Leiden Cryogenics
Procurement Manager
Build the supply base behind the coldest machines in the world
Location
Leiden, the Netherlands. On site
Function
Operations
Reports to
Chief Executive Officer, then the Chief Operating Officer as that team expands
Hours
Full time, 40 hours
Start
As soon as we find the right person
About Leiden Cryogenics
We build the machines that make the coldest places in the universe. Since 1992 our dilution refrigerators have held the world record for low-temperature performance, and more than two hundred of our systems are installed in laboratories, universities and metrology institutes worldwide.
That heritage now sits underneath one of the most significant technology shifts of our time. Every superconducting and semiconducting quantum computer needs a cryogenic platform, and the market is moving from single experiments to production fleets. We are scaling from a specialist manufacturer into an industrial supplier, and we are investing heavily to get there.
The opportunity
This is the first dedicated procurement role in the company, and you will design it. Everything we build depends on a small number of technically demanding, long-lead components, sourced from a specialist supply base across Europe and beyond. As our volumes grow, how well that supply base performs becomes one of the defining factors in whether we deliver.
You will own it end to end: who supplies us, on what terms, to what standard, and how we reduce our dependence on any single source. You will report directly to our CEO to begin with, moving to the Chief Operating Officer as we expand the operations leadership team, and you will work daily with engineering and production.
This is a build role. In your first year you will be creating the processes, improving the existing supplier base and the data that the function will run on for years to come. If you want to inherit a mature department and administer it, this is not the job.
If you want to put your name on how a scaling company buys, this is for you.
What you will do
Develop and qualify the supply base. Find, assess and contract suppliers for critical and technically demanding components. Define what qualification means here, run it, and document it to a standard that stands up to external audit.
Negotiate and own commercial terms. Price, lead time, quality commitments and payment structures. Improving how we buy is one of the clearest levers we have on both cost and cash.
Own materials planning. Take responsibility for the materials side of the production plan and establish our ERP as the planning system of record.
Reduce single-source dependency. Identify where we rely on one supplier for a critical part family and qualify credible alternatives, working with engineering on technical feasibility. This is a funded programme with executive attention behind it.
Measure and develop supplier performance. Build the scorecard: on-time delivery, incoming quality, responsiveness. Run the reviews and drive the improvement.
Shape make or buy. Our engineering and operations leadership decide what we manufacture in house and what we outsource. You bring the sourcing insight into those decisions and then deliver the supply behind them.
Manage inbound compliance. Customs, origin and export control on everything that comes in.
What you will have achieved in your first year
• Materials planning running from the ERP rather than from spreadsheets
• Qualified dual sources, under contract, for our most critical component families
• A supplier qualification process that is written down, followed and audit-ready
• A live supplier scorecard, with the first full review cycle behind you
• Measurably better commercial terms across the supply base
What you bring
Essential
• Five to ten years in procurement or strategic sourcing in low-volume, high-mix, engineered-to-order manufacturing: capital equipment, semiconductor, analytical or medical instruments, aerospace or similar
• Proven experience qualifying a second source for a single-sourced critical component, and you can walk us through how you did it
• Confident negotiating in specialist markets where you are the smaller party
• ERP as your planning system of record, ideally having been through an implementation
• Fluent Dutch and English
Nice to have
• Cryogenics, vacuum technology, precision machining or ultra-high-purity materials
• Export control and customs expertise on inbound flows
• You have established a procurement function rather than inherited one
What we offer
• Full ownership of a function you will design yourself, with a direct line to the CEO from your first day
• A company with more than thirty years of world-leading physics behind it, entering its most significant growth phase
• Work that matters: our machines sit underneath the research groups and companies building quantum computing
• A competitive salary with a variable component, 8% holiday allowance and a pension scheme
• A short line to every decision, in a company small enough that your work is visible
Interested?
Send your CV to hr@leidencryogenics.com, a short description why you are motivated about this role and a short note on the toughest sourcing problem you have solved. We read every application.
Leiden Cryogenics B.V. · Leiden, the Netherlands · leidencryogenics.com
Acquisition in response to this vacancy is not appreciated.
