The Company
Atomionics is building quantum sensors that see deep into the Earth—instruments precise enough that, not long ago, physicists would have told you they were impossible. Paired with AI that turns their raw signals into 3D models of what lies beneath, we're replacing a century of drill-and-hope exploration with an MRI for the planet: weeks of high-accuracy subsurface insight where the industry currently burns years and hundreds of millions guessing.
Every frontier the modern world is racing toward—AI compute, advanced chips, defence, electrification—runs on critical minerals that haven't been found yet, in quantities the planet has never had to supply. The bottleneck is discovery. We're building the machine that breaks it. We're backed by BHP Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Wavemaker, and others who fund paradigm shifts rather than incremental bets, and we're still early enough that the people who join now will shape what Atomionics becomes.
This is deep tech at its most tangible: physics and AI that leave the lab, go onto vehicles and drones, and solve billion-dollar problems underground. Most people only get to read about work like this. A few get to do it.
The Role
Non-dilutive funding is strategic for us and not a side project; it's how we fund the hardest, most ambitious parts of our roadmap. We need someone to own that outright.
This is a foundational role for Atomionics in Australia. You'll run the grants function end to end: decide which programs are worth chasing, build the applications, get the technical narrative exactly right, and coordinate the external advisors who open doors on the front end. You'll pursue funding globally, with Australia as the primary theatre.
And because you'll be one of our first people on the ground in the region, operational responsibilities will find their way to you as we build our Australian team and you'll have the standing to shape how this office grows. Occasionally, that will include representing Atomionics in person with partners and clients across the country.
What You Will Do
- Own the pipeline end to end. You'll map the global grant landscape, decide where we play, and build a rolling calendar of the programs worth our time—weighted heavily toward Australian federal, state, and industry funding.
- Write applications that win. You own the craft: drafting, budgets, compliance, submission. You turn dense science into a narrative a reviewer trusts, and you make every application airtight before it goes out.
- Coordinate the advisors. External advisors handle relationships and front-end positioning; you own everything on the application side and make sure the two halves connect seamlessly.
- Get close enough to the science to be credible. You'll sit with our physicists and engineers, pull out what matters, and represent it accurately.
What We're Looking For
Must Have
- 5+ years writing and winning technical or R&D grants, with a track record you can put numbers to (programs won, funding secured, win rate).
- End-to-end ownership, not just drafting. You've run the calendar, the budgets, the compliance, and the submission yourself.
- The ability to hold a real technical conversation and translate dense science into a narrative that stands up to expert review.
- The right to work in Australia, and based in or willing to relocate to Darwin.
- Comfort building from scratch. There's no local team yet—you'll operate largely solo in the region, working closely with our Singapore team, with minimal infrastructure and real ambiguity.
Good to Have
- A STEM background (physics, engineering, geoscience, or similar). Not a dealbreaker, but it's how you'll pick our technology up fast.
- Deep familiarity with Australian programs and their international equivalents.
- A read on the advisor and consultant ecosystem: who's credible, and worth engaging.
- Exposure to mining, resources, or deep-tech commercial environments.
Who Thrives Here
The best grant writers we've met are quietly competitive. They keep score by what gets funded, and they take it personally when something they believe in doesn't. That's who this is for.
You'll own the whole thing—what we chase, how we tell the story, and whether we win. No template, no team to hide behind, just a global map of funding worth going after and a technology worth every dollar of it. Most people will read this and think it sounds hard. If you read it and felt the pull, you're the person we're looking for.
Pay: $130,000.00 – $180,000.00 per year
Location:
Work Location: In person
