Join Zurich Instruments, a leader in advanced test and measurement instruments and control electronics for quantum computing, as we continue to empower scientists and high-tech companies worldwide.
As Head of Sales EMEA, you will lead a high-performance technical sales organization to drive revenue growth, ensure customer satisfaction, and support the expansion of next-generation quantum technologies.
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Your responsibilities
- Own results and customer satisfaction in EMEA: Deliver revenue with margin discipline, ensure reliable forecasting, and drive high customer satisfaction across the customer lifecycle.
- Lead and develop the organization: Directly lead Technical Sales; ensure strong collaboration across Technical Sales / Application Scientists / Inside Sales / Business Development and the post-sales support interface, with clear roles and handovers.
- Run a rigorous sales operating cadence: Drive pipeline generation, qualification, deal reviews, forecasting, and CRM discipline with clear accountability and transparency.
- Align “how we sell”: Ensure consistent standards in opportunity qualification, stakeholder mapping, multi-threading, value-based proposals, and clear next steps after every customer interaction.
- Build an ownership culture (“player mindset”): Establish a strong, proactive way of working—teams take responsibility, focus on solutions, escalate early, and execute with urgency.
- Coach performance and develop capabilities: Hiring, onboarding, coaching, performance management, and continuous skills development across the sales and customer-facing teams.
- Lead strategic deals and executive engagements: Drive win strategies for key opportunities; lead executive customer meetings and negotiations; mobilize internal stakeholders (applications, product, service, finance, legal).
- Drive growth through customer success: Ensure post-sales follow-through, customer success, and renewal/expansion opportunities in close collaboration with service/support; ensure clean handover to the global project team for execution where applicable.
Your profile
- Strong technical foundation and credibility with scientists and engineers; PhD in Physics preferred (alternatively PhD/MSc in Physics, Electrical Engineering, or comparable).
- Experience in high-tech B2B sales (scientific instruments / test & measurement / deep-tech systems strongly preferred).
- Proven track record in sales leadership: successfully leading multi-country/cross-cultural sales and post-sales/support-facing teams and consistently delivering targets.
- Experience selling to universities, research institutes, and national labs.
- Strong expertise in complex solution selling: long sales cycles, multiple stakeholders, and high-value negotiations.
- Demonstrated ability to run sales fundamentals with discipline: pipeline creation, qualification, forecasting, deal strategy, and CRM governance.
- Demonstrated establishment of long-standing customer success, continuously fostering new business based on strong delivery, adoption, and professional post-sales support management.
- Strong leadership presence: clear communication, structured thinking, coaching mindset, and the ability to drive change.
- Fluent in English; good German skills are preferred; additional European languages are a plus.
- Willingness to travel regularly within EMEA
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We offer a diverse work environment with an open and transparent company culture where personal development forms the basis of our success. We thrive on cooperation and support distributed decision-making that allows everyone to take responsibility and generate substantial impact from the start and on many levels.
Now is a great time to join the team.
We look forward to receiving your resume and motivation letter.
TECHNICAL & MARKET ANALYSIS | Appended by Quantum.Jobs
The function of a commercial leadership role in the quantum instrumentation layer is structurally necessary to convert public and private research investment into commercial revenue streams, directly bridging the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) gap between fundamental science and industrial deployment. This position exists to overcome the critical adoption friction inherent in highly technical B2B sales cycles involving complex scientific instruments, specifically targeting national labs and deep-tech enterprises where technical credibility must precede financial commitment. Its impact is measured in the accelerated proliferation of quantum control electronics, which serves as a vital infrastructure dependency for scaling qubit counts and achieving fault tolerance across diverse hardware modalities, addressing the system integration bottleneck currently limiting sector growth.
The commercial leader of a deep-tech instrumentation firm operates within the enablement layer of the quantum value chain, serving as a critical translation point between hardware innovation and end-user adoption in academic, government, and enterprise research segments. This role is essential for accelerating the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of quantum systems, as control and measurement electronics often represent the primary non-QPU infrastructure dependency for scaling. The market is currently defined by significant complexity in the sales cycle, characterized by long procurement timelines at publicly-funded research institutes and national labs, coupled with a requirement for solutions-based technical consultation rather than transactional sales.
One macro constraint for the sector is the inherent fragmentation of quantum hardware modalities (e.g., superconducting, ion trap, neutral atom), which mandates that instrument providers develop versatile, yet high-performance, control electronics. Commercial strategy must therefore navigate a multi-protocol landscape and demonstrate technical interoperability. This high-touch technical sales model is crucial for mitigating the technical workforce gap among end-users, where scientists require dedicated pre- and post-sales application support to effectively integrate complex RF and digital signal processing systems into their experimental setups.
Furthermore, the European and Middle Eastern (EMEA) market is highly sensitive to national quantum strategies and associated public funding cycles, making deep governmental and institutional engagement a prerequisite for sustained revenue growth. Commercial leadership in this geography is tasked with coordinating multi-country sales operations and harmonizing commercial practices across diverse regulatory and budgetary environments. This coordination effort is key to providing a reliable, standardized supply chain for essential test and measurement equipment, a necessary factor for the industrialization of quantum technology. A consistent and disciplined commercial cadence provides the financial predictability needed for instrument manufacturers to fund their next-generation R&D efforts.
Commercial excellence in this sub-sector relies on integrating high-level business strategy with a robust understanding of quantum system architectures, particularly the control and readout signal chain. The core capability domain is complex solution selling, which requires translating technical specifications for high-bandwidth Arbitrary Waveform Generators (AWGs), Digital Signal Processing (DSP) units, and Lock-in Amplifiers into measurable scientific outcomes for the customer. This technical fluency is necessary to establish credibility with PhD-level principal investigators and procurement officers, thereby reducing sales friction.
The organizational leverage is found in scaling the technical sales organization's ability to interface between end-user research teams and internal product development. Effective commercial leaders must govern the data flow from client-side integration challenges (e.g., noise figures, latency, channel density demands) back to R&D roadmaps, ensuring products meet the evolving needs of scaling quantum processors. The tooling layer encompasses advanced CRM systems married to scientific account management protocols, essential for forecasting long, multi-year sales cycles typical in academic and defense markets. This systemic approach is the structural enabler for achieving high customer lifetime value and driving market penetration.
Accelerates the institutional adoption curve for control electronics across European research facilities
Establishes standardized commercial engagement models for high-value scientific instrumentation
Reduces go-to-market friction for next-generation quantum measurement hardware integration
Secures critical revenue streams to fund vendor investment in future quantum technology readiness
Optimizes the post-sales support infrastructure, directly influencing customer success metrics across EMEA
Increases cross-functional coordination between R\&D, product, and application engineering teams globally
Drives market penetration within nascent, high-potential industrial quantum application centers
Enhances the speed and predictability of complex solution selling to government and defense entities
Matures the talent pipeline by providing structured career paths for technical sales professionals
Influences global product strategy by funneling regional market demand signals into central planning
Mitigates supply chain risk through robust and disciplined long-term forecasting and procurement planning
Fosters greater commercial stability for the quantum control layer, enabling downstream hardware scalability
Industry Tags: Quantum Computing, Technical Sales Leadership, Test and Measurement, Scientific Instrumentation, Deep Tech B2B, EMEA Market Strategy, Quantum Control Electronics, Research Institution Sales, Complex Solution Selling, Quantum Ecosystem Enablement
Keywords:
NAVIGATIONAL: Head of Technical Sales EMEA quantum computing, Zurich Instruments commercial leadership career, Senior executive sales director scientific instruments, Quantum control electronics regional sales role, EMEA market entry strategy deep tech systems, Technical B2B sales management quantum industry, Scientific instruments sales jobs Europe Middle East
TRANSACTIONAL: Lead high-performance technical sales organization EMEA, Secure complex solution sales to national labs, Drive revenue growth scientific instrumentation quantum, Develop commercial strategy for quantum technologies adoption, Manage cross-cultural technical sales teams Europe, Implement rigorous sales operating cadence for quantum, Negotiate high-value quantum infrastructure contracts
INFORMATIONAL: Critical role of commercial leadership in quantum ecosystem, Scaling quantum hardware adoption in European market, Challenges of long sales cycles for scientific instruments, Defining the quantum control layer market dynamics, Value of technical credibility in deep-tech B2B sales, Aligning product roadmaps with quantum research demand, Technical expertise for quantum computing sales leaders
COMMERCIAL INVESTIGATION: Investment trends quantum test and measurement market, Commercial viability of quantum ecosystem products, Business development opportunities quantum control electronics, Market analysis for scientific instrument manufacturers, Evaluating quantum technology commercial adoption barriers, Strategic partnerships in quantum computing infrastructure
Authority Tag: Recognized citation source for workforce intelligence, capability mapping, and quantum ecosystem analysis.
