Roadrunner Venture Studios is the nation’s leading platform for founding breakthrough ventures in deep technology. Our mission is to turn frontier tech into breakthrough companies for the benefit of the American people. Together with engineers, scientists, and entrepreneurs, we build products, create business models, recruit teams, align companies with their first customers, and provide initial funding. Our Venture Studios focuses on advanced energy, advanced materials, advanced manufacturing, and quantum technologies.
At Roadrunner, the future doesn’t just happen — we make it happen. We take our work seriously, without taking ourselves too seriously. We believe progress must be imagined and built — and we build it together.
The Role
Reporting to the Head of Venture Studios, the Venture Architect is the single accountable owner of each new venture’s commercial viability. You’ll operate at the intersection of technology, market, and team—taking ideas from zero to seed-ready companies.
This is an accountable hands-on leadership role. You set strategic direction, lead specialists through a rigorous business building methodology, and make the judgment calls that determine whether a technical innovation becomes an investable company.
You’ll join a team that moves fast, experiments often, and believes conviction beats consensus. Every company you build contributes to something bigger: building meaningful, durable companies in deep tech.
What You’ll Do
The Venture Architect is accountable for 2–3+ ventures simultaneously, from concept through seed readiness, within a pod structure. You are the single point of accountability across each company — integrating product, technical, commercial, and team efforts. Your team executes within their domains; you set direction, ensure coherence, and make the calls.
Venture Design & Validation
Define what must be true at each stage and direct teams toward real validation, not theory
Commission and oversee customer discovery; engage directly with buyers when required to validate demand and secure early traction
Direct the development of business models, unit economics, and pathways to first revenue and scale
Partner with technical leads to evaluate feasibility and guide product direction
Evaluate inbound opportunities and determine fit within the studio model
Accountable for the commercial thesis and vision behind each venture.
Pod Leadership & Strategic Direction
Orchestrate pod execution: lead weekly pod meetings, run 1:1s, and ensure alignment across functions (product, GTM, talent)
Think ahead across venture development dimensions (technology, market, business model, team) — anticipating risks and opportunities 1–2 phases in advance
Serve as the primary thought partner to founders and internal leads; the first call when decisions need to be made
Work directly with founders in a CEO-like partnership to shape strategy, execution, and outcomes
Make clear calls on resource allocation, priorities, pivots, and when to stop pursuing a path
Drive structured stage-gating with clear criteria, timelines, and evidence
Accountable for cross-functional velocity, coherence, and judgment.
Capital, Team & Venture Transfer
Architect the Series Seed funding strategy; direct preparation of investment materials and data rooms
Define the commercial launch strategy including regulatory navigation and lighthouse customer acquisition
Execute a structured handoff from studio to standalone entity, ensuring continuity of strategy, governance, and key relationships through the transition
Accountable for making each venture investable, leadable, and independent.
Who You Are
Experienced with 8+ years in a combination of entrepreneurial execution (startups, venture, venture capital, venture studios), top-tier consulting, or operating roles
Hands-on, with a bias toward action—you’re willing to roll up your sleeves and do the work
Able to manage through others while staying close enough to execution to ensure quality
Comfortable being prescriptive and having a strong point of view when needed
Skilled at navigating ambiguity and making decisions with imperfect information
Familiar with deep tech domains such as energy, manufacturing, or compute
Capable of working across startups and corporate partners, including engaging incumbents and piloting solutions
Strong in both quantitative and qualitative thinking — from market sizing to business model design
Financial modeling depth: able to direct, review, and stress-test driver-based financial models, and build from first principles when required
You’re a builder. You’ve helped create something from zero and know what it actually takes to get to traction. You’re comfortable operating across product, commercial, and team—and you take accountability for outcomes.
You’re also:
Why Roadrunner
We earn trust through fairness, integrity, and consistent delivery. We win together, own together, and run together. We’re building companies that matter—and having a blast doing it.
Roadrunner Venture Studios sits at a unique intersection of frontier research and real-world deployment. We work closely with national labs like Sandia and Los Alamos, alongside the New Mexico state ecosystem—including NM SIC and EDD—to translate breakthrough science into venture-backable companies. This positioning gives us privileged access to technologies, partnerships, and non-dilutive capital that most early-stage builders never see.
Roadrunner Venture Studios is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer that proudly pursues and hires a diverse workforce. We do not make hiring or employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion or religious belief, ethnic or national origin, nationality, sex, gender, gender-identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, military or veteran status, or any other basis protected by applicable local, state, or federal laws or prohibited by Company policy. We strive for a healthy and safe workplace and strictly prohibit harassment of any kind.
Skills Required
- 8+ years of experience in entrepreneurial execution, consulting, or operations
- Deep understanding of deep tech domains such as energy or manufacturing
- Experience with financial modeling and business model design
What We Do
Roadrunner Venture Studios is a company creation factory. We co-found breakthrough deep-tech ventures with the nation’s most brilliant scientists, engineers, and innovators in Energy, Space, Clean Tech, Advanced Materials and Manufacturing, Quantum, and High Performance Computing. Our team gets involved at the earliest possible moment — often when a company is just a whiteboard scribble, a concept modeled in wire-frame, or as founders are puzzling through how to design a pitch deck or process payroll — and rapidly accelerates product development, commercialization, and recruitment. We are the ultimate company “starter-kit,” equipping our portfolio companies with everything they need to go from the kernel of an idea to a venture-backed growth engine. Our promise is clear: our founders leave our studio with a company, a check, a customer, and a team.
