Engineering Manager Product Team

Optics11 Life; Amsterdam; On-site; EUR 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A technology scale-up company in Amsterdam is seeking an experienced Engineering Manager. You will lead a multidisciplinary team that combines hardware and software solutions. The ideal candidate should have experience leading teams of 10–15 engineers and a strong background in product development processes. Responsibilities include ensuring predictable delivery of product features and fostering cross-team collaboration. A Master's degree in relevant fields is required, and you must pass a security screening to work in client sectors such as defense and security.

Qualifications

• Experience leading and developing engineering teams of 10–15+ engineers.
• Strong understanding of engineering development processes and product development cycles.
• Ability to improve team performance, processes, and delivery.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a high-performing engineering team.
• Ensure the team delivers product features predictably.
• Collaborate across teams to support integration and execution.
• Continuously improve development processes and workflows.

Skills

People leadership

Coaching

Cross-functional collaboration

Product development

System integration

Process improvement

Communication

Education

MSc in Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, Systems Engineering, or related technical field

Job description

Job Description

At Optics11, we are looking for an experienced Engineering Manager to lead a multidisciplinary Product Team working at the intersection of hardware and software.

At Optics11, we are building one of Europe’s most exciting deep-tech scale‑up environments, developing advanced fiber optic sensing technology that protects critical infrastructure across underwater security, energy, and industrial applications.

In this role, you will lead a group of engineers responsible for delivering complete product solutions that combine hardware and software capabilities. Your focus will be on building strong teams, enabling effective execution, and ensuring predictable delivery of product features and releases. Rather than defining technical solutions yourself, your role is to create the environment, structure, and team dynamics in which engineers can perform at their best and successfully deliver high‑quality products.

This position sits at the intersection of people leadership, product delivery, and cross‑functional collaboration, ensuring that product development remains aligned, efficient, and scalable.

What will you do

Lead and develop a high‑performing team

• Coach, mentor, and grow engineers across multiple disciplines
• Drive performance management, feedback, and career development
• Build a collaborative, accountable, and high‑performing team culture
• Hire and onboard new engineers to strengthen team capability

Enable predictable product delivery

• Ensure the team delivers product features and releases in a predictable and sustainable way
• Align team capacity with product priorities and roadmap
• Balance delivery speed, quality, and long‑term sustainability
• Provide clear visibility on progress, risks, and dependencies

Support product execution and integration

• Work closely with Product Owners to support delivery of defined scope
• Collaborate with System Engineering to ensure alignment with system architecture
• Coordinate across disciplines to ensure smooth integration
• Support readiness for product releases

Improve ways of working

• Continuously improve development processes, workflows, and collaboration
• Remove blockers and increase team effectiveness
• Optimize planning, coordination, and execution
• Drive improvements in tooling and engineering efficiency

Collaborate across teams

• Work closely with platform teams to ensure availability of required capabilities
• Align product development with platform evolution
• Facilitate communication across teams and disciplines
• Support effective cross‑team coordination and dependency management

Enable high‑quality product delivery

• Create the conditions for delivering reliable, well‑integrated, and maintainable product solutions
• Support strong engineering practices, testing, and validation
• Ensure product readiness for integration and release

Job Requirements

What You Bring

• Experience leading and developing engineering teams of 10–15+ engineers
• Strong people leadership and coaching skills
• Experience working in product development environments
• Strong understanding of engineering development processes and product development cycles
• Strong communication skills and ability to work across multiple teams
• Strong understanding of cross‑functional collaboration and system integration
• Ability to improve team performance, processes, and delivery
• MSc in Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, Systems Engineering, or a related technical field

We believe in:

• clear ownership and strong collaboration
• empowered teams and technical leadership
• continuous improvement and learning
• building scalable and reusable solutions

You'll be working with clients in the defense and security sectors, obtaining a Certificate of No Objection issued by the AIVD (Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service) is mandatory. This means you will need to undergo a security screening. For more information, please refer to details on security screening.