Sr. Government Affairs & Policy Lead

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Collaborate with CEO on developing and leading the execution of ispace Europe’s Government Affairs strategy, ensuring alignment with ispace Group priorities and EMEA corporate objectives.
• Drive high-level engagement across EMEA space agencies, EU institutions, ministries, embassies, and industry associations, that translate into the creation of new business opportunities and projects.
• Translate political, budgetary, programmatic, and regulatory developments into actionable business recommendations.
• Shape institutional demand and budgets, for lunar transportation, surface mobility, data services, communications, space resources, and future lunar infrastructure.
• Develop and disseminate ispace policy positions in collaboration with executive leadership for external messaging to intergovernmental organizations and national government bodies.
• Identify, structure, and formalize strategic partnerships with intergovernmental programs, public-private consortia, and institutional customers.
• Develop briefing materials, speeches, talking points, position papers, meeting read-aheads, and stakeholder engagement plans for senior leadership.
• Collaborate with Engineering, Communications, Legal and Global Government Affairs colleagues on bid processes, strategy development, regulatory opinions, etc.
• Collaborate with Business development by contributing institutional customer knowledge, stakeholder engagements, and feedback.
• Represent ispace Europe in external meetings, industry fora, delegations, and high level stakeholder engagements.
• Actively increase visibility and participation of ispace Europe in key events and fora through session organization and proposal submissions.

KEY REQUIREMENTS

• Master's degree in public affairs, political science, communications or equivalent.
• 7 years of experience in government affairs, public affairs, institutional business development, diplomacy or a closely related field.
• Strong understanding of the EMEA institutional landscape, including ESA, national space agencies, EU institutions, ministries, public funding mechanisms, and policy-making processes.
• Proven ability to engage senior public-sector stakeholders with credibility, discretion, and excellent judgment.
• Ability to work autonomously in a small, high-trust team where there is no heavy hierarchy, no large support staff, and a strong expectation of personal ownership.
• Commercial mindset: understands that Government Affairs must support mission creation, public-sector revenue, strategic partnerships, and long-term market shaping.
• Fluency in English; fluency in German, Italian or another language is an asset.