Founder in Residence, Building the grid 10x faster (Engineer)

Across the UK, US and Europe, electricity transmission networks face an unprecedented construction challenge. Decarbonisation targets and the electrification of heat, transport, and industry require a dramatic expansion of high-voltage overhead lines - yet the construction methods used to build transmission towers have barely changed in half a century. Lattice steel towers are fabricated in large sections, transported by heavy goods vehicles and erected using mobile cranes that can cost £300K-£750K per project mobilisation. Foundations are over-designed because site-specific geotechnical data is too expensive to gather at scale.

Most cost-reduction efforts remain anchored in incremental optimisation: slightly lighter steelwork, marginally faster crane cycles. These leave the fundamental cost structure intact. Mass-dependent items - steel, concrete, transport, cranage and installation labour - still account for 35-45% of total line CAPEX. For transmission operators facing the scale of the UK's ASTI programme, or equivalent US and European grid expansion, incremental savings are not enough.

We believe one of the most promising directions is fragmentation and modularity: decomposing transmission towers into standardised, factory-produced modules - small enough for conventional transport, light enough to assemble without heavy plant, designed for rapid field connection by semi-skilled labour. This approach has the potential to address not only the direct costs of tower erection and foundation installation, but the cascading cost drivers that inflate transmission project budgets: crane mobilisation, road upgrades for heavy transport, weather-dependent construction windows, skilled labour shortages and field operations risk premiums.

The commercial space remains wide open. Existing tower manufacturers and EPC contractors are optimised for the current paradigm and face strong institutional incentives to preserve it. Transmission owners are under acute regulatory and political pressure to build faster and cheaper but lack internal innovation capacity to drive a paradigm shift. The UK's ASTI programme alone requires £20B+ of new overhead line construction over the coming decade. Similar build-out pressures exist across the US and Europe.

Ultimately, the opportunity isn't to build a better transmission tower - it's to reinvent how transmission infrastructure gets built, so grids can expand an order of magnitude faster and at dramatically lower cost. It's plausible to think about building a construction productivity company for high-voltage transmission, with the wedge being fragmentation/modularity of towers and foundations.

One of the hardest parts of building an infrastructure company is securing meaningful industry access. We've already partnered with one of the world's largest transmission owners to back this opportunity. This partnership leverages their deep domain access and position as one of the world’s largest transmission owners to provide founders with unparalleled market insight and a direct route to first customers.

You will join DSV’s venture creation programme as a Founder-in-Residence and work closely with the DSV and the Partner’s team to co-found a new company. During the programme you will critically evaluate, refine, challenge and extend existing scoping work:

• The technical thesis for approaches that fragment or modularise transmission tower and foundation construction, enabling off-site manufacture, rapid deployment, and reduced dependence on heavy plant (neglect and technical tractability);
• Commercial neglect (IP strategy, differentiation, competition);
• Value proposition (market, value capture, techno-economics);
• Regulatory strategy & positioning;
• Fundraising strategy & pitching;
• Optimising company strategy for the most rapid and de-risked path to Series A.

Preparation for Investment Committee (IC) will involve fulfilling our investment criteria, recruiting advisory and co-founding team members, and parallel fundraising for additional expansion funds.

Assuming success at IC, you will receive pre-seed investment and spinout the company in Q4 2027. You and your co-founders will own a significant stake in the business and continue receiving support post-spinout.

• Full project lifecycle experience in grid, energy or large infrastructure construction
• Hands-on regulatory navigation (UK/EU/USA)
• A prototype or field trial you personally shipped, or a type-test/standards-compliant data package you delivered
• Experience designing products or systems for manufacture, field deployment or installation at scale (DfMA, modular construction or equivalent)

• BD/partnerships experience in energy infrastructure/construction
• Founder, C-suite or technical leadership experience building and commercialising deep-tech, construction-tech or industrial products.

By joining DSV, you’ll be joining a team of operators who have founded companies and led translation of science at some of the most respected universities, charities, funds and government agencies. 2/3 of the team have founded or led a company at C-suite and 65% have a PhD. Our team dedicate several hours every week to each Founder or founding team to provide tailored guidance, resources and feedback covering every aspect of what it takes to successfully launch a new venture from both the tech and commercial perspectives:

• We provide optimised, purpose-built, proprietary tools, resources and processes to help create high-impact ventures from scratch, using our venture creation methodology;
• DSV and the Partners’ extensive network incl. leaders of energy infrastructure, transmission operators, EPC contractors, technical & commercial domain expertise, and wide-ranging portfolio company capabilities;
• We jointly provide an initial £250k (~$340k / €290k) investment governed by our Investment Committee to incorporate the new venture and develop early proof-of-concept data that is often needed to attract high profile non-venture studio VCs. This funding is also key for obtaining grant funding, which often needs to be matched with private investment;
• You and your co-founder(s) together will own the majority equity stake in the company;
• We provide minimum guaranteed income of £4,166 per month (fixed), paid to each Founder as a consultancy fee until the company is launched and pre-seed investment is secured;
• We provide continuous support post spin-out, including fundraising, commercial partnerships, recruitment and team-building (amongst other things);
• Other Founders currently at DSV across sectors working collaboratively and supporting one another - a unique resource to draw on.

Deep Science Ventures (DSV) is on a mission to create a future in which both humans and the planet can thrive. We use our unique venture creation process to create, spin-out, and invest in science companies, combining available scientific knowledge and founder-type scientists into high-impact ventures. Operating in four sectors - Pharmaceuticals, Climate, Agriculture, and Computation - we tackle the challenges defining these areas by taking a first principles approach and partnering with leading institutions.