Operations & Finance Coordinator - Common Sense Robotics

Common Sense Robotics; Vlaams-Brabant; Sur place; EUR 55 000 - 75 000; Plein temps

Résumé du poste

Common Sense Robotics, a Leuven-based deep-tech startup, seeks a motivated professional to act as the operational and financial backbone. You will manage grant administration (EIC, VLAIO, etc.), finance operations, HR administration and procurement of robotics hardware, sitting at the heart of a small engineering team.

You will coordinate across projects, ensure audit-ready records, and partner closely with the CEO/COO.

Qualifications

• A higher education degree; field matters less than mindset.
• A few years of experience in project coordination, finance/office administration, operations or grant administration.
• Genuine affinity with numbers; budgets, invoices and cost tracking energise you.
• Familiarity with Belgian/European R&D funding instruments: VLAIO, EIC, Horizon Europe reporting.
• Exceptional organizational skills; you build systems and meet deadlines.
• Discretion and precision; handle contracts, salaries and financial data.
• Fluent Dutch and professional English; administration in Dutch, team in English.

Responsabilités

• Own grant project administration: track deliverables, budgets and reporting for subsidized R&D projects.
• Run finance operations and controlling: process invoices, monitor spend, cashflow, and board reporting inputs.
• Run HR administration: payroll contracts, benefits, onboarding liaising with payroll office.
• Support procurement of robotics hardware: quotes, orders, lead times, tracking ownership by project.
• Bring order to every other aspect: office/lab logistics, subscriptions, document management.

Connaissances

Grant administration

Budgeting

Project coordination

Financial reporting

HR administration

Procurement

Dutch language

English language

Formation

Higher education degree

Outils

Spreadsheets

Accounting platforms

HR portals

Grant reporting systems

Description du poste

Common Sense Robotics is a young startup based in Leuven, Belgium. We build robot systems for “touch labour” tasks in manufacturing industries where the cost of failure is high: aerospace, automotive and construction. Our clients include Safran and Audi. These industries expect every robot decision to be traceable, auditable, and explainable; and we hold our own operations to the same standard. Behind every reliable robot is a company that runs reliably. Grant deliverables that land on time. Budgets that are tracked, not guessed. Suppliers that get paid. New hires whose contracts, payroll and hardware are ready on day one. Expense reports that would survive an audit. As we grow, we need someone who owns this layer of the company; not as an afterthought, but as a craft.

The Role

You will be the operational and financial backbone of Common Sense Robotics, working directly with the CEO and COO. You keep the administrative machinery of a growing deep tech company running: subsidized R&D projects (EIC, VLAIO, imec), finance operations and controlling, HR administration, and procurement of robotics hardware. This is not a back-office role at a distance from the technology. You will sit in the middle of a small engineering team, and you need to genuinely understand — or want to understand — what an R&D-driven deep tech environment is: long development cycles, regulated customers, hardware that arrives with lead times measured in months, and funding structures with strict reporting obligations. The people who have done this role well in our experience are highly educated, structured coordinators; often with an engineering‑adjacent mindset; who enjoy bringing order across multiple projects at once, and who like the directness of a startup where you work straight with the founders and the team, without layers in between.

Concretely, you will:

• Own grant project administration. Track deliverables, deadlines, timesheets, budgets and reporting for our EIC, VLAIO and other subsidized R&D projects. Prepare the documentation so that reviews and audits are a formality, not a fire drill. Coordinate with our grant consultants and project partners.
• Run finance operations and controlling. Collect, scan and process invoices, receipts and expenses; prepare the monthly handover to our accountant; follow up on incoming and outgoing payments. Track actual spend against budgets — per project and for the company as a whole — and flag deviations early. Maintain a running cashflow overview and prepare the financial inputs for board reporting and grant declarations. Keep our administrative records complete and audit‑ready at all times.
• Run HR administration. Be the day‑to‑day contact with our sociaal secretariaat (payroll office): contracts, payroll input, benefits, leave administration, and the practical onboarding of new engineers; from signed offer to working laptop.
• Support procurement of robotics hardware. Request and compare quotes for robot arms, sensors, compute and lab equipment; follow up on orders, lead times, deliveries and customs; keep track of what we own, where it is, and which project it belongs to.
• Bring order to everything else. Office and lab practicalities, insurance, subscriptions, document management, meeting follow‑up; the hundred small things that determine whether a scale‑up feels professional or chaotic.

You likely have:

• A higher education degree; the field matters less than the mindset. Business, engineering, sciences or law: what counts is that you are comfortable in a technical R&D environment and can hold your own in conversations about project scope, budgets and hardware.
• A few years of experience in project coordination, finance/office administration, operations or grant administration; ideally in a startup, scale‑up, research institution or engineering firm.
• Genuine affinity with numbers. You don't need to be an accountant, but budgets, invoices and cost tracking should energise you rather than drain you — a large part of this role is financial and administrative controlling.
• Familiarity with (or strong willingness to learn) Belgian and European R&D funding instruments: VLAIO development and research projects, EIC Accelerator, Horizon Europe reporting logic.
• Exceptional organisational skills. You build systems, not to‑do lists. Deadlines do not surprise you; you surprise deadlines.
• Discretion and precision. You will handle contracts, salaries and financial data. "Approximately correct" is not in your vocabulary.
• Fluent Dutch and professional English; our administration runs in Dutch, our engineering team and customers work in English.
• Comfort with digital tools: you find your way quickly in accounting platforms, HR portals, grant reporting systems and spreadsheets, and you prefer automating a recurring task over repeating it.

Bonus:

• Hands‑on experience with EIC or VLAIO project reporting.
• Experience with bookkeeping, controlling or accounts payable/receivable in an SME or startup context.
• Experience working with a sociaal secretariaat and Belgian payroll administration.
• Experience purchasing technical or lab equipment.
• Prior work in a deep tech, robotics or hardware startup.

Practical:

• Based in Leuven, on‑site presence expected (this role lives where the team lives).
• Minimum 50% up to full‑time; we are open to the arrangement that fits the right person.
• You report directly to the CEO and COO and work closely with the entire team.