Director, Pan-European Robotics Initiative (f/m/x) Munich / Hybrid • Full-time

Das ist der Job

We are headquartered in Dresden, Germany, at the heart of Silicon Saxony.

Darum lohnt es sich

Ignite Next is Europe's scale-up program for deep tech innovation, founded by the former Intel Ignite leadership team and now independently operated.

You'll build and lead a small team — and you'll personally drive the work that can't be delegated: the senior partner conversations, the strategic positioning, the multi-year industry commitments, the flagship events. Build the initiative's voice through thought leadership and trade press. • Team and operations.

Hire and lead a small initial team, and grow it across programme management, partnerships, and operations. You've built and led small teams — and you stay hands‑on where it counts.

What to Expect • A front‑row seat to cutting‑edge breakthrough innovation in robotics and Physical AI. • Direct interaction with world‑class founders, investors, and industry leaders. • A small, agile team where your contributions have immediate impact. • Hybrid work with Munich as your home base. • Lunchit, Wellpass, mobility allowance, MacBook, AirPods, mobile plan support, dedicated travel budget. • Competitive base, performance bonus tied to network growth and value creation metrics. • A strong mandate, autonomy to lead the initiative end‑to‑end, and a clear path to taking the model global.

We accelerate early-stage, high-impact startups developing breakthrough technologies in semiconductors, physical AI, advanced computing, and other frontier domains.

Non-dilutive and founder-first, Ignite Next works with leading technology companies—including Infineon, Intel, and Synopsys—to connect startups with world-class technical and business expertise, turning breakthrough innovation into breakout success.

The Role We're hiring a Director to lead our pan-European open robotics initiative — building a partner network of industrial primes, robotics scale-ups, component suppliers, software platforms, universities, and research institutions across the European robotics value chain.

You'll lead the initiative day-to-day: the partner network, the funding base, the programme portfolio, and the initiative's external presence. Your mandate is to expand the network, deepen what it delivers for partners, startups, and founders — and grow the initiative into a reference point for European open robotics.

Your Responsibilities • Industry network. Own the partner network across all tiers. Recruit and retain industrial primes, robotics scale-ups, component suppliers across sensing, vision, actuation, and drives, software and middleware players, universities, and research institutions. • Programme portfolio.

Define and own the initiative's programmes across four pillars: technical enablement (hardware access, toolchains, engineering support), commercial access (OEM and integrator channels, design-in pathways), talent and challenges (hackathons, university MoUs, talent placements), and market intelligence — anchored by a flagship State of European Robotics report. • External presence.

Represent the initiative at industry events — speaking, moderating, bilateral senior engagement. Set goals, run cadence, manage budget. Work closely with the Ignite Next leadership on strategic alignment and shared infrastructure. What We're Looking For • Senior leadership experience.

You've led multi-stakeholder, multi-country efforts in deep tech with industry partner funding — you've built the networks, secured the commitments, ran the cadence. • Manager and Operator.

The senior partner conversations, the strategic positioning, the delivery on multi-year commitments. • Network across European robotics, industrial automation, and physical AI.

Whether from a tier‑1 industrial automation prime, a robotics scale‑up, a component or software supplier, a deep tech VC with active robotics portfolio, or a comparable industry initiative — ideally with substantive reach across multiple countries. • Commercial literacy.

You understand how industrial corporates decide on sponsorship, partnership tiers, and joint commitment. You've structured commercial agreements that work across multiple legal departments. • Technical acumen across the robotics stack. Compute, power, sensing, actuation, vision, software, integration, end markets.

Enough to set priorities, judge contributions, and follow a substantive technical conversation. • Fluent in English and German. Working professional level, both written and spoken. A third European language is a plus. What We Value • Drilling Deep. You dive into the technology, the founders, and the partners — not just the surface. • a = F/m.

Force over mass — find the bottleneck, find ways to unlock it, focus on what truly matters. • Bar raisers. You optimize for founder outcomes, not partner vanity. Compounding daily. We aim to move quickly from first conversation to offer for the right candidate.