Description : Associate. Company : QuantSpark. Location : Hybrid remote in London SE1

Salary: £30,000 - £40,000 per annum

Contract type: Full-time, permanent.

Location: Hybrid working at our London office or fully remote

Overview:

QuantSpark is looking for an ambitious individual at the start or early into their career to work directly with our Commercial Manager as we build out a standalone commercial team to drive QuantSpark’s revenue and growth strategy. We’ve doubled our revenues and headcount in the last 12 months alone – this is an exciting time to join our scaleup journey and gain hands-on business and managerial experience.

QuantSpark’s Commercial team has a wide remit: from winning new work to designing analytics engagements to driving QuantSpark’s own internal strategy. This is a new standalone function of the business which is divided into three key services: Lead Generation, Deals, and Account Management.

Selling at QuantSpark is not down to relentless cold calling, we use a strong referral network to generate business, so success in the role comes from robust relationship management, a keen ability to separate what a client wants from what they need, and the ability to turn a simple intro into a longstanding partnership.

The ideal candidate will be independent, a logical and strategic thinker and have a keen sense of opportunity.

About us:

QuantSpark itself is a strategic data science and analytics consultancy based in London whose mission is to use analytics and software development to improve commercial decision making and drive financial impact. Our clients include mid-market and large-cap Private Equity funds and their portfolio companies, asset, and investment managers with over £50bn AUM, cutting edge SaaS businesses and global retail brands. Our work speaks for itself:

• Generating $3.8m in revenue uplift over a 6-month period using machine learning to optimise a retail client’s global supply chain.
• Increasing a B2B price comparison service’s sale by £1m+ over two years using a lead scoring model to predict which customers were most likely to pick up the phone to a sales consultant.
• Using location intelligence to identify and map vegan customers for a leading UK Supermarket as part of our work creating a bespoke, multimillion-pound analytics platform to drive their business operations.

The role

The role will initially focus on supporting the Deals team craft and win client proposals, where we’ll develop both your consulting and sales skills with a broad, strategic mindset. The work is as much understanding and planning how we will deliver a project and measure its success in line with project management methodologies, as it is successfully selling the proposal to a client.

We work with individuals from varied backgrounds such as investors, managers, and technology experts which means you’ll need to confidently be able to educate varying partners on which QuantSpark service suits their needs regardless of their background or knowledge of data.

Beyond that you will have a front row seat as we build out QuantSpark’s Commercial function and client services. This will include a blend of strategy, sales, and marketing projects. Over time, we would expect you to deputise for the Commercial Manager whilst offering the flexibility for you to select and carve out a specialism that suits your skillset and career interests.

We are keen to find someone who can show initiative and take on responsibility quickly.

What’s in it for you?

Today’s business leaders need to demonstrate three key skills: they know how to make money for the business, they can design and execute strategic projects, and they know how to use data to drive decision making. Through exposure to our projects, on-the-job learning, and structure training, we aim to equip you with all three.

Within its sector QuantSpark is a career accelerator. Our team have gone on to a range of companies, both clients and beyond, including Hg Capital, Permira, and OC&C Strategy Consultants. You can expect this role to open opportunities within the worlds of private equity, consultancy, or our target industries such as software (SaaS) and financial services.

Day to day tasks and responsibilities may include:

• Win new business: lead the sales process from intro calls to negotiating terms and closing the deal.
• Take the long view: turn short term engagements into long term partnerships
• Autonomously craft projects and commercial terms within agreed frameworks
• Work with delivery teams to understand our products and services and create compelling sales and marketing materials.
• Take an active interest in the development of the commercial team, whether that's within deals, lead gen, or account management.
• Support with sales outreach (events, LinkedIn etc).
• Supporting and eventually leading strategic analysis such as competitor analysis to identify threats to our business or white space analysis to identify growth areas.
• Own our sales CRM tools to ensure they are accurately reflecting our current sales pipeline.

Experience & skills required:

• A university degree at 2:1 or above; degree subject not prescribed.
• Sales experience (B2B, software, services, complex sales cycle) - beneficial if across different industries and stakeholder groups
• A strategic mindset: what are we getting out of each interaction? How does it move us closer to the ultimate goal? How do we turn short term engagements into long term partnerships?
• Exceptional problem-solving abilities
• Willingness to go beyond sales: help us develop QuantSpark's offering, products and services, and long-term business strategy
• Relationship builder: both with clients + internal teams
• Evidence of management potential
• Excellent written and verbal communication: able to simplify complex ideas effectively

Who you are:

We will be looking for evidence of potential in the following areas:

• Logical, structured thinking – how do you assess situations, make decisions, and solve problems?
• Ownership & work ethic – working in a scale up offers independence but requires responsibility. Can you be relied upon to deliver?
• Analytical mindset - How have you personally driven sales & what were your outputs?
• Entrepreneurialism – can you take advantage of opportunities as they arise?
• A sense for salesmanship – can you communicate a complex issue in a simple fashion?
• A growth mindset – can you learn from your mistakes and adapt your ways of working to suit changing situations?

Tools we use:

Knowledge of these is not a prerequisite for the role but we encourage the successful candidate to

brush up on their skills in order to hit the ground running.

• Asana – for project management and OKR tracking
• Confluence – for documentation and as a company wiki
• PowerPoint – for proposal creation

Benefits

• A hands-on role in a thriving scale-up with plenty of opportunities to shape your role.
• Friendly, open, and transparent culture.
• Unparalleled training & conference budget of £500 per month to help you upskill and develop your career as well as 12 days per year set aside for training.
• Enrolment into EMI Share Options scheme.
• Flexible hours and hybrid working; work from home or our office.
• Option to work from abroad for up to one month each year.
• Top tier Private Healthcare.
• Numerous, perks, discounts, and rewards.
• 25 days holiday, plus Bank Holidays.
• Pension contribution scheme.
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Opportunity to work on social impact & pro bono strategy projects.
• Optional monthly socials, dinners, and fun nights out.
• A fully stocked supply of breakfast, fruit, and refreshments for the days when you are in the office.

What the team say

Joining a new company can be equal parts daunting and exciting, it can be hard to tell if a company will be right for you, here are some snippets of recent feedback from our team members:

• “I really appreciate the ownership and ability to influence and shape from day one,the engagement with people is felt from across the business which is brilliant as it’s an open door to make an impact.”
• “There’s good support and an excellent training budget. The other thing I like is how good people are at their job, which gives you the chance to learn from the best.”
• “It’s a culture where everybody just wants to get stuck right in and start building something brilliant, the openness and transparency provided from Senior Leadership Team also really helps everyone feel like their ideas are valued and incorporated into the companies next steps.”

Equal Opportunities

We strongly believe that diversity of people and ideas is essential for the wellbeing and effectiveness of our team, and we are committed to creating a company where diversity in culture, experience and background are truly valued. Diverse and inclusive teams bring different perspectives and ideas that help better serve our clients and help us all develop. QuantSpark is an equal opportunities employer and as such makes every effort to ensure that all potential employees are treated fairly and equally, regardless of their sex, sexual orientation, marital status, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion, age, or disability.