Sr. Startup Investor Manager, Universities, AWS Accelerators and Institutes
Would you like to drive cloud computing and GenAI adoption by working with promising early-stage startups and accelerator programs? Do you have the technical knowledge and business acumen to help establish AWS as the foundation for innovative technology companies?
Trusted by more startups around the world, AWS makes the power of cloud computing accessible to all. We give founders everywhere access to the same technology that powers the world's largest companies. With nearly 20 years of experience, gained from supporting hundreds of thousands of startups, the AWS Startups team helps founders prove that their world-changing ideas are possible, at any stage of growth, and any level of funding. This is why more startups, and over 80% of unicorns, choose to launch on AWS.
As a Senior Startup Investor Manager, Universities within AWS, you will build and manage AWS's institutional relationships with top global research universities to uncover the world's best startups at the earliest possible point in their journey. You'll develop a multi-channel discovery engine — working across tech transfer offices, faculty with commercialization track records, entrepreneurship programs, and regional VCs — to identify high-potential spinouts before they've chosen a cloud provider. Your technical understanding of cloud technologies will enable you to engage credibly with PhD founders and research-stage teams, while your relationship-building skills will establish AWS as the trusted infrastructure partner across the university's startup ecosystem.
Key job responsibilities
- Build and maintain deep institutional relationships across multiple stakeholder types at assigned universities (tech transfer offices, faculty, entrepreneurship programs, research labs, student venture organizations) to create persistent access to emerging startups
- Proactively discover pre-formation and early-formation startups through direct university relationships, regional VC networks, and faculty engagement — functioning as a multi-channel discovery engine, not waiting for cohort lists
- Collaborate with investor BD (SBDI) team to leverage VC relationships in the university ecosystem, offering VCs early signal on commercializing research and accelerated AWS support for their portfolio in exchange for introductions to professors and lab spinouts
- Develop and deliver a value proposition tailored to each university stakeholder: compute credits and commercialization support for professors, accelerated time-to-market for tech transfer offices, infrastructure and VC introductions for founding teams. Think Big to identify and build new initiatives — co-branded programs, research partnerships, credit frameworks, or novel engagement models — that deepen AWS's institutional position and drive our goals of early access, ecosystem insights, and cloud preference at scale
- Influence cloud preference for AWS at the moment of startup formation — before founders make technology decisions — by embedding AWS resources, credits, and technical guidance into the university's commercialization pathways
- Extract and report ecosystem insights: what research is being commercialized, which labs are producing founders, what technology trends are emerging from academia that signal future startup verticals
- Hand off discovered startups to SUP account teams or accelerator IMs at the appropriate stage, maintaining relationship continuity and ensuring no startup falls through the gap between university engagement and standard coverage
- Create and deliver business reviews on university portfolio progress, startup discovery pipeline, adoption metrics, and competitive positioning (particularly against GCP/Azure academic programs)
- Assess technical and business potential of university spinouts through understanding of their research foundations, architecture decisions, and commercialization readiness
- Coordinate cross-functional teams (WWPS Education, Amazon Science, SUP SA, Activate operations) to deliver integrated support to university-affiliated startups
Trusted by more startups around the world, AWS makes the power of cloud computing accessible to all. We give founders everywhere access to the same technology that powers the world's largest companies. With nearly 20 years of experience, gained from supporting hundreds of thousands of startups, the AWS Startups team helps founders prove that their world-changing ideas are possible, at any stage of growth, and any level of funding. This is why more startups, and over 80% of unicorns, choose to launch on AWS.
As a Senior Startup Investor Manager, Universities within AWS, you will build and manage AWS's institutional relationships with top global research universities to uncover the world's best startups at the earliest possible point in their journey. You'll develop a multi-channel discovery engine — working across tech transfer offices, faculty with commercialization track records, entrepreneurship programs, and regional VCs — to identify high-potential spinouts before they've chosen a cloud provider. Your technical understanding of cloud technologies will enable you to engage credibly with PhD founders and research-stage teams, while your relationship-building skills will establish AWS as the trusted infrastructure partner across the university's startup ecosystem.
Key job responsibilities
- Build and maintain deep institutional relationships across multiple stakeholder types at assigned universities (tech transfer offices, faculty, entrepreneurship programs, research labs, student venture organizations) to create persistent access to emerging startups
- Proactively discover pre-formation and early-formation startups through direct university relationships, regional VC networks, and faculty engagement — functioning as a multi-channel discovery engine, not waiting for cohort lists
- Collaborate with investor BD (SBDI) team to leverage VC relationships in the university ecosystem, offering VCs early signal on commercializing research and accelerated AWS support for their portfolio in exchange for introductions to professors and lab spinouts
- Develop and deliver a value proposition tailored to each university stakeholder: compute credits and commercialization support for professors, accelerated time-to-market for tech transfer offices, infrastructure and VC introductions for founding teams. Think Big to identify and build new initiatives — co-branded programs, research partnerships, credit frameworks, or novel engagement models — that deepen AWS's institutional position and drive our goals of early access, ecosystem insights, and cloud preference at scale
- Influence cloud preference for AWS at the moment of startup formation — before founders make technology decisions — by embedding AWS resources, credits, and technical guidance into the university's commercialization pathways
- Extract and report ecosystem insights: what research is being commercialized, which labs are producing founders, what technology trends are emerging from academia that signal future startup verticals
- Hand off discovered startups to SUP account teams or accelerator IMs at the appropriate stage, maintaining relationship continuity and ensuring no startup falls through the gap between university engagement and standard coverage
- Create and deliver business reviews on university portfolio progress, startup discovery pipeline, adoption metrics, and competitive positioning (particularly against GCP/Azure academic programs)
- Assess technical and business potential of university spinouts through understanding of their research foundations, architecture decisions, and commercialization readiness
- Coordinate cross-functional teams (WWPS Education, Amazon Science, SUP SA, Activate operations) to deliver integrated support to university-affiliated startups