Academic jobs in Germany

About us:

Nucleus Capital is a sector-focused Climate Deep Tech VC providing first checks to scientific founders. We profoundly believe that entrepreneurial innovation is necessary to solve systemic challenges to planetary health.

We partner with entrepreneurs at the nucleus of their journey, investing at the Pre-Seed stage and are focused on Programmable Biology, Food-Tech & Green Industrials.

To date we have backed more than 30 cutting-edge companies in Europe and the US.

It is our ambition to build a world-class venture firm with a highly focused boutique approach. We're now looking for an outlier personality to join our team in Berlin.

Investment Management:

• Independently manage the investment process end-to-end in close collaboration with our Partners from sourcing to closing of new investments.
• Source potential investments through proactive relationship building with founders, academic institutions, accelerators and fellow investors across Europe & US.
• Conduct in-depth due diligence for investments in our target sectors in close collaboration with our network of industry and scientific experts.
• Actively support the firm's investment thesis with research on scientific breakthroughs and markets to stay ahead of trends.

Portfolio support:

• Engage with our portfolio founders and executives on strategic projects such as: Go-to-market, Recruiting, Fundraising and strategic sparring.
• Navigate our firms network and identify the most important value add connections for individual portfolio companies.

Firm building:

• Represent Nucleus at industry events and build your own valuable network with ambitions to become a sought-after key opinion leader.
• Help us elevate our internal operations using AI and automation tools.

• Hustle: Are you prepared to work both hard and smart? We are looking for purpose-driven individuals who are comfortable working with a sense of urgency. This is not a role where you can afford to wait for opportunities to present themselves - you will need to get your hands dirty (like all of us) and build your own extensive networks to source the best ossible investment opportunities, academic and corporate contacts.
• Networking: Can you walk into a room, not knowing anyone, and easily make connections? This role requires excellent interpersonal skills, a proactive and self-motivated personality that actually enjoys meeting A LOT of people with different backgrounds and personalities.
• Helicopter-ability: You will need to demonstrate extreme ownership and organizational abilities, juggling many different work streams and stakeholders at the same time while keeping the quality of your work exceptionally high.
• Endless curiosity: By nature, this job will never get boring. Do you have the energy and curiosity to live up to its full potential? Your hunger to learn about new technologies, markets and scientific breakthroughs is your secret weapon in building a broad yet deep understanding of our target sectors.
• High degree of stamina: We see thousands of companies per year. Could you meet 10 start-ups a day, and still enjoy your job? Regardless of whether it is your first or last pitch of the day, you need to stay focused and be able to differentiate between misleading ‘shiny objects’ and the true ‘diamonds in the rough’.

• You obtained a STEM PhD (big plus) or Masters degree from a leading university.
• At least 3+ years of previous work experience in a fast-paced environment (e.g. venture backed startup, VC/PE, or top tier consulting) is a strong plus.
• You have outstanding analytical skills, a fun & pleasant personality, the desire to get s**t done and want to have an impact on our planet’s health and our joint future.
• Fluency in English (written/spoken) is a must; fluency in German is a plus.

This is a very crucial position with a long-term career trajectory within our core team. Hence we run an intensive recruitment process to get to know you:

1. After filling in the application form we will invite the top 20% of candidates for a crisp 30 min interview (video call). We’re interested in your motivation & background.
2. In case you pass the first interview, you will receive a short case study (90 mins). We will objectively benchmark your results with all other candidates and invite the best 10% for 3 in-person meetings (1 hour each) with our team in Berlin.
3. Next, it’s important to us that you meet with one of our Portfolio Founders and a Venture Partner (30 mins each via video call).
4. Lastly, we will take the most promising candidates out for dinner and enjoy a great meal and hopefully enticing discussions before we make a final decision.