Advisor/Prospective Co-Founder for Renewable Energy Venture (Open Application)

This is an open application for expressions of interest to join DSV as an Advisor or Co-Founder in Residence for an early stage renewable energy venture currently being developed at DSV. Co-Founder in Residence role will be full-time, with start date in Q1 2025. We're open to the possibility of a candidate joining as an Advisor initially (asap), then transitioning into the Co-Founder in Residence role.

We are seeking applications from experienced industry, startup and/or new engineering based technology development professionals from anywhere in the world to work with us on this venture.

You’ll work closely with the DSV team and the current Founder in Residence for this area to spin-out a new company by end of Q2 2025.

The Opportunity

Our mission is to tackle the 37% of global greenhouse gas emissions caused by electricity production, while preparing for a future where electricity demand is expected to triple by 2050 under a net-zero scenario. Current renewable energy technologies like wind and solar are vital to the transition but face critical barriers in ensuring reliable, 24/7 power due to their intermittency. The challenge of achieving constant clean power at scale remains unsolved.

To address this, we are focused on next-generation large-scale, long-duration energy storage and constant generation technologies like enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). However, several key challenges remain:

• Storage Duration: While lithium-ion batteries can help with short-term storage, long-duration energy storage (e.g., days to weeks) that is cost-effective and scalable remains elusive.
• Cost Parity: Achieving price competitiveness between intermittent renewable energy (with storage) and traditional fossil-fired baseload power sources is a major hurdle for high-power industrial consumers. 

In addition to contributing to decarbonisation, these technologies have the potential to reshape dependence on centralized grid infrastructure and enable more resilient industrial energy systems. While we are committed to solving these challenges for high-power industrial complexes (e.g. data centers, aluminum smelters, mining operations), solutions will have broad applicability across the global energy system, setting the stage for more reliable, year-round clean energy.

Your Role

As a technical Advisor you will provide engineering and technical expertise to support technology development for accelerating industrial decarbonisation, incl. (but not limited to):

• Analysing technical constraints facing current mechanical energy storage systems (e.g gravity storage, compressed air) or next-generation geothermal technologies (e.g. drilling, heat extraction, well completion);
• Help with the design, development, and optimisation of candidate solutions that address these constraints. 

As a Co-founder your role will go beyond engineering to include commercial strategy and techno-commercial alignment i.e.:

• Driving customer discovery, engaging with industrial stakeholders to build relations, and ensure solutions meet real-world needs and are scalable;
• Developing the technology roadmap and assessing readiness of various concepts from prototype to demonstration phase;
• Engaging with and converting early-stage investors/VCs, ensuring the company is well-positioned for pre-seed to Series A milestones.

If you begin as an Advisor, there will be an opportunity to transition to a co-founder role within several months depending on early stage technology development progress. Alternatively, it will also be possible to remain as an Advisor if that better aligns with your goals and interests as well as the interests of the company. 

Requirements

Who Should Apply

Most suitable candidates will meet multiple of the following criteria:

• Previously led or managed commercial delivery of an innovative engineering, industrial, or hardware technology/ies in energy storage or geothermal systems (or similar), with background in mechanical engineering, physics, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics or related fields;
• Proven experience in the design and analysis of high-power mechanical systems (e.g. energy storage systems, turbines, heat engines);
• Deep understanding and practical application of thermodynamic cycles and fluid dynamics in high-temperature and high-pressure environments;
• A practical, ideally hands-on, understanding of mechanical energy storage or enhanced geothermal systems;
• A strong understanding of energy markets and the dynamics of energy storage business models;
• A strong existing network and experience working with industrial customers, infrastructure investors or grid operators;
• Proven ability to translate technical innovations from concept through prototype development to demonstration, ideally in startup or fast-growth environments;
• Broad understanding of technical product development and commercialisation;
• Experience in raising funds from early stage investors/VC.

Cultural alignement:

• You have a bias for action and thrive in a fast-paced environment, comfortable making decisions quickly to drive progress;
• You are ambitious and have a strong desire to play an important role in a new, impactful company from the ground up, taking ownership of both challenges and opportunities;
• You are deeply motivated by the mission to mitigate climate change and eager to contribute to breakthrough technologies that will make a real impact on global emissions. 

Climate change affects everyone, but engineering and technology are not diverse enough. We strongly encourage women, people of colour, LGBTQIA+, veterans, parents, and individuals with disabilities to apply. 

Benefits

Our Offer

By joining DSV, you will be part of a team of operators who have founded companies and led the translation of science at some of the most respected universities, charities, funds, and government agencies. Here’s what we offer:

• Access to optimised, purpose-built, proprietary tools, resources, and processes to help create high-impact ventures from scratch;
• Opportunity area-specific know-how from our network of Partners and Advisors;
• Up to £250k in investment to incorporate the new venture and develop early proof-of-concept data;
• Equity stake in the new venture;
• Co-Founder in Residence joining full-time additionally paid £4,166 per month paid as a consultancy fee until the company is launched and the pre-seed investment is secured;
• Continuous post-spinout support, including fundraising, commercial partnerships, recruitment, and team-building;
• Collaborative support from dozens of Founders currently at DSV across sectors.

About DSV

Deep Science Ventures is creating a future in which both humans and the planet can thrive.

We use our unique venture creation process to create, spin-out and invest into science companies, combining available scientific knowledge and founder-type scientists into high-impact ventures.

We operate in 4 sectors: Pharmaceuticals, Climate, Agriculture and Computation, tackling the challenges defining those areas by taking a first principles approach and partnering with leading institutions.