Sr. Government Affairs & Policy Lead

About the role

This role reports directly to the CEO of ispace Europe and will work in tandem with our existing Senior Government Affairs & Policy Lead. The successful candidate will bring a strategic mindset, strong institutional instincts, and the ability to operate in an intercultural environment. It is aimed at building institutional momentum, creating opportunities, and helping Europe move faster on the Moon.

Key responsibilities

• Collaborate with the CEO on developing and leading the execution of ispace Europe’s Government Affairs strategy, ensuring alignment with group priorities and EMEA corporate objectives.
• Drive high‑level engagement across EMEA space agencies, EU institutions, ministries, embassies, and industry associations to create 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 policy positions for external messaging to intergovernmental organizations and national governments.
• Identify, structure, and formalize strategic partnerships with intergovernmental programs, public‑private consortia, and institutional customers.
• Prepare briefing materials, speeches, talking points, position papers, and stakeholder engagement plans for senior leadership.
• Represent ispace Europe in external meetings, industry forums, delegations, and high‑level stakeholder engagements.

Required profile

• Master’s degree in public affairs, political science, communications or equivalent.
• At least 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 with personal ownership expectations.
• Commercial mindset linking government affairs to mission creation, public‑sector revenue and strategic partnerships.
• Fluency in English; additional fluency in German, Italian or another language is an asset.