Role Summary

This is a high-trust role for someone who wants to influence significant business, investment, and philanthropic decisions.

Working directly and exclusively with an experienced German entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist, you will provide strategic and analytical leverage across three areas: an established industrial group, an early-stage venture capital portfolio, and a private grant-making initiative.

Across these activities, the work contributes to the transition towards a sustainable food system that no longer depends on farmed animals. You will take substantial ownership of research, due diligence, decision preparation, execution, and portfolio monitoring, while applying sound judgement and communicating risks, recommendations, and changes clearly.

This is a strategic and analytical position rather than a personal-assistant role. You will independently lead defined workstreams and make well-supported recommendations, while final shareholder, investment, and grant-making decisions remain with the principal.

The role suits someone who combines intellectual curiosity with rigorous analysis, is comfortable operating with significant autonomy, and can move between commercial, strategic, and impact-focused questions without losing sight of long-term outcomes.

Job Details

Legal employer: Confidential partner organisation
Reports to: Principal
Direct reports: None
Location: Hamburg or Berlin, Germany
Working arrangement: Hybrid, roughly 50% on site, exact rhythm to be discussed flexibly.
Hours: Full-time (40h)
Contract type: Permanent full-time position, employed through a German GmbH
Salary: €85,000–€115,000 gross annual base salary, depending on experience, plus a performance-related bonus based on annual goal attainment
Travel: Approximately one trip per month within Germany and occasionally elsewhere in Europe

ProVeg is supporting a trusted, mission-aligned partner with this confidential search. The successful candidate will work directly for the partner organisation and will not be employed by ProVeg.

The identity of the principal and further details about the organisation will be shared with selected candidates before the first substantive interview.

When

Application deadline: 15 September 2026
Start date: Flexible, targeting 1.1.2027

Responsibilities

Holding company support (Approximately 30% of the role)

Support the principal in fulfilling his responsibilities as a shareholder and board member of an established German industrial group.

• Develop and benchmark performance frameworks, including key performance indicators and targets for the leadership team.

• Analyse financial and operational performance against relevant industry peers and identify areas requiring further attention.

• Support the design and evaluation of management incentive structures that encourage sustainable, long-term value creation.

• Provide independent analysis and constructive challenge on major management proposals, including market sizing, competitive positioning, financial assumptions, and capital allocation.

• Research organic growth opportunities and potential acquisition targets, developing clear and evidence-based recommendations for the principal’s consideration.

• Prepare the principal for board meetings by synthesising materials, assessing management reporting, identifying key questions, and highlighting risks, decisions, and follow-up actions.

• Communicate emerging concerns, information gaps, and changing assumptions early, together with practical options for addressing them.

Venture capital (Approximately 50% of the role)

Run the day-to-day activities of the principal’s early-stage investment operation. The investment focus includes biological agricultural inputs, crop technology, food technology, and related areas where existing production and distribution capabilities may create a strategic advantage.

The expected investment pace is approximately three to five transactions per year.

• Manage inbound deal flow and assess opportunities against the investment thesis.

• Conduct initial meetings independently and identify the most promising opportunities for further evaluation.

• Lead market research, competitive analysis, commercial assessment, and financial due diligence for shortlisted companies.

• Assess the evidence behind technical and scientific claims, drawing on external expertise where appropriate.

• Build, review, and challenge financial models, market assumptions, and business plans.

• Draft clear investment memoranda and due diligence summaries for the principal’s review.

• Coordinate term-sheet execution, external advisers, documentation, and closing processes.

• Monitor portfolio companies by tracking key performance indicators, identifying risks, and preparing materials for board and observer responsibilities.

• Maintain clear records of decisions, assumptions, outcomes, and lessons that can inform future investments.

• Balance speed with analytical quality, adapting the depth of review to the scale and risk of each opportunity.

The principal will become directly involved at the detailed due diligence stage for the strongest opportunities, lead the final investment decision, and handle term-sheet negotiations. You will own the process before and after those decision points.

Philanthropy (Approximately 20% of the role)

Support a private grant-making initiative focused on organisations working to reduce and ultimately end the use of farmed animals.

• Evaluate grant proposals against the initiative’s strategy and funding criteria.

• Assess organisational quality, leadership, financial sustainability, theory of change, and potential for meaningful impact.

• Distinguish between organisations whose work primarily maintains existing systems and those using near-term interventions as credible steps towards longer-term systemic change.

• Conduct proportionate due diligence and prepare clear grant recommendations for the principal.

• Monitor the grant portfolio, track progress and risks, and identify where further engagement or adaptation may be needed.

• Maintain constructive and professional communication with applicants and funded organisations.

• Capture and apply learning from grant outcomes to strengthen future funding decisions.

The principal will review detailed grant memoranda and make final funding decisions.

Qualifications

Required

• You bring relevant experience from management consulting, venture capital, private equity, investment banking, corporate strategy or finance, or an analytically demanding operating or founding role.

• You demonstrate strong and independent business judgement, with the ability to form and defend a view based on evidence rather than convention or pattern-matching alone.

• You have exceptional financial and quantitative skills, including experience building and reviewing financial models, interpreting management accounts, and working with incomplete or unstructured datasets.

• You bring experience conducting rigorous strategic, commercial, or investment analysis and translating complex information into clear recommendations.

• You demonstrate the judgement and integrity to decline financially attractive opportunities when they are not aligned with the underlying mission or investment thesis.

• You are strongly motivated by the transition away from farmed animals and towards scalable, sustainable, and regenerative food-system solutions.

• You communicate clearly and directly, including when raising concerns, challenging assumptions, or working through uncertainty.

• You demonstrate strong follow-through and take ownership from initial analysis through execution and monitoring.

• You are comfortable working with significant autonomy and ambiguity while keeping the principal informed of progress, risks, and decisions.

• You have the intellectual curiosity to understand sectors such as agricultural biotechnology, biological inputs, soil health, fermentation, crop technology, and food technology well enough to assess commercial and technical claims.

• You are fluent in German at C1 level or above and in English at C1 level or above.

• You are based in Hamburg or Berlin, or are willing to relocate.

• You are comfortable travelling within Germany and occasionally elsewhere in Europe, typically around once per month.

Preferred

• You have approximately three to six years of relevant professional experience. Candidates with a different level of experience may also be considered where they demonstrate the required judgement, analytical ability, and maturity.

• You bring direct experience in early-stage investing, transaction execution, or portfolio monitoring.

• You have prepared materials for boards, investment committees, senior executives, or shareholders.

• You have experience evaluating grant proposals, nonprofit organisations, or theories of change.

• You bring prior exposure to agricultural biotechnology, biological inputs, crop technology, fermentation, food technology, or related sectors.

• You have worked across business, investment, and mission-driven contexts.

• You demonstrate the ability to build trusted working relationships with senior stakeholders while maintaining an independent perspective.

We recognise that no candidate will match every qualification perfectly. Candidates who are excited by the role and meet most of the required criteria are encouraged to apply.

Benefits of Working With Our Partner

• 30 days of annual leave.

• Relocation support if you are moving to Hamburg or Berlin for the role.

• Annual budget for training, conferences, and external expertise, plus access to relevant investor and industry networks.

• Deutschlandticket covered.

Diversity Statement

ProVeg and the partner organisation welcome applications from people with different backgrounds, identities, experiences, and perspectives.

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, religion, colour, sex, age, national origin or ancestry, refugee background, genetic information, disability, marital status, parental status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, HIV status, gender identity, gender expression, or gender characteristics.

Reasonable adjustments can be made throughout the recruitment process. Candidates may indicate any support they require when applying.

Application Procedure

By submitting your application, you acknowledge that your application materials and personal data will be shared with the external partner organisation and the principal solely for the purpose of assessing and managing your application for this role, in accordance with the applicable privacy notice.

Please apply with your CV. Even if you do not meet all the requirements, we still encourage you to apply. Our tasks are diverse, and we are flexible in how we distribute them. We are happy to support your growth and development.

We also encourage all applicants to apply without a photo or disclosing their date or place of birth.