Matter Track: Innovation Catalyst

NUSX; Singapore; On-site; SGD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

NUSX is seeking an Innovation Catalyst to accelerate technology translation from the lab into real-world impact. You will build trusted relationships with faculty and innovation teams, identify high-potential ideas early, and guide projects toward practical commercial outcomes.

Working with a global network of operators, investors, and industry partners, you’ll blend market, venture, and translational perspectives to shape which opportunities advance.

Qualifications

• 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 materials science, chemistry, physics, photonics, microelectronics, advanced materials, hardware technologies, and related physical science and engineering fields — you understand the language of the labs 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.

Responsibilities

• 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.

Skills

Relationship building

Communication

Systems thinking

Startup experience

Influence

Scientific curiosity

Education

MS or PhD preferred

Job description

NUSX is seeking an Innovation Catalyst to accelerate technology translation from the lab into real-world impact. You will build trusted relationships with faculty and innovation teams, identify high-potential ideas early, and guide projects toward practical commercial outcomes.

Working with a global network of operators, investors, and industry partners, you’ll blend market, venture, and translational perspectives to shape which opportunities advance.