You lead business development tied to new-technology adoption — identifying technology-enabled commercial opportunities, building go-to-market strategies, partnering with engineering and product on commercialization — and serve as the strategic-and-commercial voice on new-tech ventures.
A typical week threads across market analysis, partner discussions, internal alignment work, and pipeline development — sitting with engineering on emerging product capabilities, meeting with prospective partners and customers, building business cases for new-technology investment, supporting commercial-launch decisions. Pipeline development and commercialization outcomes anchor the operating measures.
The harder part is often the new-technology uncertainty — emerging technologies carry market-fit, regulatory, and competitive uncertainty that traditional BD methods may not address well, and managers navigate the uncertainty while building defensible commercial cases. Variance across employers shapes the role: large technology firms run new-tech BD within structured strategy functions; growth-stage companies run BD tied to product-market-fit discovery; corporate-innovation programs run BD at the intersection of corporate strategy and emerging tech.
It fits people commercially curious about technology, comfortable with strategic uncertainty, and patient with multi-year commercialization arcs. MBA backgrounds and technology-business credentials anchor advancement. The trade-off is the bet-driven outcome dimension — new-tech BD involves making commercial bets that may or may not pay off, and the role's visibility tracks the outcomes.
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Where this role sits in the broader career landscape — and where it can take you.
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Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
You lead business development tied to new-technology adoption — identifying technology-enabled commercial opportunities, building go-to-market strategies, partnering with engineering and product on commercialization — and serve as the strategic-and-commercial voice on new-tech ventures.
Median pay for a Business Development and New Technology Manager is about $168K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $111K to $208K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Systems Analysis, Judgment and Decision Making, Complex Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, and Speaking.
Most people in this role hold a bachelor's degree.
Employment in this field is projected to grow about 3.8% through 2034, with roughly 210,340 people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include Business Development Director, Process Development Engineer, and Ethanol Operations Manager.
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