Space Investment Lead - United Kingdom - Be Applied Ltd

Description

Location Hybrid ·Didcot, UK The role will involve working onsite 1-2 days per week in Harwell

Salary £65,000 - £80,000 (GBP) The salary is depending on experience

Seniority Senior

• Closing: 11:59pm, 26th May 2024 BST

Perks and benefits

Work from home option

Life Insurance

Wellness programs

Employee Assistance Programme

Enhanced maternity and paternity leave

Sabbatical Opportunities

Salary sacrifice

Team social events

Extracurricular clubs

Cycle to work scheme

Candidate happiness

Job Description

Reporting to: Investment & Strategic Finance Director

Would you like to be at the heart of an ecosystem where science fiction becomes reality? Are you interested in being part of a team that is accelerating the growth of the next economic frontier? Do you want to be in a role that can have outsized impact on the UK? If so, you may be who we're looking for.

The Satellite Applications Catapult ('SAC' or 'the Catapult') is at the forefront of the burgeoning UK space industry. As the industry continues to grow, there is a need for far more capital to fund that growth from a wider, more diversified set of investors. In particular, the most promising space start-ups want to scale up as fast as possible and need significant investment to do so.

Our Space Investment Lead, reporting into our Investment and Strategic Finance Director, will identify and execute on ways to catalyse investment into the space sector and high-potential UK space companies. This is a unique opportunity to operate at the intersection of the space and finance worlds and materially influence the future of the UK economy.

This is a new role created at the Catapult to address a critical market need and requires an ability to develop a new blueprint rather than follow an existing one. It requires financial astuteness, commercial acumen, and an understanding of the broader investment landscape. Your working style will be one of moving fast and iterating with a bias to action even in the face of uncertainty. The role needs an appetite for active problem solving with a relentless focus on outcomes rather than perfecting process. If you are a team player with exceptional integrity and a hunger to take on feedback and improve, this will be a hugely fulfilling role. Prior experience in the space sector and/or direct investment roles are desirable but not essential.

Key Responsibilities:

As the Space Investment Lead, you will:

Creatively explore and shape new ways of increasing the flow of capital into the space sector by orders of magnitude and make the UK a centre for global space finance.

Develop our investor network by building direct relationships with a broad range of institutional investors and introduce them to space investment themes.

Communicate and educate by developing content across multiple channels (written, events, webinars, etc) to raise awareness of space as an investment opportunity and, subsequently, to get new investors to a level of understanding at which they can confidently deploy capital.

Source attractive investment opportunities by identifying the most promising UK investment candidates (start-up & scale-up) and collaborating with investors to fund these businesses. You will connect companies and investors to facilitate the flow of capital.

Enhance the Catapult's investor service proposition by working with other Catapult teams to develop a suite of investment-oriented services such as technical and commercial due diligence (particularly for generalist investors).

Design investment roadmaps for Catapult IP - collaborate with Catapult teams to develop our technology and IP into investable propositions with well-crafted investment and commercial roadmaps.

Raise awareness and understanding of current investment topics and issues within the Catapult at a level pitched at non-specialists.

You will also be involved in:

Developing the strategy and multi-year roadmap with milestones for our investment ambitions.

Collaborating across the Catapult to find ways to use investment more generally to accelerate progress across the diverse range of our space projects and activities.

Working with UKSA and other Catapults in the Catapult Network on a range of novel investment initiatives impacting multiple high growth, high potential industries including space.

Building out the investment team as we broaden the scope of our activities and maximise our impact over the coming months and years.

We expect that you would have the following demonstrable knowledge, skills, and experience:

Outstanding commercial acumen coupled with a natural ability to prioritise those activities that actually 'move the needle'.

A broad knowledge of finance and investment topics (including different investor types) and a strong intuition for investor objectives, incentives, and mindset.

Experience of working in or with large financial institutions (including asset managers and/or other institutional investors).

The ability to identify and assess potential investment opportunities (of any variety).

A high-level understanding of financial statements and the information they convey about company performance.

The ability to connect and engage with senior investment and asset management executives with professionalism, credibility, and gravitas.

A creative and innovative approach to developing strategy and cracking challenging problems with a readiness to be unconventional but always pragmatic.

An aptitude for crafting and communicating clear and compelling narratives that can persuade, inspire, and mobilise action. At ease with both engaging large public audiences and 'holding a room'.

The ability to reliably execute on multiple projects at the same time through effective resourcing, collaboration, and prioritisation.

Experience of making direct investments especially into start-ups. Familiarity with investment processes (e.g. sourcing, due diligence, investment committees).

An investment or finance-related qualification, e.g. CFA or MBA.

Experience of leading initiatives and/or managing a team.

Knowledge or experience of the space sector (enthusiasm and excitement for the sector is a must)

You know you have been successful when...

There is a demonstrable and material increase in the flow of capital to high-potential space companies from a range of investors, many of whom have not previously invested in space, with a greater degree of understanding of space as an investment opportunity.

How we work....

We strive to create a high trust, high performance and inclusive environment that enables team members to bring their whole selves to work – this helps to create the foundations of an innovation culture. Our shared values are critical to this:

We care - for our people, our partners, and our planet

We connect - and engage with people and ideas

We learn - and grow, as people and as an industry

Underpinning this is our belief in great teams, our combined efforts will always deliver outcomes beyond that of any individual providing we are honest through debate, experiment and reflect, and create shared resolutions in support of our purpose. Live these values, work to our principles, take ownership to deliver, and we are certain you will thrive with us.

This job description set outs the skills and experience we think are needed to be able to perform in this job. However, if you believe you can deliver in this role then we want to hear from you.

Important notice for applicants: We use tools to detect plagiarism and the use of AI or chatbots for applicant answers. If plagiarism, AI use (such as ChatGPT) or similar software are found to have been used in your application you will not be considered for this or future roles within the Satellite Applications Catapult. If you need any additional support during the application process, please do reach out and connect. We also invite you to share feedback via Applied.