Engineering Manager, Hardware

🌊 Who are we?

We're building the world's largest hydration platform to replace a $1.5 trillion industry controlled by Coca-Cola and Pepsi — companies selling sugar water in plastic. Their model is stuck in the past. We're changing that, from the workplace.

In 2025: #2 fastest growing tech company in the Netherlands (Deloitte Fast50). #30 fastest growing in Europe (Sifted250). We're an AI-native company — AI is how we build, not an afterthought.

About the role

Aquablu builds connected water dispensers that sit at the intersection of industrial hardware, embedded software, and IoT, deployed across hundreds of sites and scaling fast. We're at the stage where the engineering organisation needs to grow up: better processes, higher output, without losing the speed that got us here.

As Engineering Manager, you own that. You lead the three engineering pillars: Hardware Engineering, Embedded Software, and Process Development & Industrialization. That means taking products from concept to manufacturing release, building the team and processes to do it repeatedly, and setting a technical bar that attracts and retains great engineers.

You report to the Head of Physical Product. Engineering and Product work tightly together here. You'll have a real voice in what gets built and how, with the autonomy to make technical calls and own their outcomes.

What you'll own

• Lead three engineering pillars: Hardware Engineering, Embedded Software, and Industrialization. You push direction, remove blockers, and hold the bar.

• Drive DFM and industrialization decisions: material selection, tolerances, cost targets, production scalability. You've done this before and know what it takes to get hardware that's designed for real-world manufacturing.

• Own the full NPI process: from prototype through production release. No handoffs to hide behind; you're accountable end to end.

• Build the team: hire well, develop people, establish engineering standards. You leave the team stronger than you found it.

• Improve how engineering works: design reviews, testing protocols, documentation, ways of working. You build the system, not just the product.
  

Requirements

About you

You've shipped embedded hardware products from early prototype to mass production (and you know exactly where things go wrong in that journey). You've managed multidisciplinary teams and have the technical depth to earn their respect.

You're fluent in DFM, DFA, and NPI. You've worked with contract manufacturers and understand what it takes to scale without sacrificing quality or cost targets. You move fast but build things that last.

• More specifically, you bring:

  • 8+ years in hardware product development or engineering, with 5+ years in leadership

  • A track record of taking connected hardware / IoT products from concept to mass production

  • Deep hands-on experience with embedded systems and industrialization processes

  • Strong communicator: you can translate complex technical trade-offs clearly for non-technical stakeholders

  • Based in the Netherlands, or genuinely open to relocating. Since we work on physical products, being on-site with the team, in the lab, and with suppliers matters

  Why this role

  • You'll join at a point where the engineering foundation is being built. Your decisions will shape how the team and product develop for years

  • Real ownership: technical calls are yours to make, with the accountability that goes with it

  • A product that's tangible, in the world, and used daily by thousands of people

  • Competitive salary and equity — we'll share the range in the first conversation

Why Aquablu?

💰 A benchmarked salary in line with your level of experience

🚆 Travel compensation >10km

📈 Equity through our Aquablu for All plan – because everyone shares in what we’re building

🌴 26 paid vacation days

👴 Pension Plan by Zwitserleven

☀️ Quarterly team events at our HQ in Amsterdam (Houthavens)

💧 Unlimited Aquablu (of course)

🎬 Curious about our story & culture? Check our documentaries on Youtube!