Business Development Manager
About TACTILIA:
At TACTILIA, we are building the industry-ready robotic hand that closes one of the biggest gaps in Physical AI. Spun out of SCHUNK, the global market leader in gripping technology, we combine a decade of robotic-hand expertise and real industrial access with the speed and ambition of a deep-tech startup.
This isn't a research project waiting for its first customer. We already have a product, customers are ready to use it, and we are launching now. Your work will directly shape the electronics, actuators, and embedded systems that make that possible.
You will join at the moment when the hard engineering questions become real product decisions: how do we make a highly capable robotic hand reliable, manufacturable, serviceable, and simple enough to deploy on a real shop floor?
The Role:
As Business Development Manager, you will own TACTILIA's commercial launch: finding the right customers, opening doors, and turning early interest into signed deals. You will sell a technically demanding product to engineering and business decision-makers across robotics, AI, and industrial automation, acting as the bridge between our engineers and our customers. You will also help define which markets and partnerships we pursue first, and your feedback from the field will directly shape our product roadmap and go-to-market.
What you will do:
Identify, prioritize, and win target accounts across humanoid and robotics OEMs, system integrators, AI and robot-learning companies, and industrial end users
Own the full sales cycle, from first contact and qualification through technical evaluation, proposal, negotiation, and close
Lead technical pre-sales together with our engineering team: product demos, use-case workshops, feasibility discussions, and pilot scoping
Build relationships with decision-makers on both the technical side (R&D, engineering leads) and the commercial side (management, procurement)
Develop strategic partnerships with ecosystem players, and leverage SCHUNK's industrial network where it opens doors
Translate customer requirements, from grasping and manipulation to integration with robot platforms and AI stacks, into clear value propositions
Represent TACTILIA at trade fairs, conferences, and customer events
Bring structured market and customer insight back to the team to inform pricing, positioning, and product priorities
What you bring:
5+ years in business development, technical sales, or pre-sales, ideally selling complex technical products or solutions to industrial or engineering customers
A solid technical foundation in robotics and AI, through your studies or hands-on work, so you can discuss robot integration and AI-driven manipulation credibly with engineers
A track record of winning new accounts and closing complex deals with long sales cycles
Strong presentation and negotiation skills, with the ability to build trust at both the engineering and executive level
Ownership mentality: you're comfortable building structure and pipeline without a ready-made playbook
Fluent English; German is a plus
Bonus:
Experience in robotics, humanoids, dexterous manipulation, automation, or industrial hardware
Existing network among robotics companies, integrators, AI labs, or industrial automation buyers
Experience in a startup or scale-up where you helped build the sales function
The next chapter of robotics won't be built in a lab. It will be built by people who care about what happens when technology meets the real world.
At TACTILIA, you'll work on one of the hardest open problems in robotics: giving machines the dexterity, reliability and robustness to interact with the physical world at industrial scale.
The technology is taking shape, the team is being built, and the standards around robotic hands and their skills are still open. That means your decisions will have a lasting impact — not just on a product, but on what comes next for Physical AI.
Build the hand. Define the standard. Shape what comes next.
If you're excited by the challenge of building robotic hands that works reliably in the real world, we'd love to hear from you.