Head of Product

Nearfield Instruments; Rotterdam; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Nearfield Instruments seeks a Head of Product to lead the product management process, translating customer problems and market developments into clear product definitions, outcomes and priorities. You will guide teams from discovery through roadmap decisions, influencing product governance and investment strategies.

You will collaborate across engineering, commercial and operational teams, maintaining a strong customer focus and evidence-based decision making. International travel is required.

Qualifications

• Experience in product management leadership within a complex high-tech environment.
• Ability to identify and frame customer problems and translate them into product outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve Nearfield’s product strategy, portfolio and integrated product roadmap.
• Lead customer and market discovery to understand workflows and unmet needs of semiconductor manufacturers.
• Translate complex customer needs into clear product outcomes and acceptance criteria.
• Guide early product definition with System Engineering and Development & Engineering.
• Drive portfolio and roadmap decisions based on value, fit, effort and risk.
• Partner with Product Marketing to combine customer evidence and market insights into opportunities.
• Coordinate across Sales, System Engineering, Development & Engineering and Operations.

Skills

Product management

Strategic thinking

Cross-functional collaboration

Stakeholder influence

Education

MSc/PhD in Physics / Engineering

Job description

About Nearfield Instruments

Nearfield Instruments (NFI) is a fast-growing high-tech scale-up. We design, develop, integrate, market and service advanced metrology systems that help the world’s leading chipmakers improve production yields and enable smaller, more powerful microchips.

Founded in 2016, we bring together experts in science and technology to develop a unique, high-throughput Scanning Probe Microscopy system.

This role involves approximately 35% international travel.

Nearfield Instruments is scaling rapidly in one of the world’s most demanding industries: semiconductor manufacturing.

As Head of Product, you will lead the product management process, translating customer problems, market developments and technology opportunities into clear product definitions, portfolio choices and development priorities.

Your focus is on the why and the what: identifying the right problems to solve, defining product outcomes and requirements, and making evidence-based decisions about where Nearfield should invest.

Combining deep customer understanding, systems thinking and technical judgement, you will guide teams from problem discovery through product definition and roadmap decisions, creating clarity before development commitments are made.

This role reports to the Director of Product and Program Management.

What you will do

• Own and evolve Nearfield’s product strategy, portfolio and integrated product roadmap, translating company strategy, market developments and technology opportunities into clear priorities.

• Lead customer and market discovery to understand the workflows, constraints and unmet needs of leading semiconductor manufacturers and identify the problems worth solving.

• Translate complex customer needs into clear product outcomes, system-level requirements and acceptance criteria.

• Lead early product definition with System Engineering and Development & Engineering, evaluating solution options, technical feasibility, risk and trade-offs before development commitments are made.

• Drive portfolio and roadmap decisions based on customer value, strategic fit, development effort, lifecycle impact, risk and time-to-impact.

• Partner with Product Marketing to combine customer evidence, market and competitive insights, installed-base learning and product data into well-founded product opportunities.

• Connect customers, Sales, System Engineering, Development & Engineering and Operations, creating alignment on what we build, why we build it and what takes priority.

• Lead strategic customer discussions on future use cases, performance requirements and technology readiness.

• Further professionalize Nearfield’s product management organization, establishing clear ownership, decision rights and effective product governance.

• Build and develop a high-performing product management capability with strong technical depth, customer focus, accountability and fact-based decision-making.

What you bring

• MSc or PhD in Physics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics or a related technical field.

• Significant experience in product management, product strategy, product definition or product leadership within a complex high-tech environment.

• Experience with sophisticated capital equipment, semiconductor equipment, metrology, inspection or another highly technical B2B environment is strongly preferred.

• Proven ability to identify and frame complex customer problems and translate them into product outcomes, requirements and investment decisions.

• Strong understanding of the product lifecycle, from customer discovery and early product definition through industrialization, adoption and lifecycle evolution.

• Experience working directly with demanding global customers on discovery, requirements and roadmap discussions.

• Ability to work effectively across engineering, commercial and operational organizations, combining strong strategic judgement with a hands-on approach.

• Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence senior technical and commercial stakeholders.

What makes you successful at Nearfield

You are comfortable when the answer is not obvious. You can move from strategic discussions about the future of semiconductor metrology to detailed conversations about customer workflows, system requirements and technical trade-offs without losing sight of the bigger picture.

You ask difficult questions, separate problems from proposed solutions and simplify complexity to make clear choices.

Most importantly, you think like an owner. You take responsibility for ensuring Nearfield defines and builds the right products, for the right customers, at the right time.

What we offer

• A highly influential leadership role in a fast-growing Dutch deep-tech company.

• The opportunity to shape technology used in advanced semiconductor manufacturing.

• Direct interaction with leading semiconductor customers and technology experts.

• A high degree of ownership and the opportunity to shape the product management organization.

• An international, technically sophisticated environment where decisions have visible impact.

Locations: Rotterdam and Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Working model: On-site, with travel to the Rotterdam headquarters as needed