The posting
Head of Impact | Zero Gravity | London-hybrid | £50k-£60k
Who Zero Gravity are
Zero Gravity is a tech platform connecting students from low-income backgrounds to university and career opportunities - over 23,000 students supported into top universities to date. In April 2026 they launched an AI-powered tutor, already showing strong early engagement and attainment results, and have since won a government contract to scale it across the UK.
EQL Tech is Zero Gravity's exclusive recruitment partner for this search - all applications and enquiries for this role are handled by EQL Tech on Zero Gravity's behalf.
The role
Zero Gravity runs a charitable fund alongside its core organisation - one that's already put real money behind disadvantaged young people, and is now looking for someone to take it from "well-run" to "genuinely ambitious." That's this role.
You'll set strategy directly with the CEO and the trustee board, then go and build the funding relationships - banks, consultancies, foundations, major donors - that make that strategy fundable. You'll also design what the impact actually looks like on the ground, including new AI-enabled delivery models for under-resourced schools. And underneath all of it, you're the person keeping governance and the books airtight enough that none of the above is at risk.
It's an unusual mix: part strategist, part fundraiser, part governance lead, and - because the Fund's delivery model increasingly runs through the organisation's own AI-tutoring technology - part product collaborator too. Most people are strong at one of those. This role needs someone credible across all of them.
Mission comes before everything else here. Zero Gravity doesn't treat "passionate about impact" as a nice-to-have line on a CV - they're looking for someone who's genuinely bought into closing the gap between where a young person starts and what they're capable of, and who'd be doing something in this space even if this exact job didn't exist. That conviction has to be real enough to survive a hard trustee conversation or a funder who says no, not just a values-fit answer in an interview.
What you'll actually be doing
- Setting the Fund's strategy directly with the CEO and Trustees - genuinely weighing the options on the table, not just executing a plan handed down to you
- Designing how impact actually lands on the ground, including new AI-enabled delivery models, and working cross-functionally with product and engineering so the technology and the mission stay pointed at the same target
- Building funder relationships from a cold start to committed - banks, consultancies, foundations, major donors - and shaping what they're already doing into propositions that get grant applications over the line
- Running charity governance end to end, including quarterly trustee board packs built to hold up under real scrutiny, not just tick a box
- Owning the numbers day to day - financial controls, treasury, audit prep, VAT - so ambition never outruns what the books can actually support
- Building and growing a small team, including the people side of that as it scales, not just holding the reins
Where you'll be
Central London, 3-5 days/week in the office.
Requirements
Who we're looking for
Non-negotiable
- Genuine, demonstrable belief in the mission - closing the gap between talent and opportunity for young people the system has overlooked. This is weighted equally with the criteria below, not a tie-breaker: someone brilliant on paper who's lukewarm on why this work matters isn't right for this role.
- UK-based, with the right to work here without sponsorship - the in-office schedule makes this a hard requirement, not a preference
- Comfortable owning genuinely ambiguous work with no existing playbook - this means you've personally led a small team or operation day-to-day, not just held strategic or budget oversight inside a larger structure (changed)
- Can personally source, pitch and close a funding or partnership relationship with a senior funder from a cold start - allocating a corporate CSR budget or deciding who receives a grant doesn't count on its own; we need someone who's been on the asking side, not just the giving side (changed)
- Can write and pitch a funding proposition that actually gets money moving, not just a well-formatted deck
- Real strategic chops - you can build a theory of change, not just recite the phrase
- Governance and financial discipline - you won't let the ambition outrun the paperwork
- Real, hands-on fluency with AI tools, applied to actual problems rather than as a buzzword on a CV
Strong signal, not a requirement
- Experience scaling partnerships from inside a tech company
- A corporate fundraising or partnerships background
- People management experience
- Startup-stage experience (roughly 20-100 people)
Benefits
Compensation, benefits & culture
- £50,000-£60,000, depending on experience
- Central London, hybrid (3-5 days/week in office)
- Direct strategic input into a fund that's already moving meaningful money to the people it's meant to help - not a junior seat several steps removed from the mission
- Share options - genuine ownership in the business, not a token gesture
- Private healthcare, including dental and mental health support, plus gym discounts
- An annual personal-development allowance to spend on your own growth
- Flexible working around the in-office requirement, with equipment set up so you can do your best work from day one
- Fortnightly team socials on the house, plus bigger quarterly events
- 25 days' annual leave plus bank holidays, with extra days off over the Christmas shutdown
Values aren't a poster on the wall here - they're genuinely what holds the team, members, partners, donors and investors together as one community, and it shows up in how decisions actually get made, not just in the induction deck.
How to apply: Submit your CV via the link below. Every application is reviewed by hand.
Interview process
- Informal video discussion with EQL Tech - the recruitment partner running this search
- Initial video call with the hiring manager
- A task-based interview - your chance to actually show what doing this job well looks like, not just talk about it
- Values interview with the COO, CEO, and wider team
