Why Slush Exists

Slush is a not-for-profit organization on a mission to help and create founders to change the world

Founded in 2008 as a 250-person gathering, Slush has grown into the world’s leading startup event—bringing together a curated crowd of European startups, world-class investors, and tech journalists.

While Slush is best known for its annual main event in Helsinki, an equally vital part of our mission is to inspire young people to pursue careers in tech and entrepreneurship. Slush is meant to be a human accelerator—giving young people their first step into the startup world, whether they go on to become founders, operators, or VCs. To this day, Slush is organized by students and recent graduates, and the main event is made possible by a team of 1,600 volunteers.

We serve founders and investors with a year-round online community via the Slush Platform, and support nascent startup ecosystems globally to build their own local events through Slush'D.

Slush is owned by the Startup Foundation, a Finnish not-for-profit working toward strengthening the local startup ecosystem. Most of any profits made by Slush go back to the foundation, which uses them to support other ecosystem initiatives.

The Next Decade

Our goals for the decade are derived from Entrepreneurship Redefined, a whitepaper we wrote in 2020.

We need companies to be built by a diverse set of individuals. People solve problems they themselves face.

We need those companies to take extraordinary risks that, if successful, change the future beyond recognition.

We need them to pursue the most pressing problems of our time, requiring that society at large – investors, LPs, academia, corporates, and regulators – is on board.

2020-2030

The change doesn’t happen overnight, nor is it something we can just focus on during one event, tick a box, and consider it done. That’s why we’ve dedicated the 2020s to really working on it.

Mission & Vision

We believe entrepreneurship is the most efficient way to change the world at scale. We need more builders. But we also know building companies is hard.

That’s where we come in. Our role is three-fold: inspire, help, and collide.

  • Inspire the current and next generation to take on hard and complex challenges through entrepreneurship.
  • Help them build impactful, durable companies.
  • Collide them with the people who’ll enable their success—co-founders, investors, operators, mentors.

In other words, we want to create and help founders to change the world.

OuR Values

Be Curious

Slushers are some of the most curious individuals you’ll encounter. We have strong opinions, but we're curious to hear reasons why we might be wrong.We’re curious to understand how great companies are built and how technology is shaping the world we live in. We value people who get excited about entrepreneurship—about building and solving hard problems. We value time spent on learning about the ecosystem, whether through consuming content by others or actually getting outside of the office, getting to know people, and forming our own opinions.

This is important for three reasons:

  • Slush is a workplace that will give young people more responsibility than any other. What we lack in experience, we must make up for in curiosity.
  • With 15 different teams, curiosity is essential to understand how our own work fits into the broader goals of Slush, what’s happening in other teams, and what makes this company run as a whole.
  • Slush is meant to be human accelerator and a launchpad to the startup ecosystem. We acknowledge we’re not (yet) founders ourselves, and make an effort to understand the founder mindset by going out there to ask, listen and read.

Trust by Default

At Slush, trust is not earned, it can only be lost. From your first day as a Slusher, every person will believe in you more than you believe in yourself.We show this trust in ways that set us apart from most workplaces:

  • Slush trusts you more than you do. To complete our work, we first ask ourselves “can I do this myself”, and only then ask for help. More often than not, we learn something very useful along the way.
  • At Slush, leadership is a division of responsibilities, not an expression of hierarchy or a command chain. We trust every Slusher to act as the founder of their own domain. This means taking full ownership of projects, planning your work, challenging the status quo, and making decisions as if Slush were your own venture.
  • Decisions should be made as close to the team as possible and by the person who owns the corresponding domain. We trust each other to seek out the necessary perspective to make an informed decision, and even after heated debate, once a decision is made, we expect our colleagues to stand behind it.
  • We recognise that while we’re at Slush, we have been put in charge of a project that is not our own. Each year, the team is trusted to shape the company and event to look like their own. We strive for leaving Slush and our own domain in better shape than we found it.

World-class standards

To achieve world-class results, two things are essential: A) Understanding what excellence looks like and actively pursuing it, and B) Holding each other accountable to the mindset that "if the basics aren't right, nothing else matters."

To that end, we maintain high standards for ourselves in doing the basics right:

  • Clarity. We believe everything is “work in progress” and therefore document and share our work publicly for feedback already ****before it’s ready. We recognise the difference between half-done and half-thought: we ask the right questions while providing the needed context, instead of making our colleagues to do the thinking for us. Clarity and complexity can rarely be reconciled verbally—therefore, we default to writing.
  • Communication. The most common root cause of failure at Slush is unclear or insufficient communication. We always show up on time, communicate promptly, and close the loop—both internally and externally. If we are unsure, we say “I’ll figure it out and get back to you.” We put extra effort into documentation because we know it’s a gift to current and future Slushers.
  • Leadership. We recognise that the most important job of leaders at Slush is to reduce complexity. We help our teams do intentional, clear and specific work. We ask “why?” over and over again. Whenever needed, we get our hands dirty and tackle the challenge together. This way, we set our teams up for success.
  • Prioritization. We separate what truly moves the needle and what is noise, and focus on the former. When tackling complex tasks, we break them down into actionable steps. We understand that there is always more work to be done than hours available to do it. Therefore, we actively take time to prioritise, deprioritise, and plan our work.
  • Frugality. We are frugal like a startup, and default to solving problems with creativity over budget. Whenever it makes a difference, we are ready to do things that don’t scale. We want to ensure that money is being spent where it has the most impact for our core customers.

Crazy Ambition

Over the past decade, Slush has grown from a local gathering into the world's leading startup event: a remarkable achievement for a team of inexperienced students and recent graduates. However, the ecosystem is ever-evolving, and we must be too. Stagnation and reliance on past successes are sure paths to irrelevance.

Therefore, we must constantly evaluate our work from first principles, as if nothing had come before us. Every day, we must answer questions that haven’t been asked before. Equally, we don’t hire people who can execute a checklist—we hire those who can throw it out the window and redefine what success looks like in their role. Concretely, this means we don’t rely on an existing playbook; instead

  • We ask what the startup ecosystem truly needs and how Slush can answer that need.
  • We reimagine how Slush works and make it memorable both for newcomers and returning attendees.

We ask over and over again, 'Why does this matter?', 'Why are we doing this?', and 'What's next?', because at Slush, every day is Day 1.*We understand the importance of using our resources , especially time and money, wisely, and not reinventing the wheel for concepts that already work. Instead, we focus our efforts on aspects that truly need redefining.

Care Deeply

We care deeply for our work, our colleagues, founders and the surrounding startup ecosystem. Work at Slush is about us, not me. We are curious to get to know our team members, and proactively ask how they are doing. Even if in a hurry, we take time to pause and listen.

Caring takes many formats in the Slush team:

  • We win and lose as a team, and help beyond our own responsibilities. We own our failures and embrace them as collective opportunities to learn. Internally, we spread positive news through channels like #posiposiposi and celebrate our colleagues both in public and private.
  • We give and ask for candid feedback to help each other grow. By giving and receiving feedback, we're able to create a feeling of accomplishment, foster personal and professional growth, and resolve issues proactively.
  • We steer clear of gossip and encourage giving feedback directly by asking “have you said this to...?”. When encountering something uncomfortable or against our culture, we don’t close our eyes but run towards the pain.
  • We know that doing what’s best for Slush translates into maximal personal learning for ourselves. To pursue our mission, we actively put founders first in everything we do. It means that we obsess about solving founders’ problems at all stages, from pre-seed to exit and everything in between.
  • Our commitment to diversity, inclusion, and sustainability guides every decision we make, demonstrating our care for and dedication to improving the European startup ecosystem.

Open positions

PARTNERSHIP MANAGER
Overview:

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You will work closely with our Partnerships team (including five Partnership Managers), led by the Head of Partnerships. Since partners are connected to almost everything Slush does, you will also work closely with teams across startups, investors, finance, and marketing.

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What will you get?
  • The Partnerships team is the commercial core at Slush and responsible for most activities seen from the outside during Slush week. Around 80% of events and production are organized by partners, generating 50% of all revenue and a significant share of Slush’s future growth.
  • You will not have the same amount of freedom, responsibility and trust in any other organization; Leading the commercial operations and development of a multi-million not-for-profit is fast-paced and highly rewarding.
  • Due to our culture of “trust by default” and the constant need to renew ourselves, Slush has become one of the best founder and startup operator schools in the world. You’ll work with an exceptional, young, and ambitious team that never settles.
  • You will build a strong network across the global startup ecosystem and wider tech scene by working closely with partners and interacting hands-on with key ecosystem players.
  • In this role, you’ll lead high-stakes partnership discussions and take ownership of big accounts, often managing project teams on the partner side as well. You’ll gain end-to-end experience across partnership work—from negotiations and contracts to ideation and hands-on execution of partner activities at Slush.
Responsibilities:
  • Be part of defining our partnership strategy, which funds over 50% of Slush operations, and support Slush’s mission by creating value for startups through partner presence.
  • Act as an account manager for tens of forward-looking companies, with deals totaling up to €1M in revenue. You will manage the partnership journey from start to finish—from first interaction and negotiations to closing the deal and executing the partnership, building a long-lasting relationship between the partner and Slush.
  • Draft highly tailored proposals and ensure your deals are closed efficiently. You’re personally responsible for contributing around 10% of Slush’s annual revenue, supported by the Partnerships team and Head of Partnerships.
  • Lead projects and own decision-making for your own concepts (e.g. our operation of 500 side events), based on your interests and abilities. You’ll be trusted to make decisions, test ideas, and own outcomes.
Requirements:
  • Experience owning B2B deals or relationships, with strong communication skills—clear writing, confident conversations, and empathy in both client and team settings.
  • Understanding the basics of client relationship work and maintaining strong partner relationships throughout the year.
  • An analytical mindset, with experience breaking down complex business cases, structuring problems, or conducting analyses to support decision-making.
  • Ability to take complete ownership and execute a project end to end.
  • Strong interest in learning and development, including feedback, new industries, business models, corporate-startup collaboration, and project management.
  • Understanding of, or curiosity towards, the tech and startup scene and how stakeholders benefit from startup collaboration.
  • Ability to stay proactive, give high-fives, support others, and lead a team efficiently—even under pressure.
Practicalities

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This is a full-time, paid position with a fixed-term contract until the end of 2026. We are recruiting four Partnership Managers at the same time. The roles start in February or early March.

Our team works mainly at the Helsinki office. Because of the physical nature of the work we do at Slush, working here will require office presence, but partial remote work is also possible.

If you have any questions, feel free to send a message to Ida at ida.sinisalo@slush.org.

MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS

About the team & role:

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As part of Slush’s Marketing team, you’ll shape and communicate Slush’s unique value proposition as the world’s leading startup event and platform for founders, investors, and ecosystem builders.

Working closely with Design, Product, and Core Audience teams (Startups, Investors, Program), Marketing drives acquisition, conversion, and retention across all channels.

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The team owns Slush’s marketing, communications, content, and brand, while identifying bold bets that elevate the value proposition and ultimately sell out the event.

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What you’ll be doing:

  • Copywriting: Create high-quality, engaging, and on-brand content for Slush’s social media, website, and newsletters.
  • Marketing campaigns: Plan, execute, and optimize campaigns with the Head of Marketing to promote Slush’s main event and other products, coordinating closely with internal teams and external partners.
  • Social media & community management: Monitor and respond to social media conversations around Slush and support audience email inquiries.
  • Innovative bets: Ideate and execute bold new initiatives with the Head of Marketing to elevate Slush’s storytelling and value proposition.

What you’ll need:

  • Proven experience and passion for copywriting and executing digital marketing campaigns
  • Exceptional written and verbal communication skills in English, supported by a strong content portfolio
  • Experience in external communications with customers and partners
  • Solid understanding of social media platforms, content distribution, and platform-specific algorithms
  • Strong creative thinking and storytelling skills, with the ability to adapt content across audiences and formats
  • Excellent project management and collaboration skills, including the ability to align stakeholders and clearly communicate your vision
  • Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment, manage quick cycles, and juggle multiple priorities
  • Proactive interest in learning and pushing the boundaries of emerging AI tools for marketing and community management
  • Deep curiosity and interest in startups, venture capital, and technology

Nice-to-haves:

  • Experience working with startups and tech companies, and/or in brand communications
  • Familiarity with tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Figma, and Buzz
  • Experience with Webflow, and a basic understanding of HTML, CSS, and SQL
  • Proficiency with growth and marketing analytics tools such as Google Analytics, Metabase, and PostHog
  • A strong, AARRR metric-driven mindset when planning marketing and communications

What you’ll get:

  • The skills needed to work in marketing and communications for startups, tech companies, and large-scale events
  • A recognized portfolio of marketing campaigns for leaders of the global startup and tech ecosystem, distributed across Slush’s global channels
  • A rare level of freedom: you’ll work in an environment where ownership is real, pace is high, and impact is tangible within a multi-million-euro not-for-profit organization
  • Learn by doing in a culture of trust by default and constant renewal, often described as one of the best founder schools in the world
  • Build a unique global network across the startup and innovation ecosystem, including founders, VCs, facilitators, and leading tech and corporate partners

Practicalities:

This is a full-time, paid, fixed-term position running from Mar 15 until the end of 2026.

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The team primarily works from the Slush Helsinki office due to the hands-on nature of the role and the importance of building a strong team culture in a continuously rotating team. As a result, we expect 3–4 days per week in the office. Partial remote work is possible with prior notice, as long as the team is aligned and kept in the loop.

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If you have any questions, feel free to send a message to Marina at marina.yurchenko@slush.org.

SOFTWARE ENGINEER
Requirements

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Technical

  • 1-2 years of experience with full-stack development
  • Git and common Git workflow
  • Typescript (TS)
  • PERN stack: PostgreSQL, Express, React, NodeJS
  • Databases, SQL and schema designs
  • Cloud Platform and containerised deployment
  • Interest in prototyping and experimenting with emerging AI capabilities (i.e. Agentic AI, RAG)
  • Experience/interest in React Native/App development is appreciated but not mandatory

Non-technical:

  • English fluency (technical and casual work settings)
  • Creative, driven, ambitious, and adaptable to changes
  • Passionate about technology, and interested in the startup ecosystem
  • Ability to learn quickly through work experience
  • Excellent problem-solving and critical thinking skills, task division and prioritisation
  • Time management, balancing tasks, and scheduling work autonomously
  • Ability to communicate effectively, both to technical and non-technical audience
Responsibilities
  • Write maintainable, logical and testable applications
  • Building AI-powered features into web/mobile products
  • Document software and write effective tests
  • Communicate with stakeholders/customer technical support
  • Collaborate with different internal teams
  • Identify and implement effective internal tools for teams, volunteers and customers
Team
  • You will be part of the Dev Team for this role.
  • The team is responsible for building the digital tools and products surrounding the main event, used by internal teams, volunteers and event attendees.
  • The team is building year-round solutions for startups and investors, facilitating deals, ecosystem growth and startups discovery. You can affect technical choices, planning and contribute to the final product decisions.
  • The team is planning on building AI-powered product experiences. You may work on features leveraging LLMs, recommender systems, and AI-based automation tools. You can influence our direction in technical choices around model usage and the product value AI can unlock.
  • The team actively uses AI-assisted coding tools (Cursor, Copilot, etc.) and encourages exploring AI to improve delivery and development quality.
  • The current team comprises of 5 software engineers, closely working with the UI/UX team.
  • This position reports directly to the Head of Tech, Aapo.
Bonus points
  • Interest in specialized fields: data engineering, machine learning, UI/UX, DevOps
  • Hands-on experience building agents, RAG systems, or AI-based automation, for example, through personal projects
  • Good-to-know technologies/concepts (non-mandatory, in order of priority):
    • Elastic Search
    • Prompt Engineering
    • Expo/React Native
    • styled-components, zustand
    • Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
    • Gitlab
    • Vitest/Jest
    • Monorepo
    • Microservices
Practicalities
  • This is a full-time, paid position.
  • The ideal start date is in February but can be adjusted.
  • The role is fixed-term for 12 months from the starting date.
  • We open the recruitment process in December and finalize the last interviews in January.
  • The team primarily works at our Helsinki office. Due to the physical nature of our work and culture, some office presence is required. Partial remote work is also possible.
  • If you have any questions, feel free to message Aapo at aapo.leppanen@slush.org‍

We look forward to hearing from you!

Head of finance
Overview

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Head of Finance is the core of Slush’s finance function, which consists of an over 11 M€ in revenue. You will have a significant impact on the financial health and operational efficiency of Slush as well as developing the company through data and analytics. You’ll work closely with our COO, play a crucial role in team goal setting and managing budgets, revenue tracking, leading our analytics and automation efforts as well as leading the two person Finance team. You’ll be working closely with our Partnerships and Investor Teams as well as collaborate with other teams around finance topics.

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What will you get?
  1. You’ll get an unmatched experience of running the finance & analytics operations of a 50-person company—this level of ownership and responsibility builds a solid foundation for any finance-related career. This is a full time paid position.
  2. You will not have the same amount of freedom, responsibility and trust in any other organization; leading a multi-million not-for-profit’s finance operations and development will be fast-paced and highly rewarding.
  3. You will build a unique network of people throughout the global startup & innovation ecosystem (VCs, founders, facilitators), as well as an international tech/innovation/CVC network through our counterparties (leading tech companies globally).
  4. Due to our culture of “trust by default” and the constant need to renew ourselves, Slush has become one of the best operator & founder schools on the planet. You’ll get to work with an exceptional young and ambitious team that never settles.
Responsibilities
  • Leading the two-person: Finance team at Slush (and during the Fall the Finance Team Leads). This includes setting the right ambition level with goals, ensuring your team reaches them and ensuring your team’s growth. Finance team at Slush is known for it’s approachability and default-to-action approach with complex tasks.
  • Budget management: Managing and having an overall responsibility of our over 10 M€ budget—managing the budgets with our COO, delegating budgeting responsibilities to teams, setting deadlines and objectives, updating the budget, and making sure we are on the right track financially.
  • Leading our analytics efforts: Head of Finance will be the main responsible for driving our operations and efforts forward through data and analytics.
  • Financial Operations: Overall responsibility over day-to-day finance operations, such as accounts receivables, accounts payables, payroll, monthly and annual closing processes. You will also manage the yearly audit process—one of your first tasks will be closing the fiscal year of 2025 with the support of our COO.
  • Compliance & Policies: Ensuring company-wide compliance with financial policies, procedures and regulatory requirements.
  • Tickets & Tracking: Ticket sales generate 50 % of Slush’s revenue. You’ll manage and oversee our ticket & revenue tracking, and ensuring our tickets-related requests & transfers, visa invitation process and business analytics function seamlessly and reliably.
  • Liquidity Management: Overall responsibility of our liquidity management—modelling cash flows to ensure liquidity, optimizing capital use, and making decisions around short-term deposits.
  • Customer service: The Finance team owns our finance and tickets inboxes. You’ll ensure all of our customers get 7-star customer service from the Finance team all the way from purchasing tickets to ticket troubleshooting at the Slush Main Event.
Requirements
  • Excel and SQL: Advanced skills in Excel and SQL. Our finance operations are run in Excel, and our analytics and revenue tracking are run on a SQL-based database. Curious mind towards data and analytics is a must as the Head of Finance will be the main point of contact with these efforts for the entire organization.
  • Accounting & finance knowledge: You have experience in accounting/finance and a solid understanding of basic accounting principles, e.g. from a relevant university degree or previous work experience.
  • Process-orientation: You’re always looking for ways to improve processes and drive efficiency across the finance function. You must be process-oriented and constantly look for ways to improve and streamline our finance operations.
  • Project management skills: Strong project management abilities, decision-making, delegation, and the capacity to execute both big-picture strategies and detail-oriented tasks.
  • Excellent communications: You have strong verbal and written communication skills, both in English and Finnish. Unlike other roles at Slush, fluency in Finnish is required for our Head of Finance.
  • Thriving under pressure: Slush is a dynamic and evolving company, and you will need to thrive in an environment that has tight deadlines, is fast-paced,  high-pressure and sometimes unpredictable.
  • Interest in startups: You are curious about startups and want to become a leading finance professional in the European startup ecosystem.
Practicalities

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This is a full-time, paid position, with a permanent contract starting at the beginning of February. We open the recruitment process in December and finalize the last interviews in January.

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Our team works mainly at the Helsinki office. Because of the physical nature of the work we do at Slush, working here will require some amount of office presence, but partial remote work is also possible.

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If you have any questions, feel free to send a message to kasper.makela@slush.org.

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We look forward to hearing from you!

Head of Investor Relations
Overview

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The Investor Team is responsible for attracting the world’s leading VC’s and LPs to Slush bringing in over 4T in AUM. The Investor Team creates value for and together with the investors to help the startup ecosystem at large. The Investor Team manages some of our most important relationships, ensuring investors continue to choose Slush as their #1 event of the year.

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In this role, you will work closely with the Startup, Program and Partnership team, reporting directly to the President.

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Responsibilities
  • Recruiting, onboarding, and leading the Investor team, consisting of 2-3 Investor and LP Operations (and during the Fall the Team Leads).
    • Taking care of your team’s routines (team weeklies, 1-on-1s, team recaps, feedback 1-on-1s).
    • Managing (with the support of the President) your team’s workload and priorities.
    • Ensuring that the team reaches the set targets for the year to be agreed together with the President.
    • Maintaining and supporting (with the President and Head of People) your team’s well-being, motivation, and growth.
  • Responsible for reaching the Investor team’s revenue target.
    • Leading and tracking the Investor Team’s sales efforts valued at €1M, both in terms of ticket sales and partnership sales.
    • Head of Investors owns the sales process of Investor Lounges and new revenue generation, while supports the team in our Investor Office Hours sales.
  • Crystallizing and communicating the value proposition of Slush to the leading VCs & LPs globally. Nurturing the mutually beneficial relationships Slush holds with these entities by actively being in contact with and working together on several fronts:
    • Aim for an even higher level of ambition in VC & LP engagement, including breaking the record of Top VC’s at Slush.
    • Building a year-round investor community activation strategy, together with the President and the CEO, to strengthen Slush's presence at the core of the ecosystem.
    • Facilitating LP <> GP and startup <> GP dealflow by making relevant introductions.
    • Identifying and inviting relevant investors as speakers to the main event and Investor Day.
    • Collaborating with the Startups Team to craft startup <> VC concepts to help emerging founders we can have an outsize impact on.
    • Increasing the LP <> VC activities to help especially emerging managers fundraise. Fundraising at Slush is already now 200% more popular in 2025 compared to 2024.
    • Conceptualizing & executing new value-adding VC and LP concepts.
    • Co-organizing international events throughout the year and at Slush to increase Slush’s brand awareness and build our reputation as the leading event in the startup ecosystem.
Requirements
  • High-level understanding of the venture capital landscape and the startup ecosystem.
  • Lead sales for Investor Day partnerships, Investor Lounges, other VC & LP concepts, and Investor Passes. This includes the ability to drive sales, perform under quantitative weekly targets, excellent negotiation skills, and motivating the team to reach its sales goals.
  • Excellent leadership skills to set and prioritize goals for both yourself and team members. This includes excellent project management skills, ability to make decisions, delegate and execute from the big picture to the smallest detail.
  • Excellent communication skills—are you someone who can host an international event, network with the highest level VCs & LPs in the world, and come back with 20 strong connections:
    • Excellent spoken and written communication skills (in English).
    • Ability to work and communicate effectively between both internal teams and external stakeholders, especially with high-profile individuals in external contexts.
    • High EQ and understanding of the nuances of relationship-building & networking.
  • Understanding of the dynamics and economics behind VC is a requirement.
  • A curious mindset to absorb the dynamics of the global startup ecosystem and VC in particular, and excitement to build value within it. In other words, you're not afraid to ask questions to learn from leading VCs.
  • High ambition level. Our goal is to make Slush the most attractive tech conference on the planet for a Tier 1 VC investor, and we want you to show us the next step on the way there.

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Practicalities

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This is a full-time, paid position, with a permanent contract starting at the beginning of February.

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We open the recruitment process in December and finalize the last interviews in January.

Our team works mainly at the Helsinki office. Because of the physical nature of the work we do at Slush, working here will require office presence, but partial remote work is also possible.

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If you have any questions, feel free to send a message to Charlotte at charlotte.alholm@slush.org.

UI/UX Designer
Overview

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The Product Team at Slush is responsible for ensuring a high-quality digital event experience for our event-goers, from ticket purchases to our in-house Meeting Tool. While our brilliant dev team builds these products, the UI/UX designers are working on creating a smooth user journey and ensuring that our digital products have intuitive and cohesive design. This is where you come in.

You will be working together with the Head of Product Design and the dev team to bring the best solutions to our digital products.

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Requirements
  • Hard Skills:
    • 1–2 years of practical UI/UX design experience gained through employment, internships, or personal projects.
    • A portfolio with at least two case studies attached to the application, ideally centered on software or mobile app design.
    • Proficiency in Figma, including:
      • Creating low‑ and high‑fidelity prototypes.
      • Basic knowledge of design systems: creating and maintaining reusable components, tokens, and documentation.
      • Basic understanding of developer handoff processes.
    • Strong grasp of UX best practices, with a deep desire and curiosity to continually grow and master the field.
  • Soft Skills:
    • Proficiency in English.
    • Communication: clearly explain design decisions, ask good questions, and adjust the message for designers, developers, and non‑technical stakeholders.
    • Teamwork: work smoothly in cross‑functional teams, share credit, and handle disagreements constructively rather than defensively.
    • Curiosity and continuous learning: stay open to new tools, patterns, and feedback as products, trends, and user expectations change.
    • Ownership and reliability: follow through on commitments, manage time well, and proactively raise risks before they become blockers.
  • Bonus points:
    • Experience taking digital products from initial idea to real users.
    • Basic understanding of code (HTML/CSS), enabling smoother collaboration with developers and more efficient creation, testing, and review of designs.
    • Basic hands‑on skills with WordPress and Webflow for building and iterating on marketing sites or simple product experiences.
    • Interest in startup ecosystem.
Responsibilities
  • Create user flows, wireframes, and low‑ and high‑fidelity prototypes focused on solving concrete problems in our digital products.
  • Support iterative improvement of existing features by refining layouts, interactions, and usability based on feedback and product goals.
  • Contribute to and follow existing design systems and guidelines to ensure consistency across our software.
  • Carefully document design decisions and implemented solutions so future team members can build on the work efficiently.
  • Collaborate with the CTO, Head of Product Design, developers, and relevant stakeholders to turn requirements into clear, implementable product designs.

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What you will get
  • Strong professional growth, supported by a ambitious and motivated team that actively supports your learning and development.
  • You will become an expert in the user experience of our core customers on the Slush platform, from startup founders and investors to media and partners.
  • Build a unique international network across the global startup and innovation ecosystem, including VCs, founders, facilitators, and leading tech companies worldwide.
  • Enrich your portfolio with end‑to‑end solutions and real shipped products that you can fully showcase.
  • Genuine ownership over your work, with default trust and responsibility for driving your tasks forward.

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Practicalities

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This is a full-time, paid position with an ideal start date in the beginning of March 2026. The role is fixed-term until the end of the year 2026. Our team primarily works at Helsinki office, due to the physical nature of our work, therefore 4 days of office presence is required. However, partial remote work is possible if the team is kept in the loop.

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The position reports directly to the Head of Product Design and Chief Technology Officer. The nature of the work also requires close collaboration with our team of software developers to ensure smooth hand of of design projects.

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The application review process kicks off in Mid January, after our team returns from holidays.

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If you have any questions regarding this position, contact Polina at polina.kuklenko@slush.org.

Get in Touch

General inquiries

hello@slush.org

Technical support

support@slush.org

Tickets

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Meet the Slush Team

Charlotte Alholm
Head of Partnerships
Vilma Viertola
People Operations
Vilma Soini
Program Curator
Sandra Savelieva
Motion Designer
Santos Alcover
LP Relations
Rania Said
Operations Producer
Polina Kuklenko
Head of UI/UX
Oskar Aaltonen
Investor Operations
Noora Saksa
COO & CFO
Niki Nurmi
Partnership Manager
Nelli Sillanpää
Head of Media & PR
Natalia Grosheva
UI/UX Designer
Mikhail Cherkashin
Video Editor
Maryama Moalim
Head of Program
Marina Yurchenko
Marketing & Comms
Margot de Maulmont
Full-Stack Developer
Kia Kanninen
Startup Operations
Khai Chan
Full-Stack Developer
Kasper Mäkelä
Head of Finance
Kalle Kahanpää
Head of Startups
Julius Thimm
CPO
Joakim Berger
Head of Production
Ida Sinisalo
Partnership Manager
Freja Teijonsalo
Program Curator
Elina Laurila
Head of People
Elin Dölker
President
Edoardo Vacca
Mobile App Developer
Daniil Freidin
Partnership Manager
Carlos Perez
Creative Director
Camilla Komulainen
Head of Investor Relations
Aapo Leppänen
Software Engineer
Anshul Mahajan
Head of Tech
Anni Kotola
Finance Operations
Anindo Mesbaul
Head of Growth
Ali Zein
Partnership Manager
Aino Bergius
CEO