Commercial Lead - Space / Satellite / Semi-conductor Tech

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.

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.

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