Strategic operator to the founder

You will work closely with the founder and gain unusually broad exposure to how the company is being built. Some problems will arrive clearly defined but many will not. You might need to investigate why an important project keeps stalling, turn a loosely defined founder priority into clear actions and owners, prepare options around a strategic decision, or take something that currently falls between functions and drive it through to completion.

The work will change as the company changes. Examples might include:

• helping prepare for an investor, customer or Board discussion
• researching a strategic partner or market before an important decision
• making sure external relationships and follow-ups do not disappear between conversations
• helping communicate why our technology matters when there is a clear strategic reason to do so
• identifying a useful grant or non-dilutive funding opportunity and helping coordinate a strong response
• looking ahead at what the company is likely to need next and starting to build it before it becomes urgent

You do not need to arrive as an expert in investors, customers, grants or communications. What matters is that you are commercially aware, learn quickly and are comfortable getting deep enough into an unfamiliar area to make yourself useful.

Over time, you should understand the technology, people and business well enough to anticipate what the company needs next rather than simply responding to what has already happened.

Who We Are Looking For

There is no single conventional background for this role. What matters much more is evidence of how you think and what you have actually done.

Required Background

• At least 2 years of experience in a high-ownership environment
• previous startup experience or experience working closely with startups.
• at minimum a bachelor's degree in a STEM subject, or equivalent technical experience.
• A genuine interest in technology with the ability and drive to implement technology in company operations

You may have:

• founded or helped build an early-stage company
• worked in consultancy or investment and decided you want to get much closer to actually building

You are likely to:

• think entrepreneurially
• move easily between strategic thinking and practical execution
• be extremely organised and close loops naturally
• have the judgement to challenge founders and colleagues constructively and naturally ask what could be faster, clearer or better
• care about high standards and team performance
• be willing to do unglamorous work when that is what is required to get something over the line

Titles matter much less to us.

What Success Looks Like

Within 6–12 months, we should be able to point to visible changes in how the company operates because you joined.

AI and operational leverage

• At least three AI helpers, agents or automated workflows are live and being used, not sitting as prototypes.
• Those systems are materially reducing manual work, helping people find information faster, keeping information better organised, or carrying out useful spot-checks when processes or data start to drift.

People, recruitment and company quality

• Our Talent & Workplace Coordinator and Office Manager are operating as a stronger, more accountable and more effective team
• The quality of candidates entering later interview stages is improving, contributing to successful A-team hires as we grow.
• Efficiency gains create more capacity for the parts of company building that are easy to lose when everyone is busy, including team bonding, development and creating a great environment to work in.
• The founder's quality threshold is increasingly visible in how the wider company operates.

Strategic execution

• You have independently taken several ambiguous problems from identification through to solution.
• You have owned at least one or two substantial company-building projects, such as redesigning how we operate internally, evolving the company brand, taking ownership of a major customer opportunity, or leading a strategically important grant or funded programme from application through to delivery.
• You increasingly become someone the founder can bring into important decisions early, giving you direct exposure to fundraising, major commercial opportunities, strategic partnerships and the choices involved in scaling a deep-tech company.

Why this role is unusual

You will work directly with the founder at a stage where the company is still small enough for one exceptional person to change how it operates very quickly. There are very few layers between seeing something that could be better and actually changing it. If you build a better system, it can be in used that week. If you spot something slowing the company down, you can fix it. If you have a good idea, you will be surrounded by people with the intensity and technical ability to help make it real. That is a big part of what makes the role satisfying. You should be able to look back after six months and point to things that work differently because you joined.