Commercial Director (LED/lighting industry)

Who we are

Seaborough is a nanoscience and nanotechnology company focused on the untapped potential of luminescent nanomaterials. We turn bold scientific ideas into breakthrough applications through R&D, commercialization, and licensing, moving from nanoscale chemistry to product‑ready materials in a tight loop with our industry and academic partners.

 

Seaborough has a diverse team and operates with a startup mentality, where we value creativity, agility, and a collaborative spirit. We offer a creative and supportive work environment where your ideas are valued, and your contributions can make a real impact.

Seaborough is located in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, a city recognized to be one of Europe’s hotspots when it comes to a fruitful start-up business environment.

Role overview

The Commercial Director is responsible for leading and integrating Seaborough’s commercial activities. As Seaborough is currently on the bridge towards commercialization, this role offers the opportunity to (further) build a strong commercial team, while giving the outlook to grow towards turning Seaborough’s technologies into concrete, testable and decision-ready offers for partners.

The Commercial Director is responsible for defining and prioritizing product and commercialization opportunities in a highly technical environment, ensuring that commercial initiatives are market-driven, technically feasible, clearly packaged and aligned with Seaborough’s strategic objectives. This includes leading the productization process, structuring customer and partner propositions and ensuring consistent communication across business development, product and marketing activities.

The Commercial Director leads the commercial team including Product Management and Marketing & Communications, which currently includes 2 direct reports with ambition to grow and establish a full commercial team alongside commercialization success. The Commercial Director works closely with the CEO, CFO, internal R&D teams and external partners to drive focused commercialization of Seaborough’s technologies through B2B partnerships and licensing models.

This role reports to the CEO.

Scope and Key Responsibilities

Commercial Strategy & Leadership

• Define and drive Seaborough’s commercial strategy in alignment with the company’s overall goals and technology roadmap.
• Translate Seaborough’s objectives, technology developments and IP portfolio into a clear commercial roadmap.
• Own the commercial prioritization of opportunities across markets, applications, partners and product concepts.
• Define commercial milestones, KPIs and decision points for key product and partnership opportunities.
• Lead, coach and structure the work of the commercial team, including Product Management and Marketing & Communications.
• Drives the periodical evaluation and update of the strategic business case according to most recent market data and insights

Product Definition & Productization

• Own the process of turning technology into concrete, testable and decision-ready product and partner offers.
• Final responsibility for product definition, product-market fit (including cost structure), product prioritization and commercialization readiness.
• Oversee the development of clear product value propositions, product specifications, pricing logic and commercial use cases.
• Ensure that early-stage technology opportunities are translated into structured product-market cases under conditions of technical uncertainty and incomplete data.

Business Development & Deal Packaging

• Act as the primary commercial point of contact
• Build and maintain strategic relationships with relevant partners
• Lead commercial negotiations, commercial partner discussions and licensing or joint development related processes.
• Ensure consistent follow-up, opportunity tracking and progression of commercial opportunities.

Market Analysis & Opportunity Development

• Identify, assess and prioritize relevant applications, target segments, target customers and use cases.
• Evaluate market attractiveness, commercial potential, customer urgency and competitive positioning of product opportunities, via an ‘outside-in’ approach.

Marketing, Communications & Customer-Facing Execution

• Lead marketing and communications activities to ensure consistent positioning of Seaborough, its technologies and its product propositions.
• Own marketing and communications planning and execution, offering hands on support when needed

Cross-functional Collaboration & Team Integration

• Translate complex technical and scientific concepts into clear commercial propositions, partner messages and business value.
• Ensure alignment between commercial opportunities, technical feasibility, IP position and partner requirements.
• Act as the bridge between commercial, product, R&D, product engineering, marketing and management functions.
• Ensure that commercial priorities are clearly communicated to technical teams and that technical input is incorporated into customer-facing propositions.

Require experience and skills

Education

• Master’s degree in Business, Marketing, Engineering, Science, or a related field.
• A technical, science, or engineering background combined with commercial, business, or MBA-level experience is preferred.

Experience & Competencies

• 8+ years of relevant experience in business development, commercialization, product management, licensing, and/or commercial leadership.
• Proven ability to translate complex technology into clear product propositions, business value and partner-ready commercial opportunities.
• Experience in deep-tech, IP-driven, science-based, materials, lighting (LED), clean-tech, or other technology-driven B2B environments is strongly preferred.
• Strong understanding of B2B commercialization, licensing models, strategic partnerships and long-cycle customer development.
• Demonstrated ability to define and prioritize product-market opportunities under uncertainty and with incomplete technical or market data.
• Strong analytical and structuring skills, with the ability to turn complex information into clear decisions and actionable recommendations.
• Excellent commercial judgement and ability to balance market attractiveness, technical feasibility, strategic fit and execution risk.
• Ability to lead and develop a commercial team in a scale-up environment.
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to communicate effectively with technical teams, management, customers, partners and external stakeholders.
• Proactive, hands-on, pragmatic and solution-oriented working style.
• Comfortable operating in a dynamic, multidisciplinary and early-stage environment where priorities may evolve based on technical progress, partner feedback and strategic decisions.
• Strong affinity with sustainability, clean technology, nanomaterials, lighting, or related technology domains is preferred.

Languages

• English: mandatory
• Dutch: preferred

Weekly hours: 32-40 hrs

Please send an email to hr@seaborough.com to apply with your CV and motivation.