Market Discovery Lead (Matter), Based in California, US

National University of Singapore; California; Remote; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

National University of Singapore seeks a Market Discovery Lead to drive market intelligence, strategic partnerships, and venture-focused opportunities within a global node network. You will cultivate senior relationships, surface insights, and enable translational funding and licensing decisions.

The role is high autonomy and offsite, requiring the ability to operate across geographies while aligning with colleagues in Singapore and other nodes.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in market discovery, commercial strategy, venture building, product strategy, corporate innovation, business development, technology commercialization, ecosystem development, investment, or related fields.
• Experience building trusted relationships with senior industry stakeholders, operators, investors, and customers.
• Strong commercial judgement and ability to translate external input into practical implications for commercialization.

Responsibilities

• Build trusted ecosystem relationships with regional innovation stakeholders and leaders.
• Generate market and ecosystem intelligence by tracking market needs, tech trends, and investment activity.
• Connect people, insights, and opportunities through high-value introductions and access to market perspectives.
• Strengthen the Global Node Network by sharing intelligence and collaborating across Global Nodes.

Skills

Market discovery

Commercial strategy

Venture building

Product strategy

Corporate innovation

Business development

Technology commercialization

Ecosystem development

Investment

Relationship-building

Education

Advanced degree (MS, PhD, MBA, MD, or equivalent)

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.

As our innovation ecosystem grows in scale, ambition, and global reach, we are building a network of Global Nodes embedded in leading innovation ecosystems around the world. These nodes help NUSX stay closely connected to evolving market needs, emerging technologies, strategic partners, investors, operators, customers, and industry leaders.

We’re hiring Market Discovery Leads for our Matter track, focused on bringing real-world market intelligence, trusted ecosystem relationships, and external perspective into NUSX’s research translation and commercialisation activities in materials science, chemistry, physics, photonics, microelectronics, advanced materials, hardware technologies, and related physical science and engineering fields.

The Role

Great innovations rarely succeed in isolation. They succeed because they connect with real needs, credible customers, experienced operators, strategic partners, investors, and markets at the right time.

As a Market Discovery Lead, you’ll serve as NUSX’s representative, relationship builder, intelligence gatherer, and connector within one of our Global Nodes. You’ll develop trusted relationships, listen for market signals, surface emerging opportunities, and help colleagues access the people, organisations, and insights they need to make better commercialisation decisions.

This is a high-autonomy, high-trust role. You will not manage a large local team, but you will manage critical relationships. You’ll be expected to operate independently in your ecosystem while remaining deeply integrated with colleagues in Singapore and across other Global Nodes. Success depends not only on the strength of your network, but on how generously and effectively that network is shared for the benefit of the organisation.

Think of it as being a node in a global network. You help ensure that insight, relationships, and opportunities discovered in one part of the world strengthen the entire NUSX commercialisation system.

What You’ll Do

Build Trusted Ecosystem Relationships

• Represent NUSX within the assigned Global Node and build trusted relationships across the regional innovation ecosystem.
• Engage selectively with leaders, investors, operators, corporate partners, ecosystem builders, government agencies, and other stakeholders relevant to the Matter track.
• Develop a practical understanding of who matters in the ecosystem, what they care about, where expertise sits, and how to access credible market signal quickly.

Generate Market and Ecosystem Intelligence

• Maintain a live view of market needs, technology trends, investment activity, industry priorities, customer pain points, adoption barriers, competitive dynamics, and strategic white spaces relevant to the assigned track.
• Listen carefully across ecosystem conversations to identify meaningful signals, recurring patterns, emerging opportunities, and potential risks.
• Translate market intelligence into clear, practical insights that may inform opportunity selection, IP strategy, translational funding, venture creation, licensing, partnership development, or portfolio management decisions.

Connect People, Insight, and Opportunity

• Facilitate high-value introductions between NUSX colleagues and relevant external stakeholders, including potential customers, design partners, licensees, strategic partners, investors, advisors, mentors, and collaborators.
• Help colleagues access the market perspectives, external expertise, and ecosystem relationships needed to advance commercialisation activities.
• Support early validation of commercial assumptions by identifying the right people to speak with, the right questions to ask, and the right context for interpreting market feedback.

Strengthen the Global Node Network

• Remain actively integrated with NUSX colleagues despite geographic separation, participating in team discussions, portfolio reviews, opportunity assessments, and knowledge-sharing activities.
• Share relationships, intelligence, and opportunities proactively across the organisation, treating networks and market knowledge as institutional assets rather than personal assets.
• Collaborate with other Global Nodes to identify cross-market patterns, compare ecosystem signals, and strengthen NUSX’s global commercialisation intelligence.

Requirements

What You Bring

• 10+ years of relevant experience in market discovery, commercial strategy, venture building, product strategy, corporate innovation, business development, technology commercialisation, ecosystem development, investment, or related fields.
• Deep experience operating within a mature innovation ecosystem and building trusted relationships with senior industry stakeholders, operators, investors, and customers.
• Strong commercial judgement, with the ability to distinguish market signal from noise and translate complex external input into practical implications for commercialisation.
• Exceptional listening, curiosity, and synthesis skills — you know how to draw out information from conversations and turn fragmented input into actionable insights.
• A generous, low-ego approach to relationship-building — you enjoy connecting people, sharing knowledge, and helping colleagues succeed.
• Ability to operate independently in an offsite or geographically distributed role while remaining closely aligned with organisational priorities, colleagues, and culture.
• Comfort operating through influence in complex ecosystems, including working with stakeholders who have their own mandates, incentives, and priorities.
• A systems mindset — you understand how relationships, market intelligence, IP strategy, translational funding, venture creation, licensing, and portfolio management connect across the commercialisation journey.
• 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.
• Experience helping early-stage technologies engage customers, validate unmet needs, identify design partners, or develop credible paths to market.

Bonus Points For

• Advanced degree (MS, PhD, MBA, MD, or equivalent).
• Experience working across multiple innovation ecosystems, geographies, or markets.
• Track record as a founder, operator, investor, scout, product leader, corporate innovation professional, technology commercialisation professional, or ecosystem builder.
• Working knowledge of university commercialisation, technology transfer, licensing, venture creation, translational research, or public-sector innovation environments.

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.