Head of Product

About the Company

Our client is a rapidly growing deep-tech organization developing high-performance sensor systems for marine, defence, and environmental monitoring markets.

Role Overview

We are hiring a Head of Product Management to lead the product function within the underwater division.

This senior-level position is strategic and ecosystem driven, ideal for a candidate who thrives in complex, multi-stakeholder environments involving hardware systems, integration, and long-term partnerships.

Roughly 75% of your focus will be external-facing: building and managing an international ecosystem of partners, technology vendors, and integrators. Your leadership will play a key role in winning and delivering large-scale, multi-year contracts-particularly in regulated or government sectors.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a team of product managers (currently 2).
• Define and execute product strategy across multiple subsea sensor systems.
• Build and nurture a scalable ecosystem of technology partners and integrators.
• Ensure product alignment with business unit financial targets.
• Oversee product readiness, quality, integration simplicity, and long-term reliability.
• Collaborate with sales on large tenders and solution proposals.
• Ensure service, support, and lifecycle quality across deployed systems.
• Act as a key business leader alongside the Managing Director, including external representation at the executive level.

Ideal Candidate Profile

Experience & Background

• 10+ years in product management, with team leadership.
• Strong exposure to industrial hardware or critical systems (e.g., subsea, aerospace, defense, energy).
• Proven experience managing complex partner ecosystems or platforms.
• Background in long-cycle B2B or public-sector/government sales is highly valuable.

Key Skills

• Strategic product leadership beyond traditional backlog management.
• Hardware-software integration experience.
• Analytical mindset with UX awareness and discovery skills.
• Commercial orientation: comfortable driving toward revenue and market fit.
• Decisive, autonomous, and outcome-driven.

Soft Skills

• Executive presence and strong decision-making authority.
• Performance-oriented, with a focus on measurable business results.
• Comfortable operating independently in a complex technical and commercial environment.

Language Requirements

• English - Required
• Dutch - Nice to have

Compensation & Benefits

• Base Salary: Available on request
• Performance Bonus: Tied to business unit outcomes (e.g., order book, revenue)

Key Performance Metrics

• Strength and scalability of the technology/partner ecosystem
• Direct contribution to commercial wins and revenue growth
• Strategic alignment with the Managing Director
• Relevance and competitiveness of the product suite within target customer domains

Darwin Recruitment is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.