Commercialization Director - NCTI

Commercialization Director

The National Commercialization and Translation Institute (NCTI) is seeking a Commercialization Director to help shape a first-of-its-kind national initiative funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). In this highly visible leadership role, you will work directly with innovative technology companies, helping founders navigate the path from promising innovation to commercial success. Serving as a trusted advisor, you will evaluate market opportunities, guide commercialization planning, connect companies with specialized resources, and help position emerging ventures for sustainable growth and investment readiness.

This opportunity is ideal for a commercialization professional, startup leader, founder, investor, or innovation ecosystem builder who thrives where strategy and execution intersect. The most successful candidate will bring real-world experience advancing technology-based innovations, a strong entrepreneurial mindset, and the ability to challenge assumptions while helping companies unlock their next stage of growth. As part of NCTI's founding leadership team, you will help create a national model that could influence how deep-technology commercialization support is delivered across the country.

Responsibilities:

• Support cohort selection and lead onboarding: provide substantive input to the national solicitation and the weighted, quantitative review rubric used by the independent Selection Board; participate in structured finalist interviews; and lead cohort onboarding and entry orientation for the six to eight selected companies.
• Lead diagnostic triage and Individualized Commercialization Plans (S4, S5): lead the structured triage of each selected company across technical development, market validation, business formation, regulatory status, and capital readiness, anchored to the TRL, MRL, CRL, and IRL readiness frameworks; coordinate founder and team assessments, including the Start-up Entrepreneur Competency Model and professionally administered behavioral assessments; and co-develop each company's ICP with the company and its lead advisor, including gap diagnosis, baseline readiness scores, the 90-day/6-month/12-month milestone schedule, tranche-linked budget, named resource and advisor assignments, and explicit investor-readiness targets.
• Deliver concierge support and manage the portfolio (S5, S6, S7): work directly with participating companies on a standing cadence to maintain progress against each ICP; recruit, vet, match, and manage each company's embedded lead advisor — typically a senior, sector-matched commercialization executive — and manage the ongoing fit of each match; match diagnosed company needs to the institute's national resource portfolio (built and maintained by the Partnerships Director), including I-Corps, ART, NSF Engines, national laboratories (Oak Ridge, Sandia, PNNL), GrowFL, the Edward Lowe Foundation, the UCF Business Incubation Program, and the NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership;
  
  broker fabrication, pilot-production, and manufacturing capacity where a company's ICP requires it; organize cohort community events — entry orientation, the in-person midpoint convening, and company participation in the annual investor showcase — coordinating with the Education Director, who delivers the educational peer round tables; and prepare companies for structured investor access (deep dives, pitch preparation, capital-strategy readiness, curated introductions) in partnership with the Partnerships Director.
• Support governance and milestone accountability (S7): serve on the commercialization-support review committee (chaired by the Executive Director, with a Strategic Board designee and RTI observer), which verifies milestones, confirms continued research participation, and authorizes tranche releases independently of delivery staff; prepare complete, auditable milestone-verification materials and present progress against agreed milestones at each checkpoint; update each company's support plan at checkpoints based on progress data;
  
  and prepare and run the structured re-engagement review process for companies whose ICP implementation…