Associate, Strategy & Business Operations

About FFC

FFC is building the first integrated fusion fuel cycle, UNITY 2, at the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories located in Chalk River, Ontario. Commercializing that capability requires defined service offerings and strategic partnerships, a supply chain able to deliver first-of-a-kind (FOAK) engineered systems, and an operating model that scales with the business.

The Associate, Strategy & Business Operations supports three key pillars:

Commercial — build FFC’s service offerings and strategic partnerships from the ground up.

Business Operations — build the operating foundations of a scaling company and support executive priorities across the business.

Supply Chain — strengthen the supply chain strategy and supplier base for FOAK delivery and future commercialization.

Working across every FFC function, the executive team, and parent companies the scope of the role will broaden as the organization scales, with a path to greater ownership and responsibility.

Roles and Responsibilities:

Commercial — Service Offerings & Strategic Partnerships

This is design-and-build work and opportunity tracking and pipeline administration sit with Business Development.

• Strategy and analysis — define which markets, partners, and offerings FFC prioritizes and how to structure each, backed by market research and business cases.

• Offering design — build offerings from first principles, including scope, delivery model, resourcing, the split between FFC and its parent companies, and the cost, pricing, margin, and risk allocation behind each.

• Governance and implementation — design how partnerships and offerings are run (decision rights, approval gates, templates), then take them from paper into practice, including the agreements and partner-facing material behind them.

• Bids and proposals — coordinate inputs from FFC and parent company contributors, and draft assigned sections and pricing volumes.

Business Operations & Strategic Initiatives

• Operating model and tools — design and implement how FFC runs, including structures, decision rights, workflows, and the tools and tech stack behind them, and drive operational effectiveness.

• PMO and project delivery — build PMO capability, and support priority projects through planning, risk management, and progress reporting to leadership.

• Strategic initiatives and executive support — lead special projects for the executive team as priorities emerge, prepare executive and Board-level material, and support budgets and forecasts.

Supply Chain

• Sourcing strategy — contribute to the sourcing approach for FOAK and long-lead systems, and support make-versus-buy and key supplier decisions.

• Supplier base — build a qualified, performance-managed supplier base with Engineering and Quality, and design repeatable sourcing processes as FFC scales.

Must Have

• Bachelor’s degree in Business/Commerce/Economics, Engineering, or a related field; MBA or other advanced degree an asset.

• 3-5 years in management consulting, investment banking, private equity, transaction advisory, corporate development, or strategy and business operations roles; commercial or supply chain experience is also relevant.

• Track record of taking ambiguous problems from a blank page to a delivered outcome (a new offering, partnership, process, function, or client engagement), and comfortable with shifting priorities in an early-stage, scaling organization.

• Strong structured problem-solving: able to own analysis with limited direction, from raw data to a clear recommendation.

• Advanced Excel and financial modeling skills, including business cases, investment cases, and cost and pricing models.

• Excellent written and verbal communication, and the ability to produce client-, partner-, executive-, and Board-ready material in PowerPoint.

• Strong stakeholder management, able to influence senior leaders across technical and commercial teams and manage multiple workstreams to deadline.

• Comfortable using AI tools for research, drafting, and analysis, and interested in the systems and tools that help a business scale.

• Eligible to work in Canada, able to travel to Ottawa and other locations as required (aprox 20% of time), and able to meet the requirements for site access at CNL’s Chalk River Laboratories (i.e. security clearance).

Nice to Have

• Experience in deal structuring or commercial negotiations, strategic partnerships or alliances, or service-line or product management.

• Experience in, or advising clients in, energy, nuclear, aerospace, defence, or another regulated, highly engineered sector, including FOAK or R&D programs.

• Genuine interest in fusion, clean energy, or deep tech, and in helping an early-stage company scale.

Benefits

• Medical, dental and vision benefit.

• Competitive paid vacation and sick time.

• Small, tight-knit team with low barriers to action.

• Exposure to a wide variety of problems for unparalleled, hands-on professional growth.

  Accommodation is available for applicants with disabilities throughout the recruitment process. If you require accommodation, please reach out to [email protected].