Production Lead (Belgium & Bulgaria)

We are looking for a hands-on, technically strong Production Lead to take ownership of our production execution and scale-up in Belgium and Bulgaria.

This role is ideal for a technical generalist who is as comfortable on the shop floor as in front of a planning board — someone who can lead people and structure production execution as we grow internationally and evolve from a project-driven company into a product company.

You will operate in a technical scale-up environment where water treatment systems are engineered, assembled, delivered, operated, and serviced internationally. You combine hands-on production leadership with the coordination skills to keep planning, quality, and cross-department alignment on track.

This is not a purely administrative or purely technical role. It requires someone who can dive into mechanical and electrical assembly issues one moment, and lead, motivate, and coordinate a team the next.

🎯 Your mission

Your mission is to ensure reliable, scalable, and high-quality production of BOSAQ systems as we grow internationally — bringing structure, rhythm, and execution discipline to the shop floor while leading and developing the people who make it happen.

You report to the COO and act as the operational owner of production: converting plans into action, clarifying ownership, following up relentlessly, and leading local teams from ad hoc execution to scalable, repeatable ways of working.

Key responsibilities

Production execution & ownership

• Take ownership of day-to-day production execution across both sites

• Actively participate in the assembly of water treatment systems, including mechanical assembly, piping, and basic electrical integration

• Ensure production output matches planning, quality requirements, and deadlines

• Follow up production planning, priorities, dependencies, and readiness for assembly, and track capacity, workload, and critical-path items

Work preparation & technical coordination

• Prepare production files, BOMs, and assembly instructions, and translate engineering designs into practical, repeatable production processes

• Coordinate with engineering to ensure drawings, bills of materials, work instructions, and technical documentation are ready on time

• Help resolve mechanical, electrical, assembly, and documentation-related issues during production

• Support the shift from project-driven, custom-engineered builds to modular, configurable products — helping enable a flow from configuration platform through engineering to production as fast as possible, without custom engineering

Team leadership & people

• Support hiring and onboarding of production staff

• Train, guide, and coordinate local teams in Bulgaria during production execution

• Bring structure, clarity, and discipline to day-to-day production execution, and help others gain structure by clarifying priorities, responsibilities, and next steps

• Build trust and communicate clearly across teams, cultures, and levels of production maturity

Scaling & continuous improvement

• Execute the defined production scale-up plan, especially in Bulgaria

• Identify, escalate where needed, and resolve bottlenecks in production flow

• Implement improvements in efficiency, throughput, workflow discipline, and quality control processes

• Drive the implementation and adoption of new production techniques and improvements on the shop floor

• Roll out defined production standards, work instructions, and reporting routines on the shop floor

• Support implementation of scalable systems and dashboards (KPIs, reporting)

• Maintain a feedback loop with R&D on manufacturability, assembly efficiency, and practical shop-floor execution

Material flow & planning

• Help set up smooth material flows between warehouses and production

• Plan ahead what materials are needed, where, and when to keep production running without interruption

• Flag material needs and timing to purchasing in good time, so materials are ordered and available when production needs them

Commissioning handover

• Take feedback from commissioning back into production and work preparation

• Aim for a smooth, plug-and-play handover: eliminate the need for commissioning to test, troubleshoot, or make adaptations on-site

• This is a feedback and improvement loop, not a service role — you are not involved in commissioning or service execution itself

Production context

• Work on containerized and skid-based water treatment systems

• Currently a project-driven environment with low-volume, high-customization builds, moving toward modular, configurable products

• Support the build-out of a configuration-to-production flow: from a configuration platform, through engineering, into production, as fast as possible and without custom engineering

• Combine workshop execution and people leadership with practical process improvement and production structuring

⚒️ Skills

Must-haves for the ideal Production Lead:

• Has a technical degree (electromechanics, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, industrial engineering, or comparable) — the exact degree matters less than solid technical understanding of mechanical and electrical assembly

• Has 2-5 years of hands-on experience in production, assembly, or workshop environments

• Understands mechanical systems, piping, and basic electrical integration

• Has affinity with industrial installations, containerized systems, or water treatment

• Has strong problem-solving skills and process thinking, and is comfortable working in non-standardized, fast-evolving production setups

• Has strong people and communication skills — able to lead, motivate, and coordinate a team, and to interact naturally across departments and cultures

• Is comfortable working with planning tools, Excel, and Enterprise Resource Planning systems

• Is fluent in Dutch and English

• Must be willing to work hands-on on the shop floor, not only from behind a desk

Strong asset:

• Bulgarian language skills

Practical requirement:

• Willing to travel between Belgium and Bulgaria when required, with expected travel up to 25%

😎 Attitudes

• Hands-on and pragmatic, with a strong ownership mindset for implementation, execution, and results

• Proactive and solution-driven, thrives in ambiguity and fast-changing environments

• A natural people leader: takes people with them, communicates clearly, and builds trust on the shop floor

• Can think in a structured way and bring structure to complex, unclear, or chaotic situations

• Comfortable working across countries, cultures, and different levels of production maturity

• Ambitious and interested in growing into a broader production or operations leadership role

• Strong sense of responsibility and accountability

🐬 You will feel like a fish in our water if…

• You enjoy combining engineering with real-world execution and leading people to get it done

• You like executing a clear scale-up plan and turning it into practical shop-floor reality

• You want international exposure (Belgium & Bulgaria)

• You like honest, straightforward, and to-the-point communication (open feedback makes us all better)

• Integrity is one of your key values

• A 'work hard-play hard' culture in a pleasant and dynamic start-up drives you

• You don't take yourself too seriously