Head of Impact
EQL Tech · London · £50,000–£65,000 (stated in the posting)
Head of Impact | Zero Gravity | London-hybrid | £50k-£65k
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 have been 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
This is a fundraising role first. Zero Gravity runs a charitable fund alongside its core organisation, one that has already put real money behind disadvantaged young people. It now needs someone to take the Fund from well-run to genuinely ambitious by personally asking for the money: building relationships with banks, corporates, consultancies and major donors, and closing them.
You will also set the Fund's strategy directly with the CEO and the trustee board, and shape how impact lands on the ground, including new AI-enabled delivery models for under-resourced schools. You will work with the finance team and trustees to keep governance and reporting strong. This is a hands-on role in a lean, startup-paced team, not a traditional charity post.
Mission comes before everything else. We are looking for someone who has genuinely bought into closing the gap between where a young person starts and what they are capable of, and who would be doing something in this space even if this exact job did not exist. That conviction has to survive a hard trustee conversation or a funder who says no.
What you'll actually be doing
- Asking for the money yourself: going from a cold start to a committed corporate partner or major donor, and writing and pitching propositions that get funding moving
- Building and owning relationships with UK corporates, banks, consultancies, foundations and major donors, from first approach to long-term partner
- Setting the Fund's strategy directly with the CEO and trustees, weighing real options rather than executing a plan handed to you
- Designing how impact lands on the ground, including AI-enabled delivery models, working with product and engineering so the technology and the mission stay pointed at the same target
- Producing quarterly trustee board packs that stand up to scrutiny
- Working with the finance team to keep financial controls, audit preparation and reporting strong
- Building and leading a small team as the Fund grows
Where you will be
Central London, 3 to 5 days a week in the office.
Interview process
- Informal video discussion with EQL Tech, the recruitment partner running this search
- A task, then an in-person presentation to the Zero Gravity team
- A values interview with the COO, CEO and wider team
How to apply
Submit your CV and answer the short questions on the form. Every application is reviewed by hand.
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 carries equal weight with everything below. It is not a tie-breaker.
- You want to fundraise, and you are still doing it. Asking for money energises you and is a core part of what you want your week to look like.
- Direct experience asking for and closing funding from corporates and/or high-net-worth donors, personally sourced, pitched and closed, with examples from roughly the last five to seven years. Allocating a CSR budget or deciding who receives a grant is not the same thing: we need someone who has been on the asking side.
- You know the UK funder landscape: the corporates, banks, consultancies, foundations and major donors who fund education access. You already have relationships there, or you know exactly how you would open them.
- You have personally led a small team or operation day to day, not only held strategic or budget oversight inside a larger structure
- Real strategic ability: you can build a theory of change, not just recite the phrase
- Governance and financial discipline: you will not let ambition outrun the paperwork
- Hands-on fluency with AI tools, applied to real problems rather than as a buzzword on a CV
Strong signal, not a requirement
- Scaling partnerships from inside a tech company
- A corporate fundraising or partnerships background
- People management experience
- Startup-stage experience (roughly 20 to 100 people)
Benefits
Compensation, benefits & culture
- £50,000-£65,000, depending on experience
- Central London, hybrid (3-5 days a week in the office)
- Direct strategic input into a fund that is already moving meaningful money to the people it is 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
- 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 what holds the team, members, partners, donors and investors together as one community, and it shows up in how decisions actually get made.