We’re looking for an ambitious Cluster Support Manager to join the West Midlands Growth Company and make a real impact from day one. If you’re driven, curious, and hungry for growth, this could be your perfect next step.
The West Midlands Growth Company (WMGC) is the region’s economic development delivery organisation. From April 2026, we will lead the delivery of regionally commissioned economic development activity aligned to the West Midlands Growth Plan, working in partnership with the West Midlands Combined Authority and local authorities. We are building a sharper, business-focused organisation that attracts investment, supports high-growth companies and drives measurable economic impact. If you want your work to shape how growth is delivered across one of the UK’s most important regions, this is your opportunity.
As our new Cluster Support Manager , you are an experienced professional with a proven ability to operate across complex stakeholder environments. You will be confident working with market-facing organisations, academics and public-sector officers and business representatives. You thrive on practical delivery and bring consistent reliability to produce shared economic and innovation outcomes. Organised, collaborative, and politically astute, you are motivated to play an important part in driving the long-term growth of the West Midlands.
You will support the WM Growth Company’s management of a set of Cluster Bodies linked to the key sectors that underpin the WM Growth plan by ensuring they are strategically aligned, well-governed, impactful, and fully integrated into the wider regional ecosystem. You will help strengthen the effectiveness, sustainability and influence of these Cluster Bodies so that they deliver measurable productivity, growth and innovation outcomes for the region in line with the WM Growth plan through close collaboration across WMGC, WMCA, and the wider ecosystem
- Supporting the Cluster Management Lead and Cluster Managers to manage WMGC’s relationships with market facing Cluster Bodies that represent the High Growth Sectors within the region.
- Assisting with the commissioning of each Cluster Body (with WMCA) to deliver effective curation of their Cluster and managing their reporting of outcomes and impact from a set of agreed activities
- Helping the Cluster Bodies to collaborate closely with other functions in the EDV (notably Business Support/SAM, Inward Investment, Capital Attraction, Business Growth Capital Future Workforce and Talent, Visitor Economy and Regional Promotion) in order to ensure that the priorities of each cluster is reflected in their plans and that each function operates in a joined up approach with Cluster Bodies
- Supporting the Cluster Bodies to collaborate across the wider ecosystem (e.g. Universities, Catapults, Investors, Local Authorities, National Bodies) by creating introductions and implementing collaborative initiatives
- Collating business insight from the Cluster Bodies to share the WMCA and other WMGC functions (e.g. Workforce and Future Talent)
- Facilitating the Cluster Bodies to collaborate with other Cluster Bodies to share learning, boost outcomes for their cluster and efficiency of their operations.
- Support the growth and development of each Cluster Body organisation
- Where WMGC provides any services to a Cluster Body (e.g. marketing support, CRM), overseeing the effective WMGC’s delivery of these services and resolving issues arising
- Support the formation and development of new Cluster Bodies where required.
- Provide high quality written and oral reports where required
- Establish, develop and maintain strong relationships at an operational level with key stakeholders, particularly with WMCA, Local Authorities, universities, employers and business representative organisations, trade unions and relevant government departments and agencies.
Essential:
- Degree or relevant business qualification
- Ability to build strong trusted business relationships and to manage business partnerships
- Operational engagement across public, private, academic, and third sectors
- Systems thinking and ability to work across complex delivery landscapes
- Influencing and operational facilitation
- Written and verbal communication, including high-quality reporting
- Programme coordination and outcome/impact management
- Ability to work in a pressurised environment and manage competing priorities whilst delivering on a broad range of projects and adapting to changing circumstances and priorities
- A collegiate and collaborative style that engages with people at all levels and promotes positive relationships.
- Experience working within economic development, innovation, or business environments
- Proven track record of coordinating multiple stakeholders to deliver shared outcomes
- Experience of contract performance management against agreed outcomes
- Experience engaging with local authorities, combined authorities, universities, and business groups
- Experience producing reports and briefings for decision-makers and external audiences
Desirable:
- Facilitation of cross-sector and cross-cluster collaboration
- Commercial skills
- Change management and organisational transformation support
- Strong analytical skills
- Project Management skills
- Understanding of Cluster Management to drive economic growth
- Experience of sector bodies, partnerships, or cluster-based organisations, market-facing cluster organisations
- Experience contributing business insight to policy development processes
- Experience representing an organisation externally at senior forums or events
- Experience of ecosystem development across innovation, investment, skills, and inward investment agendas
- 26 days holiday
- Company pension scheme including life assurance
- Hybrid working with 2 days in the office
- Cycle to work
- Simple Health employee membership scheme
We’re an equal opportunities employer and welcome applicants from all backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. We’re committed to creating an inclusive environment where everyone can thrive.
