Venture Builder
Location: UK-based (Remote-first with regular London meet-ups)
Salary: Competitive
Start Date: Aug/Sept 2025
About ARK Venture Studio
ARK is the venture studio of Ninety, an award-winning innovation firm. We design, validate and launch bold new ventures that sit at the intersection of digital, impact, and commercial opportunity. Our sweet spot is building pre-seed businesses in spaces often overlooked or underdeveloped, typically where customer problems are real, existing solutions fall short, and a new model or product could unlock meaningful value.
We bring a proven studio model, a deep bench of corporate and philanthropic partners, and a strong innovation heritage - but we’re still a small team. Every hire shapes our future. If you’re a strategic thinker, problem solver and early-stage operator with conviction, we want to build with you.
The Role
We’re looking for a Venture Builder to lead the earliest stages of venture creation — from insight and ideation through to validation and design readiness. You’ll gain deep exposure to how successful ventures are formed, validated, and shaped inside a high-performing studio environment
You’ll operate like a founder in residence: identifying whitespace, crafting hypotheses, testing with users, building early proof points, and preparing for the first build. You’ll collaborate with experienced builders, investors, designers, and operators, gaining hands-on experience in how ventures come to life within a well-resourced studio.
This is a hands on, high autonomy role where strategic thinking meets execution. You’ll develop the mindset, skills, and instincts needed to create ventures from the ground up - building confidence and experience in the journey from zero to one.
Responsibilities:
Venture Origination
* Spot and frame new venture opportunities aligned to user pain points and emerging trends
* Develop early problem-solution hypotheses and market insight
* Conduct rapid research and idea validation sprints
User-Led Validation
* Run qualitative and quantitative research with early adopters
* Test desirability, feasibility, and commercial potential
* Translate feedback into proposition and feature direction
Venture Shaping
* Create sharp concept narratives, lean business models, and design briefs
* Develop TAM/SAM/SOM models, unit economics, and scalable revenue strategies
* Support early branding, value propositions, and GTM strategy
* Prepare internal pitch materials and stage-gate documentation
Team Collaboration
* Work side-by-side with our product, research, design, and commercial specialists
* Bring structure to ambiguity and momentum to new ideas
* Engage constructively with partners, advisors, and stakeholders
You’ll Need:
Essential
* 4–8 years of experience across:
* Strategy consulting (e.g. McKinsey, BCG, Bain)
* Early-stage startups (founder, investor, or operator)
* Proven ability to take an idea from zero to validation
* Strong hypothesis-driven thinking and user-centric experimentation
* Excellent communication, business case development, and storytelling skills
* Comfortable in fast-paced, ambiguous environments with lean resources
Desirable
* Experience inside a venture studio, incubator or accelerator
* Confident in research and customer development approaches
* Ability to map value chains, define JTBD, and explore disruptive models
* Experience with tools like Typeform, AI assistants, and other no-code or venture-building platforms
What We Value
We want people who bring sharp thinking and big heart.
You’ll thrive here if you live out our values:
* Others First – We build ventures that serve people meaningfully
* Do the Right Thing – We act with integrity, even when no one’s watching
* Smile and Laugh Often – We take the work seriously, not ourselves
* People Matter – We create space for humanity and care in how we work
* Try, Learn, Grow – We value progress over perfection and momentum over certainty
How to Apply
Send your CV and a 1-page cover letter via LinkedIn. We'd love to hear:
* Why venture building at ARK excites you
* A project or product you helped bring to life - and your role in it
* What type of problem you’re most passionate about solving
We review applications on a rolling basis.