Foundation Partners
Commercial Lead - Space / Satellite / Semi-conductor Tech
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Optera | Manchester HQ, national UK coverage | Space & Defence Tech
Package: Competitive base (circa £100k–£150k DOE) + performance-related earnings + equity
The mission
Satellites in orbit are set to grow six-fold in five years. Optera builds the neuromorphic sensor tech that tracks them — Space Domain Awareness for an increasingly crowded sky. Already selling to the UK MOD and the Royal Australian Air Force. Backed by a £3m seed round (UKI2S, Blackfinch, Foresight, NSSIF). Alumni of the Thales Alenia Space Accelerator.
We’re hiring our first Commercial Lead — a founding-team-level role to build Optera’s commercial engine from scratch.
The role
- Own business development end-to-end, taking it fully off the CEO’s plate.
- Turn early government funding relationships into multi-million-pound programme-of-record contracts (£0.5m–£6m+).
- Build senior relationships with prime contractors — Thales, BAE Systems, Airbus Defence & Space, Babcock, Northrop Grumman and their peers.
- Represent Optera at industry events, in government forums, and in rooms the CEO can’t be in.
- Shape commercial strategy as the business scales toward a Series A.
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What We’re Looking For
- 10+ years in and around defence/space primes, with deals you’ve personally closed — not just contributed to.
- “Uniform-adjacent,” not ex-military: credible in defence circles, but a closer, not a door-opener.
- A relationship-first operator, not a hunter — this market runs on long cycles and real partnerships.
- Comfortable building a function from nothing, with minimal support.
- Enough technical curiosity to get fluent fast in a deep-tech sensor product.
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