Commercial Lead - Space / Satellite / Semi-conductor Tech

Commercial Lead - Space / Satellite / Semi-conductor Tech A leadership-team seat at a fast-growing, well-backed deep-tech company. 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. 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. Department GTM Roles Remote status Hybrid About Foundation Partners A People team built for ambitious businesses The old model for People & Talent doesn’t work for today's businesses. We've built a better one. Traditionally, early-stage Founders had two options: handle People & Talent themselves, losing precious time they should be spending on product or go-to-market, or hire a generalist, expected to cover everything from culture to recruitment to performance. We offer a more impactful alternative: A fully flexible, fractional People & Talent team with specialist skillsets and hands-on delivery, ready to start driving impact for your business in weeks, not months.