Head of Sales Engineering

Optics11 is a fast-growing high-tech company based in Amsterdam, developing advanced fiber optic sensing systems for the most demanding environments. Our technology detects the earliest signals in critical underwater environments, from naval and defence applications to subsea infrastructure, and gives our customers precise, real-time data they can act on.

As Head of Sales Engineering you will build Optics11’s global sales engineering function for underwater security from the ground up: the team, the way of working and the tooling that turn our fiber optic sensing technology into won programmes and successful deployments for navies, coast guards and operators of critical undersea infrastructure. You will be part of the Global Sales organisation and work closely with our Sales Directors, the Bid Management team, Product Management and R&D.

This is a player-coach role. In the first months you are hands-on in our most important opportunities: running technical discovery with navies, coast guards, port authorities and system integrators, translating operational requirements (from harbour protection to seabed and subsea infrastructure surveillance) into system architectures, leading demonstrations and sea trials, and being the technical counterpart the customer trusts. In parallel you lay the foundations: a clear engagement model with Sales and Bid Management, a repeatable technical sales process and reusable solution and demo assets. Within 12 months you have hired and developed a team of sales engineers across our key regions, and your focus has shifted from doing the work to multiplying it.

Key responbilities:

• Own the technical win on priority opportunities: lead discovery, solution design, demonstrations and sea trials together with the responsible Sales Director

• Build the sales engineering function: define the structure and role profiles, and recruit, onboard and develop sales engineers aligned with our regional sales structure

• Design the engagement model with Sales and Bid Management, from qualification to technical win and hand-over to project delivery

• Develop scalable assets, such as reference architectures, demo set-ups, technical tender content and a knowledge base, so new engineers are productive in weeks, not months

• Define and report sales engineering metrics such as coverage, technical win rate and trial conversion in our CRM, and translate customer requirements into input for Product Management and R&D

• Collaborate with Sales Directors, Bid Management, Product Management and R&D to win and deliver complex, multi-year naval and underwater security programmes

• Contribute to continuous improvement of our technical sales processes, tools and automation

What we offer:

• Join one of Europe’s fastest-growing deep-tech scale-ups.

• Real impact: your work directly shapes our growth and success.

• A great team in an international organisation with colleagues from more than twenty nationalities.

• A competitive salary and benefits package.

• 30 days of holiday per year.

• Fresh team lunches five times a week, plus regular team activities and company events.

Requirements:

• Master’s degree in Applied Physics, Electrical Engineering, Photonics, Underwater Acoustics or a related technical field, or equivalent experience.

• 10+ years of experience in sales, application or systems engineering for complex sonar, sensing or maritime systems, including 3+ years building and leading a customer-facing technical team in a fast-growing environment.

• Solid knowledge of underwater acoustic sensing, sonar and signal processing, and of long-cycle, tender-driven sales to navies or other defence and security customers.

• Excellent command of English, written and spoken.

• Strong communication skills and a collaborative, hands-on mindset.

Nice to have:

• Experience in fiber optic sensing, anti-submarine warfare, seabed surveillance or protection of critical undersea infrastructure such as cables and pipelines

• Experience with export control regimes (EU dual-use, ITAR) and defence procurement requirements such as industrial participation.

• Knowledge of Dutch, German, French or another European language.

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.