Overview
Role Type: Contract / Project-Based (with potential for staff conversion)
Location: Remote with some travel/onsite
Engagement Duration: 6 months
This role supports a 6-month innovation sprint for a major industrial client, culminating in two investment-ready business plans with proof-of-concept (POC) designs. The position requires building the analytical foundation that ensures these plans are credible and defensible.
Responsibilities
- Develop and maintain the project's analytical infrastructure, including market sizing models (TAM/SAM/SOM), competitive landscapes, and unit economics frameworks tailored to project specifics
- Create financial logic for 5–8 opportunity areas at the first investment committee (IC#1), covering market size, illustrative business model economics, and key value-creation hypotheses
- Build unit economics models for shortlisted solution concepts during Phase 3, including revenue, cost of goods sold (COGS), gross margin, and sensitivity analyses under various assumptions
- Construct two comprehensive 3-year profit & loss (P&L), cash flow, and capital requirement models for IC#3, including base case and downside scenarios with documented assumptions
- Size the POC financial requirements for each solution, detailing capital caps, cost structures, and funding-to-milestone logic
- Conduct competitive intelligence by mapping existing players, identifying whitespace, and assessing the defensibility of proposed models
- Support investment committee presentation development by creating exhibit-quality slides that translate complex analyses into clear, decision-ready formats
- Maintain an assumptions log tracking critical financial and market assumptions that could invalidate business models if incorrect
- Perform independent quality assurance (QA) reviews of financial model assumptions and calculations prior to IC#3
Requirements
- 4–6 years of experience in management consulting (e.g., BCG, McKinsey, Bain, or equivalent), investment banking, or private equity with demonstrated financial modeling expertise
- Proven experience building financial models for early-stage or venture-backed businesses, not solely established companies with historical data
- Strong skills in market sizing and competitive analysis, including the ability to build bottoms-up market models from operator volume data and buyer capacity
- Ability to synthesize ambiguous qualitative inputs (such as ethnographic research) into quantifiable assumptions and sensitivity ranges
- Structured communication skills with precision in writing and presenting; capable of creating exhibits that convey information clearly without narration
- Comfortable working in a high-velocity, time-boxed environment, able to build credible models quickly while clearly distinguishing assumptions from data
- Experience in energy, industrials, infrastructure, water, or related sectors is a strong plus
- Familiarity with venture or innovation sprint environments, understanding when "good enough to decide" is an appropriate standard
Success Criteria
- IC#1 opportunity area analysis is rigorous enough to support credible funding allocation decisions across multiple options
- Unit economics models for shortlisted solutions withstand stress-testing by investment committee members and external investors
- Two IC#3 financial models pass independent QA and are ready for investor circulation
- POC financial scoping is specific and defensible enough to be included in funding requests
Location
Remote with some travel/onsite as required
Engagement
6-month contract/project-based engagement with potential for staff conversion