ATUM Deep-Tech Founder & CEO (Pharmaceutical Scale-up) - Singapore

ATUM Ventures; Singapore; On-site; SGD 20,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A venture-building firm in Singapore is seeking a Commercial Founder to shape a new deep-tech startup. This role involves leading the business strategy, collaborating with a Technical Founder, and navigating the journey from concept to market. Ideal candidates will have entrepreneurial experience and a background in pharma, chemicals, or advanced manufacturing. This is not just a job; it's an opportunity to co-create and lead a transformative enterprise in the thriving deep-tech sector.

Benefits

Unique exposure to deep-tech methodologies

Access to labs and domain experts

Co-founder seat in the venture

Qualifications

• Proven entrepreneurial drive, having started complex projects.
• Experience in leadership and navigating startup environments.
• Ability to connect technology with business needs.

Responsibilities

• Shape the go-to-market and commercial strategy.
• Identify viable market applications for the venture.
• Engage with customers and partners to secure validation.
• Design routes to entry and establish growth pathways.
• Build the financial and operational foundation.
• Represent the venture externally to stakeholders.

Skills

Entrepreneurial drive

Leadership experience in pharma, chemicals, or advanced manufacturing

Technology commercialization

Ability to communicate complex technology

Talent magnet

Job description

Why We Exist:

ATUM exists to support courageous founders who turn differentiating tech into world‑changing companies that solve critical challenges in Energy, Medtech and Advanced Manufacturing. We bring capital, operational muscle and partners from academia, industry, VC, and government who co‑invest in every build.

ATUM builds ventures from scratch by helping researchers, corporates and founders turn breakthrough research into venture‑scale companies, backing them with capital, corporate networks, and the operational guidance to navigate everything from technical validation and grants to go‑to‑market and growth. We built and invested in 15 deep‑tech ventures so far and have a portfolio of fast‑growing ventures that are scaling globally.

The Opportunity:

Our Deep Tech Venture Building Programme leads the end‑to‑end creation of new startups from breakthrough technologies. We identify research‑backed innovations, validate them with our scientific council, assemble complementary founder teams and support these teams towards investment readiness and launch.

About the Venture

Scaling up pharmaceutical processes remains one of the most resource‑intensive and risk‑prone stages of development. The Reactron Suite is a modular platform of automated flow systems and machine learning‑enabled algorithms built for fast, information dense experimentation in process development. Developed by a top‑tier research team at a leading institute in Singapore through a multi‑year collaboration with an industrial partner, the platform can run hundreds of integrated micro‑experiments within minutes, seamlessly combining hardware, software, and algorithms.

It functions as a data factory, generating high‑value experimental insight to de‑risk and accelerate scale‑up – from lab to pilot to manufacturing. Already attracting significant interest from potential customers, the Reactron Suite delivers actionable data at unprecedented speed and relevance, enabling faster route and process selection, reduced risk in scale‑up and tech transfer, and data‑driven digital twins for predictive manufacturing.

We are looking for a future ATUM Commercial Founder to take this next wave of high‑impact technologies out into the world. As a Commercial Founder, you’ll lead the business and GTM strategy and execution from day one. You’ll pair with a Technical Founder to build a high‑impact business, and set the foundations for scale & impact.

This is not a “job.” It’s a founding journey. You’ll share in the risk, the upside, and the impact.

How You’ll Have Impact:

You will be responsible for shaping the go‑to‑market and commercial strategy of a new deep‑tech startup. You will work alongside a technical Co‑Founder (e.g., PhD or engineer) to identify a viable market application, build customer traction and secure funding to take your venture forward for scale.

• Translate complex technology into commercial opportunity. Identify high‑value use cases, customer pain points and defensible market positions that turn technical advantage into economic leverage.
• Define and test the venture thesis. Partner with product and technical leads to validate assumptions further, continually refine positioning and stress‑test business models under real‑world market conditions.
• Drive early traction and partnerships. Engage with enterprise customers, strategic partners and ecosystem players to pilot, co‑develop and secure initial commercial validation.
• Shape go‑to‑market strategy and scale pathways. Design routes to entry, pricing, sales motion, and partnerships for sustainable growth, balancing experimentation with operational discipline.
• Build the commercial foundation. Establish the early finance, operations, and growth infrastructure that enables speed without compromising rigor.
• Represent the venture externally. Be the face of the business to investors, partners, and early customers, communicating a clear narrative that connects deep technology with transformative impact.

Who You Are:

• Proven entrepreneurial drive – you’ve started something complex from scratch and seen it through (startup, business line, product, etc.).
• You have leadership experience in pharma, chemicals, or advanced manufacturing, ideally with exposure to process development or technology commercialization.
• Ideally you'll have gained exposure through startups, research commercialisation or product engineering previously, with experience developing prototypes, models or novel IP.
• A strong builder mindset – you’re motivated by experimentation, iteration, and creating from scratch. High comfort in navigating ambiguity with a strong bias for action.
• Ability to be the connective tissue between complex technology and the business, constantly keeping the customer front of mind and communicating effectively.
• A talent magnet – you know what great looks like in terms of people, and you’re excited to build a firepower team to deliver on your venture goals.
  

What We Offer:

• Unique exposure to ATUM's deep‑tech venture build approach, methodology & team
• A structured programme to de‑risk venture creation in deep‑tech
• Access to labs, domain experts, early adopters and funding pathways
• A true Co‑founder seat at the table, with the chance to shape the future of deep‑tech impact, your role and the company that you’re building
• The adventure (and challenge) of building a category‑defining company from the ground up

ATUM is an equal opportunity employer and partner, whether you are exploring joining our team, our Venture Build Programme, or one of our Portfolio Companies. We welcome applicants of all backgrounds and identities, and our selection decisions are guided by our core values. If our mission resonates with you, we encourage you to apply.