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Posted 9 days ago

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Senior Technical Project Manager R&D

RotterdamOn-site

AI Summary

As Senior Project Manager R&D, you will lead the execution of innovative, challenging R&D projects that bring our next-generation metrology solutions to market.

About this role

As Senior Project Manager R&D, you will lead the execution of innovative, challenging R&D projects that bring our next-generation metrology solutions to market. Working closely with our R&D team, you enable a multi-disciplinary group spanning hardware, software, and algorithm development to deliver against an ambitious roadmap. Your role is pivotal in ensuring our technology meets customer performance requirements and delivery timelines — and you do this through structure, clear planning, and strong cross-functional leadership rather than deep domain expertise. You'll support the R&D Manager, who drives the overall technology roadmap.

What you're going to do

You will lead end-to-end R&D projects from concept through prototype and validation, all the way to productization readiness. You build and maintain detailed project plans, timelines, resource allocation, deliverables, risk; and you keep a complex, cross-functional team moving even when the path isn't fully defined yet.

Your main responsibilities include:

  • Leading end-to-end R&D projects, from concept through prototype and validation to productization.

  • Developing and maintaining detailed project plans, including timelines, resource allocation, deliverables, and risk management.

  • Coordinating cross-functional project teams spanning multiple engineering disciplines.

  • Driving alignment between technical development and customer or market requirements, in collaboration with product marketing.

  • Working with product development programs, design & engineering, and systems engineering to deliver what's needed for productization.

  • Monitoring progress against milestones and budget, escalating issues early and driving them to resolution.

  • Ensuring projects comply with relevant quality and regulatory standards.

  • Acting as a key liaison between R&D, Product Marketing, Systems Engineering, and Design & Engineering.

  • Continuously improving how we plan and run projects, in a fast-moving, precision-focused environment.

Who you'll be working with

You will work closely with the R&D Manager and a multi-disciplinary engineering team, alongside Product Marketing, Systems Engineering, and Design & Engineering. You'll be the connective tissue between technical development and the customer and business requirements it needs to serve, building trust and alignment across teams, often without a formal reporting line to draw on.

Requirements

Who you are

You are an experienced project manager who brings structure to ambiguity. You're equally comfortable building a detailed plan and adjusting it on the fly, and you know how to keep a multi-disciplinary team aligned and moving, even under pressure.

You have:

  • Proven experience managing complex, cross-functional projects in a high-tech, engineering, or R&D environment, ideally using structured methodologies such as Agile or Stage-Gate.

  • Strong planning and organizational skills, with the ability to manage scope, timelines, budget, and resources across a multi-disciplinary project.

  • Solid risk and issue management skills — you spot problems early and drive them to resolution.

  • Excellent stakeholder management, communicating effectively with technical teams, senior leadership, suppliers, and customers.

  • A structured, data-driven approach to tracking progress and supporting decision-making.

  • The ability to translate business goals and customer needs into clear, actionable project plans.

  • Strong communication skills and the presence to build trust and motivate teams, including where no direct reporting line exists.

  • Comfort working in a fast-paced, technical environment, even without deep prior knowledge of metrology or AFM technology — a technical affinity and the willingness to learn fast are what matter most.

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