Technology Commercialization Executive

TandemLaunch Ventures Studio & Funds; Montreal (administrative region); On-site; CAD 95,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Track record

Cross-portfolio exposure

Incentive pool

Mentorship

Collaborative culture

Diversity & inclusion

Job summary

TandemLaunch is seeking a Deep Tech Commercialization Executive to be the product-and-market voice inside several ventures at once. You will lead customer discovery, define market strategies, and drive paid pilots or design wins.

You will mentor venture leads, shape product positioning, and represent ventures at industry events while building new market opportunities.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in business development, product management, or strategy in startups.
• Proven track record taking a technical product to paying customers.
• Fluent in French and English.
• Ability to navigate ambiguity and lead cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities

• Own customer and partner engagements end-to-end from first contact to paid pilot or design win.
• Own product positioning and customer-facing materials across ventures.
• Translate customer feedback into product direction and market strategy.
• Run customer discovery to identify new markets and applications.
• Represent ventures externally at events and partner meetings.

Skills

Customer engagements

Product positioning

Market discovery

Mentorship

Leadership

Education

PhD/MSc/MEng or equivalent

Tools

Hardware/ML domain fluency

Job description

TandemLaunch is a Canadian venture studio. Since 2010 we have created 30+ deep-tech ventures with a combined portfolio value exceeding $700M. We commercialize innovations in consumer electronics, hardware-enabled technologies, machine learning, and embedded systems, working directly with researchers from major university labs. We are one of very few venture studios globally with 15+ years of track record in building successful companies on research-backed deep tech.

About the Role

We are hiring a Deep Tech Commercialization Executive to be the product-and-market voice inside several of our ventures at once.

These are companies with IP-backed technologies from cutting edge university research, a founding team, and on their first steps to commercial traction. Your job is to support our founders in identifying who would pay, get in front of them, carry the conversation through technical evaluation to a paid pilot or a design win, and feed what you learn back into what the venture builds next.

This is a leadership-track role that hinges on your ability to mentor and influence growing leaders. You will join our venture development team to help our ventures reach the necessary commercial traction to secure their next stage of financing.

What You'll Do

• Own customer and partner engagements end-to-end — from first conversation, through technical evaluation, to a paid pilot or design win. You find the buyer, you get the meeting, you carry it to money in collaboration with the venture’s leads.
• Own product positioning and the customer-facing materials that support it — product sheets, decks, demo strategies — across multiple ventures simultaneously.
• Turn what customers tell you into product direction. You are the person who helps the venture clarify the reasons to adjust their strategy in response to market needs, and collect the evidence that justifies it.
• Run customer discovery and find the next market — new applications and adjacent segments for ventures that are starting to get traction.
• Represent ventures externally at industry events, partner meetings, and customer conversations.
• Mentor and directly work alongside our venture leads as the commercial half of each venture team.

What We're Looking For

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in business development, product management, or strategy within a startup environment.
• You have taken a technical product to a paying customer. A purchase order, a paid pilot, a signed design win, a contract. Tell us what it was, who bought it, and what they paid. Grants, non-dilutive funding, maturation envelopes, accelerator awards and research scholarships are all valuable, but direct customer engagement is critical.
• PhD/M.Sc/M.Eng degree or equivalent research-level technical fluency. You can hold a real conversation with hardware engineers, ML researchers, or physicists — and are able to provide guidance on their technology strategy.
• Professional French and English.
• You have worked in ambiguity — as a product lead, founding PM, co-founder, applications or solutions engineer, or the first commercial hire at an early-stage company.

Also true of the people who thrive at TandemLaunch

• Genuine curiosity about novel technology.
• You are comfortable navigating low-information environments to develop a strategy.
• You are honest about what you do not know.

You might be coming from

Technical product management at a hardware or ML company · the first commercial hire at a deep-tech startup · applications or solutions engineering · product marketing for a technical product · technical sales or business development in B2B hardware · a founding team where you owned go-to-market.

What We Offer

• A seat at one of very few venture studios globally with 15+ years of track record in deep tech.
• Cross-portfolio exposure — ventures spanning AI, sensors, hardware, materials and audio in your first year.
• Participation in fund economics through TandemLaunch's employee incentive pool — long‑term upside that grows with the portfolio.
• Direct mentorship from operators — co‑founders, product leads and CEOs across the portfolio.
• A supportive team that values curiosity, initiative and collaboration.

TandemLaunch is committed to building a community of excellence, equity, and diversity. We welcome applications from women, underrepresented minorities, persons with disabilities, 2SLGBTQ+ communities, and other candidates who will enrich our ideas and perspectives.