Head of Emerging Technology Scouting & Incubation

Work Your Magic with us! Start your next chapter and join EMD Electronics.
Ready to explore, break barriers, and discover more? We know you’ve got big plans – so do we! Our colleagues across the globe love innovating with science and technology to enrich people’s lives with our solutions in Healthcare, Life Science, and Electronics. Together, we dream big and are passionate about caring for our rich mix of people, customers, patients, and planet. That's why we are always looking for curious minds that see themselves imagining the unimaginable with us.
Everything we do in EMD Electronics is to help us deliver on our purpose of being the company behind the companies, advancing digital living. We are dedicated to being the trusted supplier of high-tech materials, services and specialty chemicals for the electronics, automotive and cosmetics industries. We foster a global collaborative organization made up of individuals who have the passion to win, obsess about the customer, are relentlessly curious and act with urgency. Together, we push the boundaries of science to make more possible for our customers.
This role does not offer sponsorship for work authorization. External applicants must be eligible to work in the US.
Location:
The Head of Emerging Technology Scouting & Incubation is an on-site position located at one of the EMD Electronics US sites, remote may be considered. Domestic and international travel is required to meet business needs.
Your Role:
As Head of Emerging Technology Scouting & Incubation (ETSI), you will expand Electronics‘ innovation space by understanding emerging technology needs, identifying high-potential opportunity areas, and incubating them into validated business cases ready for Business Unit transition. You will lead frontier technology scouting across materials and beyond-materials domains, manage internal and external proof-of-concepts (POCs), and own technical due diligence for strategic M&A targets. Your leadership will drive impactful external partnerships/research collaborations (JDAs), incubators that translate into new product introductions (NPI), and a strong early-stage pipeline. You will architect technology roadmaps, drive the Frontier Technology Board, and partner with internal stakeholders to translate emerging technology insights into new revenue streams and competitive advantage. You will use a clear process with defined priorities, milestones, and responsibilities to move ideas from technology scouting and POCs to validated business cases and successful handover to the relevant Business Units.
Key Responsibilities:
Identify emerging opportunity areas in industry technology roadmaps: map technology inflection points, materials opportunities, and risks across Electronics markets; monitor external signals (startups, academia, suppliers, consortia, patent trends) to spot high-potential emerging technologies poised for impact.
Validate opportunity areas through best-fit external / internal proof-of-concepts (e.g. JDAs, incubators): define success criteria, metrics, and go/no-go decision thresholds; oversee early-stage incubators/POCs leveraging internal resources, external collaborations, and incubators.
Identify frontier tech M&A targets & own technical due diligence (thought partner to M-Ventures and M&A team): assess targets operating in BU-adjacent spaces or outside existing BU businesses; deliver structured technical assessments and integration readiness plans to inform investment decisions.
Tech steering for Electronics BU Business Development teams (e.g., Future Optical Technologies, Advanced Packaging): align scouting outputs with BU strategic goals, technology roadmaps, and innovation horizons; provide technology foresight to guide BU investment decisions.
Drive Business Development for emerging technology that goes beyond Business Unit horizons/scope: identify cross-domain opportunities, new market adjacencies, and potential revenue streams outside current BU portfolios; partner with M-Ventures and business stakeholders to explore build/partner/buy options.
Drive operations and impact of the Frontier Technology Board, shaping and driving its objectives, agenda, engagement model and participants.
Foster ecosystem building by liaising with internal groups (R&D and M-Ventures) and external partners to advance emerging technology pathfinding.
Assess R&D capabilities, identify gaps, and define actions to realize EL’s long-term technology vision while championing science-driven decision making, rapid experimentation, and responsible innovation.
Who You Are:
Minimum Qualifications:
Master degree in Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science or similar discipline with 8+ years of experience in technology scouting, R&D leadership, and/or corporate development with a track record of leading successful incubations, POCs, or M&A technical due diligence