Asst Manager/Manager (Business Development and Strategic Partnerships) – Innovation

IMDA; Singapore; On-site; SGD 75,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

IMDA’s Innovation Division, ETIG, seeks a dynamic business development professional to drive corporate engagement for Open Innovation Platform (OIP) and PIXEL. You will generate leads, manage partnerships, and coordinate with government agencies and industry partners to scale innovation programs.

Ideal candidates bring 5+ years in B2B development or partnerships, strong networking skills, and the ability to translate corporate needs into innovative solutions.

Qualifications

• Tertiary qualification in Business/Communications/Information Technology or related disciplines.
• At least 5 years of experience in industry engagement, B2B business development or partnership roles.
• Strong written and verbal communication, with analytical and problem‑solving skills.
• Familiarity with the innovation ecosystem is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Business Development and Engagement: Generate, qualify and cultivate corporate leads and drive innovation collaborations.
• Stakeholder Management and Matching: Build and deepen relationships with corporates and multipliers to expand the corporate database.
• Partnership Development: Identify, source and engage strategic partners to meet Innovation team objectives.

Skills

Stakeholder engagement

Business development

Partnership building

Education

Tertiary qualification in Business/Communications/Information Technology

Job description

[What the role is]

This role sits within the Innovation Division, under the Enterprise Transformation & Innovation Group (ETIG) at IMDA. ETIG leads digital transformation and fosters innovation ecosystems across Singapore's tech landscape. The Group works closely with public and private sectors to accelerate technology adoption, support high-growth companies, and establish Singapore as a global innovation hub. Focusing on enterprise transformation, strategic partnerships, and technology commercialisation, the Group ensures that Singapore remains competitive in the digital economy.

[What the role is]

This role sits within the Innovation Division, under the Enterprise Transformation & Innovation Group (ETIG) at IMDA. ETIG leads digital transformation and fosters innovation ecosystems across Singapore's tech landscape. The Group works closely with public and private sectors to accelerate technology adoption, support high-growth companies, and establish Singapore as a global innovation hub. Focusing on enterprise transformation, strategic partnerships, and technology commercialisation, the Group ensures that Singapore remains competitive in the digital economy.
As part of the Innovation Division, you will be driving business development and strategic partnerships for IMDA's flagship innovation initiatives, including Open Innovation Platform (OIP), our national digital marketplace that crowdsources and matches corporates with innovative solution providers through open innovation challenges as well as PIXEL Innovation Hub. This is an industry-facing sales role which is focused on corporate engagement and partnerships through multiple modalities e.g. inbound and outbound leads generation and qualification, curated programming, triaging their innovation needs and inspiring them to embark on their innovation journey with OIP and PIXEL and enabling successful innovation outcomes.

Why Join

• Be part of a young, vibrant, fun and transforming team to strategise, refine and execute the suite of innovation programmes and resources for corporates.
• Rare opportunity to create an innovation platform and run an innovation hub in government, to benefit corporates and the economy at scale.
• Enjoy a collaborative environment where you can work with a diverse range of stakeholders, including corporates, ecosystem and industry partners and innovation community groups.

[What you will be working on]

• Business Development and Engagement. Generate, qualify and cultivate corporate leads, and convert corporates looking to drive business innovation within their organisations. Qualify inbound leads including referrals by acting as initial point of triage for corporates with interest in OIP to diagnose their innovation needs. Regular engagement with leads, keeping abreast of industry trends and customer drivers as opportunities for follow-ups to enable conversion.
• Stakeholder Management and Matching. Scout, own and deepen relationships with new corporates and multipliers (e.g. government agencies, trade associations) to build the corporate database. Support direct matches with our technology solvers base, based on corporates’ business use cases, as a lever to deepen the corporate relationship.
• Partnership Development: Identify, source and engage existing or new strategic partners to achieve Innovation team’s objectives (e.g. securing more corporate leads for OIP and/or developing partner-led programmes to drive corporate innovation projects).

[What we are looking for]

• Tertiary qualification in Business/Communications/Information Technology or relevant/related disciplines.
• At least 5 years of relevant experience in an industry engagement, B2B business development or partnership role, with immediate and large business networks
• Adept at engaging external stakeholders across seniority levels and building business networks and relationships. Excellent written and verbal communication skills; with strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Familiarity with the innovation ecosystem (e.g., corporate innovation roles, technology accelerators, incubators) is a plus.

Position will be commensurate with the candidate’s qualifications and experience.
Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be notified.