# Founder (CTO) - Industrial Laser Venture > ATUM Ventures · Singapore, Singapore (Hybrid) · Full-time · Posted 2026-06-03 **Workplace:** hybrid **Department:** Founders - Venture Building @ ATUM ## Description **Who We Are** ATUM is a Singapore deep-tech venture builder and investor. We build companies from breakthrough, IP-backed research, bringing capital, operational muscle, and partners from industry, VC, and government into every build. We've built and backed 15 ventures, and we invest in fast-scaling deep-tech with real fundamentals, not hype. **The Venture** Industrial surface preparation, stripping rust, paint, and coatings before recoating, is a dirty, hazardous, multi-billion-dollar global industry still dominated by sandblasting: abrasive grit, dust, silica, hazardous waste, confined-space risk. We're building the company to replace it, and the hardest, most interesting part of that is an engineering problem waiting for an owner. A laser system developed at A\*STAR already does, in one pass, what sandblasting needs two steps for: it strips contamination _and_ generates the precise surface profile coatings need to bond, no grit, no chemicals, no waste. A working handheld prototype exists today, validated with paint majors, shipyards, refineries, and aerospace OEMs. The next step is the one that unlocks the mass market: a kilowatt-class system, polygon scanner, liquid cooling, a fully enclosed and sensorised beam path, that hits the throughput abrasive blasting delivers. That's the engineering challenge, and it's why we need a technical founder. The next version: a kilowatt-class system that matches the throughput of sandblasting while keeping that single-pass precision. That means real engineering, high-power laser integration, a fast polygon scanner, liquid cooling, a fully enclosed and sensorised beam path, all in something rugged enough for industry and simple enough for an operator. Solve it, and you just don't have a better tool, you have the product that retires an entire industrial method. **The Role** You'll be the founding CTO. You'll own the technology, taking it from a validated prototype to a deployable, manufacturable, field-ready product. You'll work alongside a commercial co-founder (CEO), a dedicated ATUM venture team, and the inventor, who joins as your CSO and hands over years of deep process know-how. Together, we'll: - Own the next-gen build: high-power laser integration, scanner spec, thermal architecture, beam-delivery safety - Drive the engineering roadmap and own the system-integrator and supplier relationships - Design for manufacture: drive the BOM, supply chain, and reliability toward a unit that scales - Build the technical foundation and team for a product that iterates across generations This is not a job. It's a founding journey where you share the risk, the upside, and the impact. ## Requirements **Who You Are** - **A hardware productiser:** You've taken hardware from prototype to product, where you’ve wrestled with thermal limits, reliability, manufacturability, and cost, not just lab performance. - **A systems owner:** You can run a complex build end to end, such as specifying components, managing integrators and suppliers, making the tradeoffs that get a real product out the door. - **Technically deep in a relevant domain:** Lasers, optics, or photonics are a strong plus. but precision electromechanical systems, robotics, or industrial automation are all directly relevant. What matters is depth, and that you can go toe-to-toe with a world-class inventor and learn the laser layer fast. - **Commercially grounded:** You think in BOM cost, yield, and serviceability, and you know the best engineering is what ships and scales. - **Resilient & ready:** You have the runway to commit full-time and the grit for the timelines real hardware demands. ## Benefits **Why Build With Us** - **A hard problem worth owning:** This is a genuine, unsolved engineering challenge with a clear commercial prize, not incremental work, and it's yours to lead. - **A de-risked starting point:** A working prototype, deep process IP handed over by the inventor, and real industry pull. You're not betting on a blank page. - **Founder-led:** You're the CTO and the technical authority, with meaningful founding equity. - **Funding-ready:** ATUM backs the build with pre-seed capital and grant access, plus follow-on funding support from our investor network. - **Hands-on partners:** We're in the trenches with you on product, hiring, and fundraising, not just on the cap table. ## Apply [Apply at ATUM Ventures](https://apply.workable.com/atum-ventures/j/410A5417C1/apply) --- Powered by [Workable](https://www.workable.com)