insights into outcomes that drive OS’s future success.
Why this role matters
Geovation exists to expand OS’s impact beyond the traditional geospatial world. We nurture early-stage startups, build partnerships and uncover emerging technologies and markets where location data creates unique value.
This role owns Geovation's Technology & Innovation capabilities and programme — which we call our Incubator. It’s where embryonic ideas are explored, emerging markets are discovered, and critical insights are developed that will shape OS’s future direction. The incubator is all about finding and developing ideas, innovation and new applications of location data – that we can learn from -so we make better products and more impact. We do this in a way that is open to the wider world – not hidden away in a secret lab. In fact, these ideas aren’t our ideas at all – they’re the ideas of entrepreneurs. We’re here to help those entrepreneurs try to realise their visions by helping them build new products that solve big problems that really matter.
In this role you’ll be equivalent to our Chief Technology Officer (CTO) – but with interest and skills in Product-led thinking. The role blends technical leadership, innovation strategy, product and programme management. It drives the discovery and development of new applications of location data while supporting startups with practical, experiment‑driven development programmes.
What you’ll be responsible for:
Leading Geovation’s Incubator Team
Lead a team of technical and non technical employees
Own and deliver Geovation’s Incubator programme, ensuring it generates insight, market development outcomes and value for startups and partners.
Identify which startups to work with and shape bespoke support packages tailored to their needs and growth stage.
Design and oversee hypothesis‑led proof‑of‑concept experiments that deliver tangible learning for OS and value creating, meaningful IP for startups.
Programme development & delivery
Develop and lead agile, design‑led and sprint‑based development programmes within the Incubator, with clear outputs and learning objectives, using best‑practice agile approaches.
Contribute to consultancy revenue generation (approx. £50k–£100k per year).
Technical leadership
Provide credible thought leadership at the intersection of geospatial data, emerging technology and new markets.
Communicate complex technical and market concepts clearly to a wide range of audiences.
Technical management
Strengthen Geovation’s research, experimentation and product‑development capabilities.
Ensure Geovation’s technical tools, skills and processes are maintained, modern and effective.
Support team members in developing their technical capabilities.
What you’ll bring:
Essential
A strong technical background with at least 5-10 years of experience of geospatial and/or software development using a range of tools and languages.
Proven leadership ability, with 3- 5 years’ experience leading high performing technical teams
At least 2-3 years of experience of working in or supporting early-stage startups, leading to clear understanding of founders’ needs and credibility with new and seasoned start up CTOs
Proven ability to lead and deliver innovation, research or technical development programmes and run practical experiments that generate insight and validate hypotheses.
Up to date with emerging trends in technology and geospatial data, with the ability to identify what is relevant.
Recognised as a thought leader with strong communication and influencing skills, comfortable interacting with both technical and non‑technical audiences and communicate them clearly as a thought leader.
Product‑led and design‑thinking mindset; able to flex between product, technical and strategic approaches.
Desirable
Experience mentoring, coaching or advising startups, founders or product teams.
Experience working within technology-led startup accelerator, incubator or innovation‑focused environment.
Exposure to geospatial technologies, data or location‑powered applications.
Experience in securing and delivering revenue generating technical consultancy work.
Background in programme management or delivering externally funded programmes.
The Rewards
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Salary – £70,000,00 –£84,647.00 including London Weighting (dependent on experience)
Performance related bonus up to 10%
A competitive pension scheme (OS contributes up to 12.07%)
28 days annual leave in addition to bank holidays on joining, (3 taken over Christmas) increasing by one day per year, to a maximum of 5 years
Enhanced family leave, including up to 12 weeks paid partner (paternity) leave
Free subscription to OS Maps
Access to online learning platforms
Coaching and Mentoring schemes
Plus, a suite of excellent additional perks and benefits
At OS, we believe looking after your health and wellbeing means more than posters and events. We empower you to manage your work and life the way you need it by offering things like;
An extra days’ leave for each year you work, up to 33 days
Employee Assistance Programme
We adopt flexible working and can consider different working hours dependent on the role and your personal circumstances
Eyecare Vouchers
OS Explorers Nursery discount
Cycle to Work scheme
We believe that as a company we should give back wherever we can, so we give you 1 day a year to volunteer for charities that are important to you, as well as offering a match funding scheme
The stages that we expect to proceed successful application are as follows:
Stage 1 – MS Teams Call
Stage 2 – Competency based interview including Presentation Tasks & SOVA Personality Assessment
Stage 3 – In person Interview
Location:
This role is based in our Farringdon Hub, with the expectation to be in the hub a minimum of 3 days a week, with some trips to our Southampton HQ and the ability to work from home up to two days a week.
Closing date:
Friday 12th June 2026 at 23:59pm
*
Please note that we may close the vacancy earlier than this date if we receive suitable applications.
Security & eligibility
OS conducts pre-employment checks for anyone made an offer of employment, including identity, right to work, employment history and criminal record checks (via Disclosure & Barring Services (DBS).
Inclusion at OS
Research shows that people from underrepresented groups often hesitate to apply unless they meet every requirement. At Ordnance Survey, we’re committed to building a diverse, inclusive and welcoming workplace.
If this role excites you but your experience doesn’t match every point, we encourage you to apply. You may be the right person for this role or another opportunity at OS.
We are happy to consider any reasonable adjustments that people may need during the recruitment process, and you will be asked whether you require any during the application process.
Skills required for this role:
Computer Programming, Engineering Practices, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Geospatial Data, Secure Software Development, Secure Software Development Lifecycle, Security Software, Software Development, Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)