Chief Technology Officer

CREAL developed a breakthrough 3D display for virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) headsets that provide much more pleasant and natural 3D imagery than existing products. This technology will be a key ingredient to make VR and AR truly omnipresent. The technology and the market are, however, both immature for mainstream consumer applications. Therefore, before the ecosystem is fully set, we are offering our tech to niches where key advantages of our tech beat its current limitations.

We are looking for a Chief Technology Officer or Senior Director with proven experience in AR display technologies and AR hardware industry (ideally consumer electronics), who has a passion for both technology and business. The candidate will identify and help us to bring our light-field display technology to one or few exciting applications. He/she will be actively involved in hardware sales and licensing deals with customers or OEMs. The position requires business creativity and the ability to build and execute a plan from the “technology demonstrator” to recurring revenues.

Profile

  • You have a proven track record in AR display technologies and AR hardware industry.
  • You have successfully done most or all of the above as director or senior manager of a large company in AR space (ideally consumer electronics), or as CEO or senior executive within a startup.
  • You have experience with taking technology to market, ideally through licensing. M&A experience would be a great advantage.
  • You have an extensive senior executive high-tech global contact network, especially in AR market.
  • You have a strong technical background in high-tech and/or deep tech from within our industry and ideally those of our customers.
  • You have at least 5 years of high-tech management, sales, strategic planning, product management, business development or product development experience, ideally you have experience in driving technology development from a laboratory to a product.
  • You can think strategically both at your desk and on your feet.
  • You are an excellent problem solver, critical thinker, and skilled negotiator.
  • You have excellent interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills.
  • You have authored at least one compelling business plan (presentation or written) and /or sales presentation.
  • General experience in matters relating to IP and licensing.
  • Fluent English.

Responsibilities

Your main responsibility will be to bring existing client relationships to a successful technology non/recurring engineering project culminating in a licensing deal or M&A. We expect you to:

  • Be responsible for and develop the Company’s business and product strategies. Utilizing structured interviews with industry experts, potential customers, potential suppliers, complementors, and other industry ecosystem participants; and industry analyst reports, conference / trade show attendance, and online research:
    • Identify the right markets to focus on. Validate or challenge our initial markets.
    • Identify customer / market requirements and both minimum and ideal product / service specifications to meet or exceed those requirements, with help of the engineering team and management team, define how a successful product should look like.
    • In the longer term, develop an effective, efficient, and ongoing “triage” process to identify, qualify and rank potential markets (applications within industries).
    • Contribute to development of a compelling business plan (the story) based on product / service and business development progress to date, working hypotheses / assumptions that have been validated with high confidence and the materials required to enable a short-term financing (pitch deck, executive summary).
    • Develop of both technology and product roadmaps that enable the company to retain and sell more to current customers, enable and unlock new markets and customers, and drive and accelerate revenue growth and profitability. 
    • Develop a long-term intellectual property strategy and implementation plan including what to protect and how (patent, keep as trade secret, etc.) and what technologies and designs to license in and/or out.
    • Identify missing functions, skills and required experience, creating job specifications, sourcing talent globally, use of advisors, consultants, and credible third parties on an interim basis (virtual functions).
  • Be actively involved in business development. Contribute and/or take over some existing relationships and engage with potential customers to secure joint development projects / customer funding (NRE) and volume purchase agreements.
    • Drive and organize presentations and demos of evaluation kits.
    • As required, use best practices to identify, qualify, sell, and engage with new potential strategic partners.
    • Develop both customer (and, as required, strategic partner) qualification and selection / rejection process based on objective criteria, company bandwidth, and “pay to play” willingness.
    • Build alliances and partnerships with other organizations.
  • Stay on top of technology trends and developments. Make decisions with regard to the technological interests of the Company. Outline the goals for research and development. Discover and implement new technologies that yield competitive advantage.
  • Participate in the development of compelling marketing materials (technical and product side) including the company website, brochures, product / service data sheets and application notes, company and market specific customer presentations, social media, and blogs, contributed articles and other marketing materials.
    • Attend/exhibit at conferences, meetings, and industry events. 
    • Follow industry trends locally and internationally.

What we offer

  • Full time position. We are flexible in terms of hours, we support remote work, though the uniqueness of our technology means that testing needs to be done on site.
  • You will see the world and travel a lot.
  • You will be among the first key employees of a young entrepreneurial startup. This will offer you the possibility to grow as you help to grow our company to a unicorn.
  • You will work in an enjoyable can-do atmosphere with a few diverse and enthusiastic people (currently 22) free of corporate hassles like endless meetings and approval procedures.
  • You will enjoy the amenities of working at EPFL innovation park, a vibrant Swiss cluster.
  • We can offer benefits tuned to your personal needs, caring for your family or your personal or professional growth.
  • Your benefits will include company stock options, giving you direct participation in the success of your work.