Senior Venture Associate in Manchester

Salary: £44,000 - £49,000

Diversity

We’re an equal opportunity employer, dedicated to building a diverse workforce and fostering an inclusive environment, where everyone can thrive and be their authentic selves at work. We recognise that the climate crisis intersects with social and inclusion issues, and we’re particularly eager to receive applications from individuals who bring diverse perspectives, including people of colour, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, neurodivergent individuals, parents, carers, and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. We also value different experiences and encourage applicants whose backgrounds may not exactly match the criteria in the job description to apply.

About The Role

Our team is growing and we’re looking for a purpose-driven, passionate individual to join the Venture Support Team, to help start-ups, SMEs and corporations develop solutions in response to resource and sustainability challenges. Our support works to progress technology development and commercial exploitation through several core areas: venture development, delivery of start-up/SME programmes, accelerators, special projects and corporate innovation programmes.

Skills

Based from our Manchester workspace, as Senior Venture Associate, you will have a commercial skillset, great interpersonal skills and a demonstrated capability of working across programmes and projects, with a range of public and private stakeholders as well as directly with start-ups to achieve successful commercial exploitation. We are especially interested in candidates that have experience in providing support to sustainable/cleantech/climate tech start-ups through programmes of business support, accelerators, incubators or similar. Experience of building and scaling a business is also desirable.

Key Responsibilities

• Understanding, assessing and developing start-up business models and market opportunities;
• Creating support plans and development roadmaps for SMEs we are working with to prioritise the most relevant support to be provided;
• Providing advisory support to start-ups/SMEs across a broad range of business topics including but not limited to: review and input to business plans, organisational structure and team, investor pitch packs and investment readiness, advice on financial models, strategy and market placement; commercial pilot and trial design;
• For Manchester focused programmes, coordinating the integrated delivery of advisory and commercialisation support services across all delivery partners to ensure a seamless service;
• Preparing and presenting webinars, workshops, events and clinics on a broad range of business topics;
• Representing the company at events, panels, market visits; and
• Acting as a commercialisation advisor across our range of programmes and contributing to bid applications for partner organisations.

Programme Management

• Lead the end-to-end management of the new Manchester-based programme of business and commercialisation support, serving as the primary point of contact for SV within the programme consortium.
• Working across the Sustainable Ventures Group on assigned projects and programmes, ensuring that time, quality and budget parameters are met;
• Proactively nurturing and managing collaborative relationships with the Programme Lead and all external delivery partners;
• Connecting and building our community of sustainably focused businesses;
• Building relationships with designated partners and SMEs, capturing relevant information within the Sustainable Venture’s CRM system, identifying and executing opportunities (directly or through referrals to relevant team members) for further revenue generation;
• Ensuring compliance and maintaining required programme documentation such as impact surveys.

We Expect You to Have

• 5+ years’ relevant professional experience - we have a hugely diverse team with people who have worked at high growth startups, started their own businesses, been part of the armed services, spent time in professional service organisations, studied for an MBA & run a fashion brand.
• Knowledge and/or experience of the sustainability sector, and an understanding of technological and commercial innovation – this could be directly related to your previous roles or something that you have pursued outside of the office.
• A commercial skill set - this might include business planning, financial modelling, product R&D, market research, market analysis/characterisation, customer proposition testing, go-to-market strategy, fundraising or anything related to successfully growing a business.
• A project management skill set - experience of planning and delivering projects on time and within budget, event management, utilising effective communication, planning, stakeholder engagement and peer leadership abilities.
• Demonstrable experience in undertaking client‑facing work - producing high-quality outputs to time/budget/quality objectives.
• Proven success in meeting revenue/business development targets; and
• Proven organisational skills - for managing multiple clients simultaneously, co‑ordinating deliverables and meeting deadlines.

Desirable

• An undergraduate degree in business, technology or sustainability-related field.
• A postgraduate qualification in business, economics, technology or sustainability.
• Experience in venture development and/or sustainability innovation.
• Motivation to learn about other Sustainable Ventures functions, for example investment, product design and venture development.

Additional Details

• Hours: 40 hours per week, flexible working with minimum 3 days in the office
• Salary: £44,000-£49,000 per annum
• Based: Manchester Workspace

Benefits

Excellent benefits package include; 25 days Holiday + Bank Hols Monthly Wellness Day (time to rest & recharge) Enhanced Pension Scheme