Innovation Catalyst (Pulse)

National University of Singapore; Singapore; On-site; SGD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

NUSX seeks an Innovation Catalyst for its Pulse track at Kent Ridge Campus, focusing on biotechnology, life sciences, and healthcare tech. You will identify opportunities early, build relationships with researchers, and guide ideas toward translational impact within a globally connected venture-building ecosystem.

In this role, you’ll work with venture builders, IP strategists, operators, investors, and industry partners to shape translational pathways, reduce friction, and accelerate progress

Qualifications

• 7+ years of operating experience in start-up/tech transfer or translational research contexts.
• Ability to design work for end-to-end outcomes and real-world impact.
• Strong capacity to earn trust quickly and deliver reliably.
• Comfort with bold, early-stage ideas and experimentation.
• Excellent communication that makes complex science accessible.
• Fluency across biotech, life sciences, healthcare technologies and related fields.
• Ability to influence and align multiple stakeholders in complex ecosystems.

Responsibilities

• Build trusted partnerships with faculty and local innovation teams.
• Collaborate with embedded innovation enablers on translation and commercialisation.
• Scout early-stage ideas across the university and surface opportunities.
• Share insights, risks and needs to accelerate projects with clarity.
• Craft compelling narratives from abstract scientific discoveries and data.
• Maintain a live ecosystem view and champion promising projects.
• Link researchers with market-facing teams and IP strategists to reduce friction.
• Act as a system-level connector across labs, institutes and partners.

Skills

Systems thinking

Relationship building

Excellent communication

Storytelling

Curiosity and adaptability

Cross-disciplinary collaboration

Bias toward action

Education

Advanced degree (MS, PhD, MBA)

Job description

Job Title: Innovation Catalyst (Pulse)

University-Level Unit: NUS Enterprise

Faculty/Department-Level Unit: Technology Transfer and Innovation

Employee Category: Executive & Administrative

Posting Start Date: 29/09/2026

Location_ONB: Kent Ridge Campus

Job Description

NUSX is where NUS talent, research and ideas meet the people, pathways and resources that can take them further. That includes founder development, research translation, venture creation, industry partnerships and access to capital and global networks. The parts of NUSX do different things, but we share a common ambition: help more NUS talent, research and ideas find a path to use and scale. NUSX was known as NUS Enterprise until September 2026.

We're hiring Innovation Catalysts for our Pulse track, a team focused on identifying and advancing promising breakthroughs emerging from NUS in biotechnology, life sciences, synthetic biology, biomedical sciences, healthcare technologies, and related fields.

Innovation Catalysts work in close partnership with embedded innovation enablers across NUS, strengthening local commercialisation capabilities and helping researchers navigate the journey from discovery to impact. As part of an integrated, globally connected venture-building ecosystem, the team collaborates closely with venture builders, market discovery specialists, IP strategists, operators, investors, and industry partners to help bring world‑class research into the real world.

The Role

Great ideas often begin in the lab — but they rarely reach the world on their own.

As an Innovation Catalyst, you'll help researchers take the first steps from discovery toward real‑world impact. You'll build trusted relationships across the research community, identify promising opportunities early, and help researchers navigate the path toward commercialisation.

Working closely with colleagues across NUSX and our global network of operators, investors, and industry partners, you'll bring market, venture, and translational perspectives into the research environment. Through your judgment, curiosity, and ability to connect people and ideas, you'll help shape which opportunities move forward and how.

Think of it as a baton relay. You’re the first leg — spotting signals early, earning trust fast, and preparing ideas for acceleration.

What You’ll Do

• Build trusted partnerships. Become a go‑to partner for faculty and local innovation teams curious about turning ideas into real‑world impact.
• Partner with embedded innovation enablers. Align priorities, share insights, build fluency, and reinforce best practices in early‑stage translation and commercialisation.
• Scout and surface early‑stage innovation. Work with researchers and embedded innovation enablers to identify promising ideas emerging across the university.
• Enable momentum. Share early insights, risks, and needs to enable projects and teams move with speed, clarity, and conviction.
• Build compelling narratives. Collaborate with inventors to craft compelling lay narratives from abstract, complex scientific discoveries, and technical data.
• Track and guide. Maintain a live, ecosystem‑level view of emerging projects; help flag, guide, and champion the most promising ones.
• Link and leverage internal expertise and capabilities. Surface synergies across labs, departments, and institutes by connecting and facilitating multi‑disciplinary translation efforts.
• Act as a system‑level connector. Link researchers, market‑facing teams, IP strategists, regulatory insight, and external partners to reduce friction and accelerate progress.

Qualifications

What You Bring

• 7+ years of relevant operating experience in a start‑up venture, institutional/corporate tech transfer, translational/applied research, or new product development context.
• A systems mindset — you design and drive work based on end‑to‑end outcomes and real‑world impact.
• A mix of curiosity, emotional intelligence, and disciplined follow‑through — you build trust quickly and deliver reliably.
• A love of bold, early‑stage ideas and comfort with experimentation, uncertainty, and failure.
• Deep respect for science paired with a sense of urgency and bias toward action.
• Excellent communication and storytelling skills — you make research legible and accessible to the world.
• Technical domain fluency across biotechnology, life sciences, synthetic biology, biomedical sciences, healthcare technologies, and related fields — you understand the language of the labs and the clinics, and the direction of the fields.
• Strong relationship‑builder who drives alignment and execution through influence, clarity, and trust across faculty, operators, clinicians, and partners.
• Comfort operating through influence in complex ecosystems, including working with peers who have their own mandates, incentives, and leadership structure.

Bonus Points For

• Advanced degree (MS, PhD, MBA).
• Track record of turning ideas into action, whether as a founder, scout, operator, or connector.
• Cross‑disciplinary experience applying biotechnology, life science, or healthcare innovations in non‑traditional industry settings, or working at the intersection of biology and advanced manufacturing, energy, materials, computing, infrastructure, or other deep‑tech sectors.
• Relevant teaching, mentoring, or coaching experience.

Why Join NUSX

This is a rare chance to shape the future of innovation in Asia — from Singapore, with global reach. You’ll sit at the intersection of technology, entrepreneurship, and capital, with the freedom to take big swings and the platform to land them.