Venture Associate

Venture Associates play a key role in delivering our strategy, supporting our portfolio of over 30 organisations to help create a fairer society where all young people thrive. This is a hands-on role suited to someone who has developed a foundation in a structured and analytically rigorous environment, has a demonstrable interest in working in the charity sector or the education sector, and is excited to combine analytical problem-solving with mission-driven work.

You will work across the full investment lifecycle - from portfolio strategy setting, to sourcing and due diligence through to capacity building (such as strategy and business planning support) and grant management. This includes working closely with colleagues, charity partners and our incubations to understand complex challenges, develop clear and structured approaches to solving them, and support the development of mission-driven organisations.

The role requires both analytical thinking and the ability to build trusted relationships with stakeholders and communicate clearly and effectively with a range of audiences. You will gain experience across investing, strategy, and capacity building our portfolio organisations - developing core skills in problem-solving, analysis, stakeholder management, and delivering high-quality outputs.

Over time, you will work across different programmes and portfolios, building a broad and practical understanding of how to select, fund, and strengthen organisations working to improve the lives of children and young people. Examples of projects undertaken by Venture Associates include supporting an early years charity to reach more children, working on a fund for schools to improve maths outcomes, and helping an early-stage incubation to launch a competition around ways in which AI could support the education ecosystem.

This is an opportunity to apply and further develop your skills in a context where your work contributes directly to meaningful, long-term change for children and young people across systems that shape their lives, for example education and care systems. You will be supported by a dedicated line manager, with opportunities to build your skills through on-the-job experience, training, and exposure to senior leaders and partners. We see this role as a springboard for your career, whether that is within Purposeful or beyond.

Responsibilities and duties

• Support the design and refinement of our investment strategy.
• Conduct structured research into priority sectors, including market dynamics, policy context, key stakeholders, and barriers to change.
• Identify and map high-potential opportunities for intervention, including emerging organisations and unmet needs.
• Work with Venture Partners and Portfolio Leads to synthesise insights into clear recommendations that inform investment priorities and strategic focus areas.
• Build pipelines for our investment strategies and conduct due diligence on specific organisations.
• Support the development of our partner organisations.
• Support grant management and performance tracking.

Who we are looking for

We are looking for people who are motivated by our mission and excited to apply analytical, problem-solving, and relationship-building skills in a collaborative, purpose-driven environment. We recognise that strong candidates may bring a range of experiences and perspectives, and we encourage applications from people with diverse backgrounds and career paths. If your experience is not an exact match, but you believe you would thrive in the role, we would still encourage you to apply.

Key requirements

• Passionate about creating a fairer society where all young people thrive.
• Motivated by Purposeful’s mission, with a clear and demonstrable commitment to contributing to meaningful, long-term change in support of children and young people.
• Curious and evidence-led, actively seeking out data, insights, and diverse perspectives to inform thinking.
• Takes ownership of your work, following through on commitments and delivering to a consistently high standard.
• Comfortable working in ambiguity, structuring your own work and adapting as priorities evolve.
• Collaborative and relationship-oriented, working effectively with colleagues and external partners.
• Open to feedback and committed to continuous learning and development.

Knowledge and Experience

• Experience working in a structured, analytical environment (for example, consulting, corporate strategy, investing, or similar).
• Strong grounding in core business concepts such as strategy setting, market sizing, business planning, and competitive dynamics.
• Demonstrated ability to build a working understanding of new sectors, topics, or contexts and to apply this to real challenges facing our portfolio organisations.
• Experience contributing to strategy development, due diligence, or complex problem-solving projects involving ambiguity and multiple stakeholders.
• Experience supporting financial analysis, reviewing financial information (for example, annual accounts) and assessing financial risk.

Skills

• Applies structured, analytical thinking to break down complex or ambiguous problems into clear components, hypotheses, and actionable approaches.
• Strong quantitative and qualitative analysis skills, including working with imperfect data, identifying key drivers, and drawing sound, defensible insights.
• Synthesises information from multiple sources into clear, well-structured outputs and recommendations.
• Clear, effective and nuanced communicator, both in writing and verbally, with the ability to produce materials suitable for senior audiences.
• Effective influencing skills, and the ability to adapt communication style and medium to the audience and context to achieve the best outcome.
• Plans and manages their work effectively, taking ownership of workstreams and delivering high-quality outputs within timelines.

General

• Right to work in the UK.

Desirable Knowledge and Experience

• Understanding of the charity and/or education sectors gained through previous work experience, pro-bono work, volunteer or trustee role.
• Experience of creating financial models to support budgeting and scenario planning; building income generation strategies.
• Understanding of or experience with programme design, monitoring and evaluation.