ATUM Deep-Tech Founder & CTO (Pharmaceutical Scale-up) - Singapore
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 Technical Founder to take this next wave of high-impact technologies out into the world. As a Technical Founder, you'll lead the technological vision, development and innovation of a new start up from day one. You’ll pair with a Commercial Founder to build a defensible product based on breakthrough technology, and set the foundations for scale & impact.
Whether you’re a PhD researcher, engineer or scientist, your deep domain knowledge will be critical in shaping a viable technical solution and achieving venture milestones.
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 technical evolution of a new deep-tech startup. You’ll define the technical roadmap, shape the product vision, and build the systems that bring breakthrough ideas to life, partnering with a Commercial Founder and to market-ready innovation that's primed for scale.
- Own the technical vision and architecture. Translate ambitious research or prototypes into scalable, reliable systems ready for commercialisation.
- Lead early product development. Design, build, and iterate the core technology, balancing rapid experimentation with long-term robustness and defensibility.
- Shape the venture’s technical thesis. Identify what’s truly hard, what’s proprietary, and where the edge lies, defining how technology creates a sustainable moat.
- Collaborate across science, engineering, and business. Work with your commercial founder, researchers, and operators to align technical milestones with venture strategy.
- Recruit and lead technical talent. Build and inspire an early team capable of executing across uncertainty, from MVP builds to production systems.
- Engage the ecosystem. Represent the technical narrative to investors, partners, and collaborators, establishing credibility in both scientific and commercial domains.
- Drive innovation responsibly. Make decisions that balance speed, quality and ethical integrity as the company grows.
Requirements
Who You Are:
- Proven entrepreneurial drive - you’ve started something complex from scratch and seen it through (start up, business line, product, etc.).
- Deep technical expertise in flow chemistry, process engineering, or chemical automation systems. You have experience integrating hardware, sensors, and data pipelines for experimental or industrial R&D systems.
- 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
Benefits
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.