Vice President of Operations

Axelera AI is not your regular deep-tech startup. We are creating the next-generation AI platform to support anyone who wants to help advancing humanity and improve the world around us.

In just four years, we have raised a total of $370 million and have built a world-class team of 220+ employees (including 49+ PhDs with more than 40,000 citations), both remotely from 18 different countries and with offices in Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, the UK, headquartered at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

We have also launched our Metis™ AI Platform, which achieves a 3-5x increase in efficiency and performance, and have visibility into a strong business pipeline exceeding $100 million.

Our unwavering commitment to innovation has firmly established us as a global industry pioneer.

Are you up for the challenge?

The Vice President of Operations will build and scale the end-to-end operations function for a fast-growing fabless semiconductor company which provides to market AI chip, AI acceleration card and AI systems. This executive will take ownership of manufacturing, supply chain, quality, and delivery — transforming early prototypes and customer pilots into reliable, high-volume production.

This is a hands-on leadership role requiring deep technical expertise, strong execution instincts, experience in starting and scale large operations worldwide and the ability to operate effectively in an environment with limited resources, evolving processes, and aggressive timelines.

• Establish and scale fabless operations from early silicon through chip volume production, computing cards and systems

• Design and implement operational processes, systems, and KPIs suitable for rapid growth

• Lead NPI, qualification, ramp, and sustaining production across multiple products, customers and geographies

• Balance speed, cost, and quality in a resource-constrained environment

• Own all external manufacturing: foundries, OSATs, test partners, board design houses, system design houses, contract manufacturers, logistics providers and system integrators

• Drive production planning, demand forecasting, and capacity management

• Identify and mitigate supply chain risks early (capacity, yield, lead times, geopolitical exposure)

• Develop alternate sourcing and contingency plans as the company scales

• Define and implement a global operation and supply chain strategy which takes in considerations supply chains and geopolitical requirements

• Build strategic, senior-level relationships with foundries, OSAT, system integrators, ODM/OEM, contract manufacturer partners

• Negotiate contracts, pricing, capacity commitments, and escalation paths

• Advocate for the company internally with partners despite early-stage volume constraints

• Establish quality, reliability, and failure analysis frameworks appropriate for startup scale

• Lead yield learning, root cause analysis, and corrective actions from first silicon onward

• Ensure customer quality requirements and certifications are met as the business grows

• Work closely with Engineering on DFM/DFT, process selection, and yield improvement

• Partner with Product and Sales to align customer commitments with operational reality

• Collaborate with Finance on cost modeling, cash planning, and gross margin improvement

• Build, lead, and mentor a lean, high-impact operations and supply chain team

• Set a culture of ownership, urgency, transparency, and continuous improvement

• Roll up sleeves when needed — no task is “too small” at this stage

• Strong background in scaling globally operations in fabless semiconductor companies and/or is OEM computing companies

• Proven experience taking products from design to volume production

• Track record of building processes and teams from the ground up

• Ability to operate effectively and quickly with ambiguity, incomplete data, and tight timelines

• Experience scaling a startup/scaleup through rapid growth or acquisition

• Background in markets such as AI, automotive, industrial, or data infrastructure

• MBA or advanced technical degree

We offer a flexible working arrangement, with options to:

• Work from one of our Axelera AI offices (Leuven in Belgium, Amsterdam and Eindhoven in the Netherlands, Zurich in Switzerland, Florence and Milan in Italy or Bristol in the United Kingdom) if you're already based in the vicinity.

• Relocate with us and work from Italy (Florence or Milan) or the Netherlands (Amsterdam or Eindhoven).

• Predictable product delivery from early customers to volume production

• Strong, trusted relationships with ODM/OEMs, foundries and OSAT partners

• Measurable improvements in product cost and time-to-market

• A scalable operations foundation ready for the next growth phase