Venture Lead

Craft Agency Ltd; Greater London; On-site; GBP 75,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

Wellness budget

Private health insurance

Pension

Life insurance

Cycle-to-work

Home office setup

Seasonal parties

Global startup network access

Job summary

Craft Agency Ltd. seeks a senior leader to head a venture-building squad in the UK. You will frame opportunities, run market exploration, test concepts with rapid prototyping and live ad experiments, and build the commercial case for funding rounds.

You will own the client relationship with senior stakeholders, run daily stand-ups, and coach the bank’s team to sustain the process independently. Four venture leads report to you with no internal hierarchy among new hires.

Qualifications

• 6+ years across venture building, VC, corporate innovation, or startup founding teams.
• Entrepreneurial track record and comfort leading strategy, research and prototyping without being the designer or engineer.
• Excellent ability to engage with senior stakeholders and coach a cross-functional team.
• Consumer/B2C background relevant to mortgages and lending is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of four (designer, engineer, researcher, bank liaison) to frame opportunities and test concepts.
• Own the client relationship, run daily stand-ups and manage C-suite interactions.
• Teach and coach bank staff to run the process independently in the future.

Skills

Venture building

Lean startup methods

Leadership & coaching

Job description

The Role

You’ll lead a team of around four: a designer, an engineer, a researcher, and a business unit representative from the bank, framing the opportunity, running customer and market exploration, testing concepts with rapid prototyping and live ad experiments, and building the commercial case that earns each venture its next round of funding.

You own the client relationship directly, running daily stand-ups and managing interactions with C-suite stakeholders. The second half of the job is teaching: coaching the bank’s own people – many with no innovation background – to eventually run the process without you.

Four venture leads are already in place, all reporting to the same lead. You’d run your team independently, with no hierarchy among the three new hires.

The Package

£75,000 – £90,000

Hybrid working

Monthly wellness budget

Private health insurance, pension, life insurance

Cycle-to-work scheme and home office setup support

Seasonal parties, monthly socials

Access to the firm’s global network of startups and early-stage companies

The Person

You have 6+ years across venture building, VC, corporate innovation, or a startup founding team – a genuine entrepreneurial track record, not a corporate or agency one. You’re fluent in lean startup methods and comfortable leading strategy, research and prototyping without personally being the designer or engineer.

You can hold your own with senior stakeholders inside a large organisation, and you enjoy coaching a small cross-functional team. A consumer or B2C background is particularly relevant given the mortgages and lending focus.