Business Development Engineer - Photonics

Startupvalleys; Zürich; Hybrid; CHF 110,000 - 165,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Performance-based bonus

Employee participation

Job summary

Bota Systems AG in Zürich is seeking a Business Development Engineer to open doors with OEMs in humanoids and surgical robotics, turning technical interest into qualified opportunities.

You will demonstrate the product, run workshops, and leverage a lean budget, using CRM HubSpot to track activities and collaborating with R&D to feed market insights.

Qualifications

• Engineering degree in a technical field.
• 3+ years in business development or technical sales for B2B hardware.
• Comfortable with direct outreach and presenting to engineers and decision-makers.
• Hands-on: capable of demos and product explanations.
• Willing to travel frequently.
• Fluent English; German is a strong plus.

Responsibilities

• Build and grow the pipeline with OEMs in humanoids and surgical robotics.
• Lead outreach via cold calls, LinkedIn, email; organize workshops and webinars.
• Demo products on site; run technical and commercial pitches.
• Collaborate with product/R&D; track activities in CRM.
• Manage channel partnerships and trade-show participation.

Skills

Pipeline development

Technical sales

Customer outreach

Product demos

Strategic partnerships

Travel readiness

Education

Engineering degree (mechanical, mechatronics, electrical, robotics, physics or similar)

Tools

HubSpot

Job description

Business Development Engineer - Photonics

Bota Systems AG is a Zürich-based ETH spin-off building high-precision 6-axis force-torque, torque and tactile sensors — a sensing platform for physical AI. Our sensors give machines a precise sense of touch, which matters most where forces are small and errors are costly.

We are hiring a Business Development Engineer to open doors with OEMs in the highest growing segments and build the pipeline that drives our next stage of growth.

The role

You are the engineer who sells: you understand the application, speak the customer's technical language and turn interest into qualified opportunities. You work with a lean budget, so creativity and hustle matter more than spend.

Key responsibilities

Build the pipeline

• Drive growth of the customer pipeline for our product portfolio in humanoids and surgical robotics.
• Identify, engage and win OEMs in these high-growth markets.
• Place qualified leads at the top of the funnel and hand them over with clear technical and commercial context.
• Work through our established sales channels and partners, and help them succeed in these segments.

Reach customers — smartly, on a lean budget

• Reach out directly through cold calls, LinkedIn and email.
• Visit customers on site and run hands-on product demonstrations.
• Organize technical workshops and webinars with customers and partners.
• Make the most of trade shows and industry events, often as a visitor rather than an exhibitor.
• Find low-cost, high-impact ways to generate leads; you will have minimal to no marketing budget.

Educate and advise

• Educate customers on what our sensors and software can do and where they add value.
• Understand customer applications and translate them into the right product and integration solution.
• Feed market and customer insights back to product and R&D.
• Track all activities and opportunities in our CRM (HubSpot).

What success looks like after 12 months

• A steadily growing pipeline of qualified opportunities in humanoids and surgical robotics.
• Active engagements, evaluations or design-ins with several new OEMs in these segments.
• A repeatable, low-cost lead-generation playbook (outreach, workshops, events) that others can follow.
• Channel partners actively bringing in opportunities in these segments.
• Clear market insights shared with product and R&D.

Who you are

Must have

• Engineering degree (mechanical, mechatronics, electrical, robotics, physics or similar).
• 3+ years in business development, technical sales or application engineering for technical B2B products.
• Comfortable with direct outreach, including cold calls, and with presenting to engineers and decision-makers.
• Hands-on: you set up, demo and explain the product yourself.
• Resourceful and self-driven; you create results without a big budget.
• Willing to travel frequently.
• Fluent English; German is a strong plus.

Nice to have

• Network or experience in humanoids, photonics, medical devices or surgical robotics.
• Knowledge of sensors, force control or robotics integration.
• Experience selling to OEMs with long design-in cycles.
• Experience with HubSpot or a similar CRM.

What we offer

• Ownership of two high-growth segments, with direct impact on company growth.
• Close collaboration with the CEO and a small, ambitious team at the forefront of physical AI and robotics.
• Travel, customer contact and cutting-edge technology every week.
• Competitive salary, performance-based bonus and employee participation.