European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) Food is a young and fast growing organisation focusing on entrepreneurship and innovation in the food sector. EIT Food is a start-up but has characteristics of a multinational and is operating in a European and international environment. You will be part of an international, dynamic and motivated team. The members of the EIT Food community are world-class players in the international food domain.
JOB DESCRIPTION:
We are looking for an experienced and dynamic Regional Startup Manager to join the Southern European team of EIT Food. The selected candidate will be responsible for designing and delivering a strategy to scout and support agrifood entrepreneurs from Southern Europe. Further, the candidate will be responsible for designing and delivering specific initiatives to support startups from across Europe, including our incubator and co-founder matching programme.
JOB AND CONTRACT TYPE:
The contract will be full time, and following a 6 month probationary period, this could led into unlimited duration. Employment contract with the subsidiary company EIT Food Basque, S.L. under the Spanish labor law.
LOCATION:
She or he will be based in the EIT Food Southern European team office in Bilbao. Business travel (up to 10 days per month) within Europe can be expected.
MANAGER/SUPERVISOR:
You will report to the Director of the Co-Location Centre and the Entrepreneurship Prorgramme Manager in CLC South.
EXPECTED START DATE:
The expected starting date is April 2021.
MAIN DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:
Building a Strong Network of Agrifood Startups in Southern Europe:
- Map the regional agrifood ecosystem and implement a plan of engagement activities and events with universities and institutions to recruit entrepreneurs and build a network of startups in the agri-food tech industry.
- Design and implement events to raise awareness of the EIT Food entrepreneurship programmes, and workshops to strengthen the quality of applications from entrepreneurs.
- Support the co-founder matching programme from design, scouting, matchmaking, delivering workshops, mentorship, advising on follow on funding etc.
- Build relationships with agrifood investors, industry partners and universities.
EIT Food Incubator programme at Bilbao Hub:
- Ensure the effective development and execution of the EIT Food Incubator programme at the Bilbao hub, ensuring that it is in line with the central strategy and that its delivery leads to the successful creation of Startup ventures in Southern Europe.
- Design and implement activities to help startups on the incubator to excel. This involves delivering training, connecting the entrepreneurs to an inspiring pool of mentors/coaches and building a network of experts and industry actors to help them grow during and after the incubator programme.
- Collaborate with the international partners delivering the incubator programme across Europe to ensure the programme’s success and constant improvement.
- Recruit, brief and support the startup coaches ensuring that they are guiding the entrepreneurs effectively.
- Provide continuous support to the startup teams, managing their milestones and ensuring their ongoing growth and development throughout the programme.
- Lead on the monitoring and evaluation to ensure learnings and improvements for the subsequent programmes.
Ensuring Effective Communications:
- Design and implement communication and outreach activities to scout exceptional early-stage entrepreneurs coming from other incubators, research organisations, universities (Technology Transfer Offices) and spin outs in Southern Europe.
- Provide content – including written, video, images etc – to promote and produce regular newsletters related to the EIT Food startup programmes.
- Manage and activate the online community engagement platform for the entrepreneurs and the alumni community.
- Design and implement networking events to showcase the entrepreneurs´ ventures and broaden their networks.
- Capture captivating stories and testimonials from participating startups in EIT Food’s programmes and provide support in the design and delivery of events.
- Support and design networking events to connect Startups with the regional industry network.
KEY SKILLS AND EXPERIENCES:
Qualifications
- Master degree or professional training related to entrepreneurship, innovation management and business management
- Knowledge of start-up business models and investment evaluation methodologies, as well as presentation techniques, confirmed by relevant experiences in technology or financial sector
- Professional education or experience related to agri-food sector is a clear plus
- Fluency in English and in Spanish. Additional Southern European languages will be considered.
- Very good command of Microsoft Office
Experience
- Minimum 4-5 years of relevant working experience related to start-ups, technology market and/or new business development
- Expertise and experience in the agrifood startup ecosystem is a clear plus
- International exposure and experiences in working with start-up ecosystems and communication for a wider network with different cultures
- A strong network of contacts with representatives of start-up community, venture capital funds, financial institutions and entrepreneurship support organisations within Southern Europe is highly desirable
- Experience in preparing business plans and/or project management is an asset
Skills and behaviour
We are looking for someone with the following traits:
- Demonstrable passion to build a more sustainable and healthier food system.
- Solid business judgment, orientation for progress, practical application of technical solutions, broad, flexible and interdisciplinary thinking
- Strong sense of ownership with proven record of delivering results
- Combining analytical thinking with creativity
- Proven ability to establish trust and good communication channels with international teams
- Ability to interact and communicate effectively with individuals at all levels of the organization and as facilitator of groups in workshops or conference formats
- Excellent verbal and written communication, presentation and persuasion skills for building alliances between stakeholders from industry, research education and public sector
- Proactive, independent and trustworthy
- Passion for continuous improvement
- Respectful of timelines and deadlines and attention for detail
- Active interest in the food sector
- Ability to work both independently and in small (multi-national) teams
- Organised, proactive, service-oriented and capable of multi-tasking
- Can-do attitude and willing and eager to learn and realise impact
- Excellent emotional intelligence skills
EIT FOOD OFFER:
EIT Food offers a competitive salary package consisting of a monthly salary and annual bonus. EIT Food also offers health care insurance and a generous holiday allowance.
We believe the balance between work and private life is very important. As such, we are flexible when it comes to working from home and fixed office hours.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES:
EIT Food is an equal opportunity employer, offering each candidate matching the minimum obligatory qualifications and experiences an equal chance in employment and promotion procedures.
DESCRIPTION OF EIT FOOD:
EIT Food is a consortium of partners from leading businesses, research centres and universities across Europe. It is a people-centric and resource-smart transformer of the European food system, driving consumer confidence and improved global health. 2017 is the start-up year of EIT Food. Though a start-up, EIT Food is operating in an international environment and has characteristics of a multinational.
EIT Food members have a strong belief that the food sector needs to be transformed and that this can only be achieved by reconnecting partners within the food sector and by giving the consumer a more central role. The main issues the food sector is facing are that it is complex, fragmented, slow to adopt new technologies, not attractive to new talent, and not resource efficient. An effective food sector is needed to address major societal issues and challenges: feeding 9-10 billion people in 2050; 3 billion overweight people; 2 billion undernourished people; more than 30% of food wasted.
EIT Food’s vision is to put Europe at the centre of a global revolution in food innovation and production, and its value in society. EIT Food will engage consumers in the change process, improve nutrition and make the food system more resource-efficient, secure, transparent and trusted. EIT Food has six strategic objectives:
- Overcome low consumer trust: support Europeans in the transition towards a smart food system that is inclusive and trusted;
- Create consumer valued food for healthier nutrition: enable individuals to make informed and affordable personal nutrition choices;
- Build a consumer-centric connected food system: develop a digital food supply network with consumers and industry as equal partners;
- Enhance sustainability: develop solutions to transform the traditional ‘produceuse-dispose’ model into a circular bio-economy;
- Educate to engage, innovate and advance: Provide ‘food system’ skills for more than 10,000 students, entrepreneurs and professionals through advanced training programmes.
- Catalyse food entrepreneurship and innovation: foster innovation at all stages of business creation.
EIT Food boosts the skills and entrepreneurial spirit in the sector and unlocks the potential of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), which in turn will accelerate innovation, create jobs, benefit businesses and increase Europe’s competitiveness.
The pan-European EIT Food KIC is headquartered in Belgium and its partnership brings together change-makers in all relevant sectors and fields. EIT Food is well positioned to achieve the maximum impact on the challenges outlined above. The highly committed partnership will conceive, develop, evaluate and adopt new market-oriented approaches to innovation.
It is structured around five Co-Location Centres (CLCs) established in Reading (with partners from the UK, Ireland and Iceland), Warsaw (with partners from Eastern Europe and Nordic countries), Madrid/Bilbao (with partners from the Mediterranean area, from Portugal to Israel), Leuven (with partners from Belgium, France and Switzerland) and Munich (with partners from Germany and the Netherlands).
EIT Food is structured as a Belgian “international non-profit association” (“internationale vereniging zonder winstoogmerk – ivzw”) based in Leuven. The KIC has a Supervisory Board and a Management Team.
APPLICATION:
Interested candidates are asked to submit their CV and motivation letter (both in English) into our CV Warehouse before March 15th 2021 via the "Apply" button.
Shortlisted candidates may be invited for an interview. Shortlisted candidates may be asked to prove their background, qualifications, skills and experiences by providing relevant documents.
English (United States)