Full-Time
Strategy Lead
Retail Investments
Posted on 10/4/2025
Octopus Investments
201-500 employees
Invests retail and institutional clients' capital
No salary listed
London, UK
In Person
 Business & Strategy (1) |
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- Proven experience in a senior product, strategy, or business leadership role within financial services, with deep expertise in retail tax-advantaged products, including knowledge of regulatory rules and ability to analyse performance and scenarios through this lens.
- Strong financial modelling and analysis skills, with proven ability to build, stress-test, and interpret complex models to support investment decisions, scenario planning, and product performance evaluation.
- An understanding of FCA regulations, governance frameworks, and board-level reporting, with experience in turnaround, product, or investment strategy.
- Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills, with experience engaging at board and executive level.
- Commercially minded with a track record of driving product growth and innovation.
- Background in venture capital, investment management, or financial product development.
- Define, innovate and execute the long-term strategies for retail tax products, ensuring alignment with Octopus’ broader business objectives and market opportunities, while embedding Consumer Duty principles to consistently deliver good outcomes for investors.
- Build commercially focused strategies for products, focusing on growth and retention. Act as the accountable owner for delivery of the strategic plan, reporting progress and outcomes to the external Board. Able to build and analyse financial models of the product to assess commercial opportunities, including AUM, retention and revenue.
- Lead cross-functional teams to deliver on strategic priorities, including product development, operational enhancements, and regulatory initiatives.
- Monitor market trends, competitor activity, and regulatory developments to ensure Octopus products remain competitive and compelling for investors. Identify, size, and test new market opportunities, product enhancements, and strategic partnerships to drive sustainable growth.
- Build strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders, including senior leadership, regulators, advisers, and investors.
- Act as a liaison with the external Boards, reviewing, preparing and presenting board papers where appropriate.
- The ideal candidate will be accountancy qualified (e.g. ACA, ACCA, CIMA, CFA) or hold an MBA from a recognised institution.
Octopus Investments manages about 12.8 billion pounds from both retail and institutional investors. It invests in people, ideas, and industries that can change the world, focusing on three themes: empowering people, revitalising healthcare, and building a sustainable planet. For individuals, it offers products such as Venture Capital Trusts, Enterprise Investment Schemes, Business Relief-qualifying investments, and listed UK small- and medium-sized company funds. For institutions, it manages investments across five specialist asset classes: renewable energy, sustainable infrastructure, real estate, healthcare, and venture capital. Octopus Real Estate and Octopus Ventures operate under the same Octopus umbrella. The company aims to grow capital while directing funds toward areas that deliver measurable social and environmental impact, helping clients achieve their financial goals while supporting positive change.
Company Size
201-500
Company Stage
N/A
Total Funding
$68.2M
Headquarters
London, United Kingdom
Founded
2000
Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Budget expands VCT limits, enabling £30M fundraise for AIM VCTs.
- FTSE Small Cap yields rise to 4.41% by 2026, exceeding FTSE 100.
- FTSE AIM delivers 22% earnings growth to 2025 at 13x P/E versus Nasdaq's 23.9x.
What critics are saying
- Prolonged J-curve in 2022 Future Generations VCT erodes returns, triggers redemptions in 6-12 months.
- HarbourVest secondaries divert investors from Octopus VCTs with faster liquidity in 12-18 months.
- UK AIM valuation gap persists, stagnating Netcall share prices versus FTSE Small Cap in 6-12 months.
What makes Octopus Investments unique
- Octopus Investments manages £12.8 billion across sustainable planet, healthcare, and empowering people themes.
- Octopus AIM VCTs, launched 1997 and 2005, hold over 70 AIM-listed growth companies like Netcall.
- Octopus Future Generations VCT, started 2022, targets early-stage innovative firms in three themes.
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Benefits
Flexible Work Hours
Company News
Vulcan Two Group, a company building the UK's leading regulated ePharmacy through acquisitions, has raised £40 million in gross proceeds through an oversubscribed placing of 20 million new ordinary shares at 200 pence per share. The fundraising attracted strong support from existing and new institutional investors. The net proceeds will fund acquisitions, provide working capital for the enlarged group and support bolt-on acquisitions and future trading growth. Related parties including Octopus Investments Limited, Gresham House Asset Management and Dowgate Group Limited conditionally subscribed for significant portions of the placing shares. The acquisitions and placing require shareholder approval at a general meeting scheduled for 17 March 2026. Canaccord Genuity acted as nominated adviser, sole bookrunner and sole broker for the transaction.
Milan-based startup Bricks.sh has raised €1.6 million in a pre-seed round led by Primo Capital to automate the creation of internal admin panels using AI. Octopus First Cheque Fund, Eden Ventures, Vesper Holding, Vento and several angel investors participated. The company addresses a common problem where engineering teams spend weeks or months building internal tools for refunds, subscriptions and user management—work that consumes development time without generating revenue. Bricks.sh's platform aims to eliminate the trade-off between speed and customisation in internal tool development. The startup, which has launched its public beta alongside the funding announcement, will use the capital to expand its team and grow its global customer base whilst improving its core product.
Octopus Investments has opened a £30 million fundraise for its two Alternative Investment Market VCTs. The investment manager aims to capitalise on the expanded investment limits announced in the recent Budget. AIM currently hosts over 620 companies across more than 40 sectors, with a combined worth exceeding £63 billion. The platform has served as a crucial funding source for UK smaller companies since its 1995 launch. The Octopus AIM VCTs, established in 1997 and 2005 respectively, offer investors exposure to portfolios spanning over 70 AIM-listed businesses at various maturity stages. The VCTs combine potential long-term growth from smaller companies with tax benefits, providing instant diversification across multiple growth-stage firms, many of which pay dividends. Portfolio holdings include Netcall, a software company specialising in digital transformation solutions.
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Welcome to our new Ask Octopus column, written by Tax Product Specialist at Octopus Investments, Toyin Oyeneyin. This is where, each quarter, we will tackle some of the more complex estate and tax planning questions that advisers are asking. Consider this your advice support column for all your estate planning queries!Our first adviser question is: How effective is gifting as an estate planning strategy? More specifically, I have questions around loss of access and how the gifting out of surplus income exemption rule works?Toyin’s answer: Gifting can be an attractive estate planning option because your clients can see their loved ones benefit from their wealth whilst they’re alive.In principle, it is a straightforward concept however, in practice, the rules around making a gift can be rather complex, and the effectiveness of them rests on some key points:Be bold and use as much as you can in exemptions and allowances.This can range from making full use of spousal and charitable gifts, wedding gift allowances, small gift allowances and the annual gifting allowance of up to £3,000 in total each year. These types of gifts attract immediate exemptions from Inheritance Tax (IHT).As for larger, non-regular gifts, they typically take seven years to become completely free from IHT (hence the name, potentially exempt transfers, or “PETs”). This means that if your client dies within seven years of making a PET, they are unlikely to have been effective in reducing the inheritance tax bill due on their estate. So, it’s worth considering the age and health of the individual making such gifts.And of course, regular gifts out of income rules are an opportunity to make certain gifts free from IHT.Have precision in the timing of gifts:It serves to remember that certain gifting allowances are only per tax year, so timing is key