Venture Capital Job – Investment Associate – Big Society Capital

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Job Title: Investment Associate

Department: Investment Group

Reports to: Investment Director

Salary: £47,500 – £54,750

Contract: Full time; Permanent

Location: Hybrid; London (Chancery Lane) and homeworking

The opportunity:

We have a unique opportunity to accelerate your career in Social Impact Investment through Big Society Capital’s Investment Associate Development Programme. Whilst playing a key role as part of a dynamic and supportive team, you will develop your impact investment management skills, knowledge of social issues and your strategic and design thinking in order to help solve some of the UK’s most entrenched social issues.

This is an exciting time to join BSC as we refresh our strategy for 2025-30, building upon what we have learnt since we started our impact investing journey in 2012. Our team comes from a wide range of backgrounds, and are driven by transforming the way mainstream financial markets help deliver deep and lasting impact on people in the UK. If you are someone who shares our passion to improve people’s lives, and who is enthusiastic about designing and developing creative solutions to complex problems, we would love to hear from you.

What you will do:

Help us make and manage investments through research and analysis, including:

• Undertaking research and detailed analysis to help us understand social issues and market gaps where social impact investment can help support a solution, within our market systems (social property, social lending, impact venture and social outcomes); synthesize and present these; and monitor relevant market data and update the team on relevant developments in the market systems, for example related to the issues, asset classes and policy areas.
• Undertaking supplementary analysis of performance, benchmarks and other research that helps enhance our understanding of performance of the portfolio.

Support prospective investments through our investment process across our market systems, including:

• Undertaking detailed investment analysis, including of the market, the prospective investee, and the financial, social impact and systems change cases;
• Assisting in preparing and presenting investment recommendations to our Investment Committee;
• Project management such as ensuring the consistent application of our investment process and the tracking of new investment opportunities in the pipeline; and,
• Helping deal leads and legal team negotiate legal documents and close transactions.

This will likely involve specialising in one market system for a period of time.

Support management of our existing portfolio investments, including:

• Supporting and co-ordinating fund manager reporting of that helps BSC to assess the contribution of the investments to our systems change, impact and financial goals across our portfolio and in the relevant market system
• Undertaking data gathering, aggregation and detailed analysis to evaluate impact and financial performance across portfolios of investments in our market systems, including working with fund managers on individual investments

Systems change agent

• Supporting delivery of key strategic projects in BSC’s market systems, including through project management
• Supporting our engagement work with investors and with charities and social enterprises to deliver on our market system goals, for example helping to co-ordinate networks and events in partnership with Investment Networks and Engagement teams .

Team and approach

• Helping to build a world class social impact investment team and approach at Big Society Capital, such as acting as a champion for part our investment management approach or being part of a working group to deliver a strategic priority
• Contributing to organisation-wide initiatives that help us deliver our mission such as working groups to improve the way we work or how we engage with certain stakeholders.

What you will bring:

Skills, Abilities and Attributes

• Structured thinker – able to deal with complexity and uncertainty
• Innovative, creative and strategic approach to problem solving
• Solves problems with multiple stakeholders in an open and empathetic way
• Collegial team player – Flexible and willing to work with and contribute to a team
• Self-starter – able to work under own initiative and source new opportunities
• Relationship management – excellent interpersonal skills and able to build relationships at all levels
• A confident and effective communicator when writing and speaking
• Hunger for continued learning and development, including developing others

Embody Big Society Capital core values:

Ø Purposeful –We are passionate and energetic in our work to bring about our long-term vision of a thriving social investment market that enables positive social impact.

Ø Pioneering Spirit – We give our team the autonomy and flexibility to be entrepreneurial and creative. We have the courage to push boundaries and a restless drive for change

Ø Openness – We listen, learn, experiment and collaborate. And we are adaptive and flexible in responding to what we learn.

Ø Rigorous – We take a rigorous approach in all we do. We expect the highest standards and continually strive for excellence

Ø Respectful – We are genuine in both our approach and aspiration. We value each member of our team and our partners for what they bring.

Experience

Experience (essential)

• A passion and demonstrable commitment to improving lives in the UK
• Experience of undertaking detailed analysis of social issues and/or financial considerations
• Work experience that faces the financial, social or public sector
• Proven relationship building and influencing skills

Experience (desirable)

• Work experience in social impact investment
• Proven project management skills
• Knowledge of housing or real estate, venture investment, social outcomes contracts or lending

Don’t meet every requirement? Studies have shown that women and people from racialised communities are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

Other terms

Location: We are a UK-based business with an office in the Chancery Lane area of London, accessible to a number of public transport links. Our current approach allows colleagues to spend 40% – 60% of their working hours in the office, and the remainder from home. We hope that this working pattern encourages Big Society Capital employees to achieve a healthy balance between work and personal goals, as we continue to adapt to the changing needs of our diverse workforce.

Right to work: for candidates who do not have the right to work in the UK, Big Society Capital may consider visa sponsorship

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: Big Society Capital is committed to being a diverse organisation that is truly representative of the communities we serve. We therefore welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds, particularly those under-represented in the social impact investment sector (e.g. people from LGBTQIA+; racialised; disabled; under-served communities)

We are an equal opportunities employer with an inclusive environment where all employees can contribute to their fullest potential. We want every colleague to be able to deliver their work with dignity, equality, comfort and independence. Our office is fully accessible with step-free access and an open-plan set up. We are open to accommodation requests regarding assistive technologies, accessibility tools, flexible working or any other reasonable adjustments that will make working or visiting here more accessible for you. If you have a disability or other access needs and require any support to assist you through the recruitment process, please get in touch with Nica Gordon (People and Talent Officer) at ngordon@bigsocietycapital.com

How to apply:

Please apply via Applied by 9am on Monday 20 May 2023.

Applied is a platform designed to minimise unconscious bias in recruitment. You will be asked some work-based questions which are reviewed anonymously by the hiring panel. Please note, while you will upload your CV, it will not be viewed by panel members at this stage, so we ask that you give full consideration to each answer.

As a Disability Confident employer, we guarantee an initial telephone interview for all candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum criteria for the job. We are defining a disability in accordance with the Equality Act 2010, as a person who has a physical or mental impairment, and the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. You will be asked in your Applied application whether this applies to you.

OPEN HOUR

If you have any questions about the position before making an application, we invite you to a virtual Open Hour with Drew Ritchie (Investment Director) and Nica Gordon (People and Talent Officer) at 13 May 2024 at 2pm. This is an open opportunity to meet the team and to explore the role and Big Society Capital a little further before you apply. (For anonymity, attendees will have the option to remove their name. and switch videos off). Please contact Nica Gordon ngordon@bigsocietycapital.com if you would like to attend.

Interviews

Round 1 interviews will be held on w/c 27 May

Round 2 interviews will be held on w/c 10 June

You can find out more about our recruitment approach here