Director of Field Operations (f/m/d)

Academic Key; München; Hybrid; EUR 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Orbem is seeking a Director of Field Operations to own installations, on-site service, and maintenance across Europe and the US. You will lead a growing team of Field Engineers and Project Managers, shaping the operating model and ensuring delivery excellence for multi-million-euro imaging systems.

You will drive SOP maturity, leverage data and tooling, and collaborate with stakeholders from Technical Support to Executive leadership, building scalable processes and capacity to sustain rapid

Qualifications

• 10+ years in field or service operations.
• Hardware plus service business models.
• Experience at operational scale.
• Worked in an organisation that had already solved this properly.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end delivery of installations, on-site service, and maintenance across Europe and the US.
• Build the operating system by raising SOP maturity and implementing continuous improvement.
• Lead and develop Field Engineers, Project Managers, and regional leads; shape the organizational structure.

Skills

Field operations

Installation

On-site service

Maintenance operations

Leadership

Job description

Director of Field Operations (f/m/d)

Orbem · Munich

Abroad Munich Full Time Link validated

We see the potential inside everything and everyone. Starting with you. Orbem uses AI to industrialize MRI, delivering non-invasive insight into everything from fruits to eggs to the human body. We are transforming what is becoming the world's largest biological dataset into actionable intelligence to reduce waste, increase quality, and accelerate the shift toward a more sustainable and healthier future. Headquartered and founded in Munich, Germany, with an office now in Houston, Texas, our world-class team is scaling inside-out technology to transform how humanity sees and understands biological matter. Help us see what's possible. Join us.

Your Role

You will own how Orbem shows up at customer sites — installing, servicing, and maintaining multi-million-euro imaging systems that sit at the heart of our customers’ production lines. When our systems run, our customers run. When they don’t, the cost is measured in lost production days. Field Operations is where our technology meets reality, and you own that interface. Field Operations spans Europe and the US, with regional teams on both sides of the Atlantic. A lot has already been built: dedicated Field Engineers and Project Managers, regional leadership, and real investment in SOPs, planning, and tooling. The next step is maturity — turning what exists into an operation that runs consistently across every site, every partner, and every geography, and that scales without depending on individual heroics. You inherit that and the mandate to shape what comes next. We are expanding fast into new verticals and geographies, and installation and service quality is one of the few things that can either unlock or throttle that growth. This is a role for someone equally at home setting the operating model and being close to the work itself — credible with a customer's engineers and with our executive team on the same day — and who is unwilling to let the same problem happen twice.

Your Day to Day Running Operations (≈ 40%)

Own end-to-end delivery of installations, on-site service, and scheduled maintenance across Europe and the US — on time, on budget, and at a quality level appropriate to assets worth more than €1M each. Empower and enable Regional Leaders and Project Managers to flawlessly orchestrate complex site deliveries involving customers, MRI suppliers, and automation partners. Be the escalation point that actually resolves things — including on site, out of hours, when a go-live is at risk. Own the operational KPIs and the commitments we make to customers, and keep Technical Customer Support, Business Development, and the executive team informed.

Building the Operating System (≈ 35%)

Raise SOP maturity — across our own team, our partners, and our customers’ contractors. Implement a continuous improvement engine together with the Operational Excellence team. Leverage and drive the tooling and data we need to run this at scale — field service management, installation and service documentation, spare parts and capacity planning — and make sure people actually use it. Build the quality and safety standards our engineers work to, and hold the line on them under schedule pressure.

Leading and Scaling the Team (≈ 25%)

Lead and develop the whole team — Field Engineers, Project Managers, and regional leads alike — building the depth and ownership that lets each region run well without you in the detail. Design the organisation ahead of the growth curve: hire, structure, and re-structure as we add verticals and geographies, and find the right mix of own team, partner networks, and variable capacity models to absorb fluctuating demand. Define and operationalize the Field Operations roadmap, and translate it into a capacity and hiring plan the business can commit to. Build the culture: high standards, low ego, no blame, and a bias toward fixing things properly.

How You Fit In

You report to the Chief Operating Officer and lead Field Operations through two regional team leads, with Field Engineers delivering installation, on-site service, and maintenance work and Project Managers coordinating customers, partners, and internal teams. The team will keep growing as we roll out new geographies and products. You work closely with Technical Customer Support, Operational Excellence, Supply Chain, Hardware, Product, and Business Development, and you own our operational relationship with our equipment and automation partners. You are part of the wider operations leadership team and contribute to decisions well beyond your own function.

Your Experiences and Skills

10+ years in field or service operations. You have led installation, on-site service, and maintenance operations for complex technical products. Hardware plus service business models. You understand a business where the machine is only half the promise and installation, uptime, and maintenance are the other half. Experience at operational scale. You have worked inside an organisation that had already solved this properly.

Academic Key will never request login credentials or application fees for this role.