Join Our Mission to the Moon
Join ispace EUROPE – Pioneering Lunar Exploration from Luxembourg
With locations in Japan, Luxembourg, and the US, ispace is a global leader in lunar exploration. Our European branch, based in Luxembourg, is uniquely positioned at the heart of rover design, development, and operations.
We’re building the foundations of a sustainable lunar economy and expanding humanity’s reach beyond Earth.
At ispace EU, engineers, business experts, and creatives work side by side to turn bold ideas into reality, driven by our mission: “Expand our Planet, Expand our Future.”
TITLE: Sr. Government Affairs & Policy Lead
LOCATION: Luxembourg
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. This role is for someone who wants to build institutional momentum, create opportunities, and help Europe move faster on the Moon. Success will require initiative, sharp thinking, and discipline follow-through.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
- Collaborate with CEO on developing and leading the execution of ispace Europe’s Government Affairs strategy, ensuring alignment with ispace Group priorities and EMEA corporate objectives.
- Drive high-level engagement across EMEA space agencies, EU institutions, ministries, embassies, and industry associations, that translate into the creation of 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 ispace policy positions in collaboration with executive leadership for external messaging to intergovernmental organizations and national government bodies.
- Identify, structure, and formalize strategic partnerships with intergovernmental programs, public-private consortia, and institutional customers.
- Develop briefing materials, speeches, talking points, position papers, meeting read-aheads, and stakeholder engagement plans for senior leadership.
- Collaborate with Engineering, Communications, Legal and Global Government Affairs colleagues on bid processes, strategy development, regulatory opinions, etc.
- Collaborate with Business development by contributing institutional customer knowledge, stakeholder engagements, and feedback.
- Represent ispace Europe in external meetings, industry fora, delegations, and high level stakeholder engagements.
- Actively increase visibility and participation of ispace Europe in key events and fora through session organization and proposal submissions.
KEY REQUIREMENTS
- Master's degree in public affairs, political science, communications or equivalent.
- 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 where there is no heavy hierarchy, no large support staff, and a strong expectation of personal ownership.
- Commercial mindset: understands that Government Affairs must support mission creation, public-sector revenue, strategic partnerships, and long-term market shaping.
- Fluency in English; fluency in German, Italian or another language is an asset.
Skills Required
- Master's degree in public affairs, political science, communications or equivalent.
- 7 years of experience in government affairs, public affairs, institutional business development, diplomacy or closely related field.
- Strong understanding of the EMEA institutional landscape (ESA, national space agencies, EU institutions, ministries, public funding mechanisms, policy 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 strong personal ownership.
- Commercial mindset: align government affairs with mission creation, public-sector revenue, strategic partnerships, and market shaping.
- Fluency in English.
- Fluency in German, Italian or another additional language.
- Strategic mindset, strong institutional instincts, initiative, and disciplined follow-through.
What We Do
ispace is a lunar exploration company with a vision to extend human presence to outer space. The company is developing lunar landers and rovers to deliver customer payloads to the Moon and explore the lunar surface. In doing so, we aim to be a vehicle for companies on Earth to access new business opportunities on the Moon and ultimately incorporate the Moon into Earth’s economic and living sphere. The company is currently planning to its first mission to the Moon as early as Q4 2022.
