The Digital Forge CIC
Venture Lab & Community Manager (General Manager, Paradise Square)
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Run the building where the North's next technology companies get built.
Later this year a Grade II* Georgian building on Paradise Square, Sheffield's finest square, becomes the Venture Lab: a permanent base where Yorkshire AI Labs and The Digital Forge create and scale AI-native technology companies, with the ambition of launching twelve new companies a year.
Around 5,000 sq ft over three floors, with shared workspace and meeting rooms, dedicated space for Venture Lab companies, and the Yorkshire AI Labs engineering and operator team under the same roof. At full occupancy, around fifty founders, engineers, operators and members in the building each day, a six-figure operating budget, six to ten flagship Digital Forge events a year and a weekly programme of workshops, office hours, showcases and investor sessions.
Somebody has to make all of that work, every day, to a standard that matches the ambition. That is this job.
What you will do
You will be in post before the doors open, so you help decide how the place works: the fit-out, the membership model and pricing, the licences companies sign, the booking and billing systems, the house rules and the standard of welcome. Then you run it.
The building: front of house, facilities, suppliers, health and safety, and the relationship with the landlord of a listed building.
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Members and companies: onboarding every company and member; managing the licences and sub-lease arrangements with our CFO and lawyers; membership tiers, pricing and occupancy; connecting founders to the operators, advisers and partners who can help them.
The team: line managing our Events Manager and two to three part-time front-of-house staff, whom you will help recruit.
Diary and bookings: the Founding Partners' meetings, room and desk bookings, external venue hire, and visits from investors, universities and partners.
Money and administration, with our CFO: monthly membership, licence and sponsor invoicing, supplier payments, expenses, budget versus actual and the monthly report.
The programme, with the Events Manager: the calendar of events, workshops and showcases that runs through the building.
Reporting: a monthly operating dashboard of occupancy, members, companies, revenue, costs and pipeline.
Who we are looking for
Someone who has done the hard parts before.
At least five years running a coworking space, members' club, hotel or hospitality operation, serviced office, venue, or the office of a fast-growing company, with results you can show in numbers.
Experience managing people, including part-time and shift-based teams.
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Comfortable with licences, leases and membership agreements, and with working alongside lawyers and a landlord.
Careful with money: sound bookkeeping and budget discipline, and confidence with accounting and billing systems.
Fluent with the systems that run a modern space: booking, membership, CRM, email and payments.
Presence: you can welcome a first-time founder and a fund manager in the same afternoon and treat both as the most important person in the building.
You solve problems rather than report them.
Curiosity about founders and how companies get built. Experience in venture capital or technology is not required.
We are an AI-first organisation. You will use AI to run the building better, and we will train you to do it.
What we offer
Circa £45,000 depending on experience, pension, 25 days' holiday plus bank holidays, and a personal training budget including AI training.
Real authority over how the place works, from day one.
A role that grows with the Venture Lab, towards Head of Operations for the Venture Studio.
Daily contact with founders, investors and partners who have built, scaled and listed technology companies.
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