About Optics11
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 signs of failure in critical assets – from high-voltage energy infrastructure to subsea and defense applications – and gives our customers precise, real-time data they can act on.
Within our Underwater Security business we develop sensing technologies that help detect and monitor underwater threats. Our solutions include OptiBarrier, designed for immediate, over-the-horizon threat detection, and OptiArray, our low-power optical thin-line towed array for unmanned underwater vehicles and submarines.
The Role
The largest defense opportunities are won or lost long before a tender is published. As Capture Manager you will lead our strategic pursuits – large, multinational and partner-driven programmes with navies, ministries of defense, prime contractors and European and NATO procurement – from early identification through to contract award. You will be part of the Bid & Capture Management team within Global Sales and work in shared ownership with our regional Sales Directors, alongside our Bid Managers and Technical Sales team.
This is an external-facing role. You understand the customer’s mission, budget and procurement route before the requirement is written, you shape that requirement where you can, you decide who we team with and how we beat the competition, and you set the price-to-win. When a tender is released, you hand a clear capture plan to the Bid Manager, who owns the proposal process, the internal commitment and the price recommendation. You stay on as owner of the win strategy throughout the bid, the orals and the negotiations.
The split of roles is deliberate. The Sales Director remains the account owner and the long-term face to the customer in their region. You own the pursuit: the win strategy, the teaming strategy and the path to award on the opportunities that cross borders, run through primes or consortia, or exceed our strategic threshold. The Bid Manager owns the proposal. The Technical Sales Engineer owns the technical dialogue.
In your first 6–12 months you will build a qualified portfolio of strategic pursuits, introduce a capture plan and gate review that connect seamlessly to our four-stage bid process, and establish our position with the key primes and programme offices in our markets.
Key Responsibilities
• Identify and qualify strategic pursuits: track national procurement plans, NATO agency programmes and European funding (e.g. EDF, EDIP) to find opportunities 6–24 months ahead, and qualify them together with the Sales Directors against clear go / no-go criteria.
• Own the capture plan: for each strategic pursuit, define the customer’s needs and decision makers, the procurement route, the competitive landscape, our discriminators and the actions required to win – and keep it current in HubSpot.
• Shape the opportunity: engage customers and end users before the tender – through RFI responses, white papers, demonstrations, trials and technical exchanges with Technical Sales – to influence requirements in our favor.
• Analyze the competition: build competitor profiles, ghost competing solutions and position Optics11’s technology and value proposition accordingly.
• Lead teaming and partner strategy: decide whether we bid as prime, subcontractor or consortium member; identify and engage primes, system integrators, partners and local industry; and negotiate NDAs, MoUs and teaming agreements together with Legal.
• Set the price-to-win: develop price-to-win analysis based on customer budget and competitor intelligence, and align it early with the Bid Manager and Finance so the solution can be designed to that price.
• Address local requirements early: industrial participation and offset, local content, export control constraints and local partner or agent arrangements – so these shape the pursuit rather than surprise the bid.
• Drive the bid / no-bid decision: present the pursuit at the bid / no-bid gate together with the Sales Director and Bid Manager, and hand over a complete capture plan, win themes and customer insight at kick-off.
• Own the win strategy during the bid: review whether win themes and discriminators land in the proposal, take part in colour-team reviews, lead orals preparation and support the Sales Director in negotiations through to award.
• Learn from every decision: run customer debriefs after award or loss and feed win/loss insight into our capture and bid processes.
• Build the capture capability: develop our capture playbook, templates and market intelligence sources, and coach Sales Directors on capture best practice.
Who You Are
You think like the customer and act like an owner. You are at ease in a meeting with a navy programme office or a prime’s supply-chain director, and equally at ease challenging your own team on whether we can really win. You know that the best capture work sometimes ends in a well-argued no-bid.
Nice to Have
• Experience in underwater security, sonar, underwater acoustics or naval sensor systems
• Background in the navy or another defense organization
• Shipley or APMP capture training
• Experience with industrial participation/offset and with US or Asia-Pacific defense markets
• Working knowledge of export control and dual-use licensing
• Knowledge of Dutch and/or another European language (e.g. German, French, Polish or a Nordic language)
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in engineering, business or a related field, or equivalent experience
• 8+ years of experience in defense business development, capture or sales of complex systems, with a track record of winning large international programmes
• Solid understanding of defense procurement: national MoD and naval procurement, NATO agencies (e.g. NSPA, NCIA), European programmes (EDA, EDF, EDIP) and bids via prime contractors
• Experience building teaming arrangements and consortia with primes, system integrators and partners
• Experience with price-to-win and competitive analysis
• An existing network in naval, maritime or defense communities in Europe; a network beyond Europe is a strong plus
• Excellent command of English, written and spoken; able to present convincingly to senior military, government and industry stakeholders
• Strategic thinker with a hands-on attitude; comfortable owning a pursuit without formal authority over the people who contribute to it
• Eligibility to obtain NATO/Dutch security clearance and willingness to travel frequently