Product Innovation Specialist

Argonne National Laboratory•Lemont, IL

1d•$69,750 - $108,810•Onsite

About The Position

Argonne National Laboratory is hiring a Product Innovation Specialist in its Strategic Transportation Education & Partnerships (STEP) Department. The specialist will lead venture building, mentoring, and startup coaching for the EcoCAR Innovation Challenge while adapting and scaling entrepreneurial methods across STEP’s advanced energy and transportation workforce portfolio. The role connects deep-tech engineering with early-stage venture incubation and aims to help students develop both engineering depth and entrepreneurial breadth. A central focus is replacing a “build-it-first” approach with evidence-based customer discovery using methods such as NSF I-Corps and Lean Startup. The specialist will work with 20 university teams as a dedicated mentor and professor, providing ongoing office hours, offline reviews, and real-time troubleshooting. They will guide students through R&D commercialization and help them become stakeholder-aware engineers who can address integration roadblocks, balance technical tradeoffs against business value, and develop solutions with market potential. The position requires an on-site presence at Argonne’s campus in Lemont, Illinois, and travel of 10%–15% (20–30 nights annually), concentrated around key milestone events. The selected candidate will be placed at the PT2 or PT3 level based on relevant knowledge, skills, and experience. The expected hiring range is $69,750–$108,810. Comprehensive benefits are part of the total rewards package; the posting refers candidates to Argonne’s employee benefits information but does not specify individual benefits.

Requirements

Experience with hypothesis-driven development, business model iteration, and structured Lean Startup methodologies.
Demonstrated ability to mentor and challenge highly technical engineering students and guide them through commercial and strategic business frameworks.
Demonstrated initiative, sound judgment, organizational ability, and capacity to manage multiple concurrent activities.
Strong written and oral communication skills, including preparing technical reports, presentations, training materials, and publications.
Strong operational discipline and project management skills to sustain a high-frequency coaching and evaluation tempo across 20 university teams.
Ability to work effectively across technical, programmatic, and external partnership settings.
Ability to model Argonne’s Core Values: Impact, Safety, Respect, Integrity, and Teamwork.
PT2: Bachelor’s degree and at least 2 years of experience in entrepreneurship, product management, engineering, or a related field.
PT3: Bachelor’s degree and at least 4 years of experience in entrepreneurship, product management, engineering, or a related field.
Ability to work on-site at Argonne’s campus in Lemont, Illinois.
Willingness to travel 10%–15% (20–30 nights annually), concentrated around key milestone events.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with the Desirability, Feasibility, Viability (DFV) framework for evaluating concepts and guiding them through evidence-based stage gates.
Technical fluency in advanced engineering sectors such as electrification, autonomy, connectivity, or systems integration, sufficient to assess the engineering feasibility of student hardware and software concepts.
Automotive background is helpful but not required.
Direct experience in deep-tech, academic tech-transfer, or hardware startup environments focused on bridging advanced R&D and commercial viability.
Experience managing student accelerators, incubators, or multi-stakeholder innovation pipelines involving university, government, and corporate partners.
Ability to connect early-stage ventures or departmental programs with external resources and industry mentors.

Responsibilities

Coach EcoCAR Innovation Challenge teams through venture building and help them move from a build-it-first mindset to a problem-first, evidence-based approach.
Train students in Lean Startup methods for uncovering actual user behaviors and workflows, and discourage validation-seeking for preconceived solutions.
Help teams define innovation spaces based on technical constraints, then use customer evidence to prioritize applications and guide product design.
Evaluate concepts and business models and guide teams through stage gates toward defensible exit strategies or Go/Pivot/Hold decisions.
Develop an industry sponsor cohort as an Innovation Advisory Council to advise student teams in Years 2–4 and provide venture guidance and investor connections.
Mentor students in market validation, competitive analysis, and communicating technical value propositions in pre-seed pitches for industry stakeholders.
Design future problem spaces and gated venture structures for Years 2–4, and integrate industry sponsors to secure resources for student ventures.
Apply Lean Startup, customer discovery, and venture-building frameworks across STEP’s advanced energy and transportation portfolio to improve the commercial relevance of applied research.
Contribute to new programs, pilot efforts, and grant proposals aligned with STEP’s workforce mission and technology commercialization priorities.
Provide continuous support to participating university teams through office hours, offline reviews, and real-time troubleshooting.