Founders Associate in Leeds

Our client is an ambitious British aerospace technology company entering a major new phase of growth. The company has embarked on a multi-year R&D programme focused on developing a new generation of unmanned aircraft capable of operating at high altitudes. Experienced leaders have joined from some of the UK’s most significant aerospace programmes, and new engineering, programme and commercial hires are planned.

The company is therefore looking for a highly capable Founder’s Associate to work closely with the founders and help them build the next stage of the business. This is not an internship, graduate scheme or glorified administrative position. It is a broad, hands-on role for someone who can take an ambiguous problem, work out what needs doing and get it done without waiting for a detailed set of instructions.

One day could involve improving an internal process or automating a repetitive workflow. The next could involve preparing information for an important stakeholder, analysing business data, coordinating recruitment, supporting a commercial project or making sure something important simply does not disappear down the cracks. The underlying objective is consistent: Create more capacity for the founders to focus on the things only they can do.

Responsibilities will evolve as the company grows, but initially the Founder’s Associate is likely to work across:

• Founder support and strategic projects: Taking ownership of important projects that currently sit directly with the founders, researching problems, analysing options and turning ideas into action.
• Business operations: Improving how the company operates day-to-day, introducing better processes, coordinating activities across teams and identifying problems before they become bottlenecks.
• AI and automation: Using modern AI tools to automate repetitive work, improve internal workflows and build lightweight systems that allow a relatively small team to operate with significantly greater leverage.
• Finance and administration: Supporting budgeting, reporting, purchasing, suppliers and the wider administrative requirements of a rapidly growing engineering company.
• People and recruitment: Helping coordinate hiring, onboarding, internal communications and the processes required as the team expands.
• Commercial support: Researching markets, customers and potential partners, preparing materials and supporting early commercialisation activities around the company’s technology.
• Cross-functional coordination: Working between the founders, engineers, programme delivery and commercial teams to make sure priorities turn into action.

The company is particularly interested in people with approximately 2 to 4 years of experience in a startup, scaleup or similarly fast-moving environment. They are looking for intelligence, judgement, curiosity and unusually high levels of ownership rather than one specific career background. High digital literacy is essential. The strongest candidates will already be experimenting seriously with tools such as Claude, ChatGPT, Codex and other AI products, not simply using them to write emails, but thinking about how AI can fundamentally improve the way a company operates.

An interest in aerospace, aviation, robotics or deep technology would be a major advantage. This is a company full of people who genuinely care about the technology they are building, and they want someone who shares that curiosity. This role offers an unusual amount of exposure for someone relatively early in their career. The successful person will work directly alongside the founders during a period of significant growth, gaining visibility across technology, operations, finance, people, commercial strategy and company building. As the business scales, there is significant scope for the role to grow with it, potentially towards broader business operations or Chief of Staff responsibilities.

Apply now to learn more!