Job DescriptionThe
Startup Business Manager serves as NI's business and technical leader within the U.S. MedTech startup ecosystem. This role is responsible for establishing NI as a trusted, long-term platform partner to venture-backed startups and accelerator programs-starting from early R&D through validation, scale, and commercialization.
This is a hands-on, externally facing role that blends ecosystem relationship management, technical enablement, and early commercial ownership. The ideal candidate brings strong credibility with engineers and startup leaders, understands early-stage MedTech development realities, and can navigate internally across engineering, applications, and sales teams to remove friction for customers.
The role is designed for a professional with
5+ years of experience who can operate independently, influence without authority, and represent NI with confidence across accelerators, investors, and startup leadership teams.
In This Role, Your Responsibilities Will Be:1. Build Trust and Presence in the MedTech Startup Ecosystem- Establish and maintain an embedded NI presence within priority U.S. MedTech accelerators.
- Act as NI's primary interface to accelerator leadership, technical mentors, and cohort companies.
- Participate in accelerator activities including cohort kickoffs, office hours, workshops, and recurring technical sessions.
- Provide early technical guidance, ecosystem connections, and practical R&D perspectives to startup teams.
- Broker structured access to NI Application Engineering and domain experts (e.g., design reviews, architecture sanity checks).
- Capture ecosystem-level insights, patterns, and unmet needs to inform NI positioning, offerings, and internal enablement.
2. Reduce Barriers to Entry for Early-
Stage R&D Engineers - Drive the creation of NI's startup-focused onboarding motion, including accelerator kits, OEM starter configurations, loaner hardware, and sponsorship programs.
- Define and maintain startup-friendly hardware configurations, software bundles, and reference architectures.
- Coordinate access to short-term demo or loaner hardware for early prototyping and feasibility work.
- Partner with internal teams to provide extended or accelerator-aligned NI software licensing.
- Serve as the primary technical and operational point of coordination during early NI adoption.
- Identify common friction points experienced by startups and proactively drive improvements across tools, documentation, patterns, and processes.
- Lead the commercial conversion motion from evaluation to purchase using predefined configurations, pricing, and procurement paths.
- Coordinate closely with NI Sales & BU Leadership to ensure startup-appropriate pricing and buying experiences.
3. Enable Startup Scale, Validation, and Investment Readiness - Guide startups in defining scalable test architectures that support progression from early R&D to validation and OEM use-without re-platforming.
- Provide continuity as NI's point of coordination as startups mature, helping prevent late-stage technology resets.
- Support investor-ready technical positioning by helping startups anticipate diligence expectations from investors and acquirers.
- Optimize test and verification workflows to accelerate iteration, validation cycles, and time-to-market, including regulatory readiness.
- Enable reuse of validated NI software, configurations, and test systems as startups scale.
- Identify risks that could delay commercialization, validation, or acquisition readiness and work cross-functionally to mitigate them.
- Capture successful startup journeys as internal and external case studies to support future enablement and ecosystem growth.
For This Role, You Will Need: - Bachelor's in engineering or other technical discipline
- 5 years of professional experience in technical business development
- Experience with NI Technology
- Excellent communication, relationship-building, and stakeholder management skills
- 30% travel required
- Legal authorization to work in the US - visa sponsorship is not provided
Preferred Qualifications That Set You Apart:- Experience in MedTech, life sciences, or regulated hardware/software environments
- Familiarity with accelerator programs, venture capital expectations, or startup funding stages
- Experience supporting validation, verification, or compliance-driven development workflows
- Prior exposure to test automation, instrumentation, or embedded systems platforms
- Demonstrated experience working directly with startups, R&D engineers, or early-stage product teams
- Experience navigating matrixed organizations and coordinating across engineering, sales, and commercial teams
- Startup ecosystem or accelerator engagement
- Applications engineering, systems engineering, or technical program management
- MedTech, test & measurement, or regulated product development environments
- Strong technical fluency-able to engage credibly in system architecture, test strategy, and platform discussions (hands-on coding not required)
- Proven ability to operate independently in externally facing roles with ambiguous problem spaces
- Comfortable owning early-stage commercial motions without traditional quota pressure
Success Profile - NI is viewed by founders and accelerator leaders as a trusted, pragmatic partner, not just a vendor. Startups can onboard quickly and confidently onto NI platforms with minimal friction.
- Fewer startups re-platform away from NI as technical and organizational complexity increases.
- Internal teams benefit from clearer insight into startup needs and ecosystem trends.
- The role creates measurable pipeline, long-term design wins, and scalability.
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