Founding Director AI Hub

The Netherlands is full of extraordinary AI founders. Deeply technical, wildly ambitious, building products that are reshaping entire industries. And right now, they're scattered across the country, each brilliant, each building, but doing it in isolation.

We believe that changes when you put them under one roof. When the best AI founders in the country share a building, grab coffee in the same kitchen, and collide in the hallway, they make each other better. They move faster. They hire from each other's networks. They attract capital, talent, and international attention. That's the National AI Hub. A curated, membership-driven home base for scaling AI companies, with quantum founders joining the mix as both fields converge. Starting at 4,000 m², growing fast, with €8.5 million committed. Techleap and a cooperative of AI startups are backing it. Prosus, Booking.com, Google, they're at the table. The city of Amsterdam is in. Now we need the person who builds it.

Your role as Founding Director
This is a founder role. You get a budget, a mandate, and a set of partners who believe in this. From there, you build. You'll serve as Director of TechHub B.V., reporting to the shareholders (Techleap and the AI Cooperative). You'll work closely with strategic partners, and navigate relationships with sponsors, the city of Amsterdam, investors, and most importantly, the founders who will call this place home. Your main responsibilities:

• Build the hub from scratch. Shape the value proposition, what founders get, why they join, why they stay. Design a membership model that earns its price. Create an environment where engineers and technical founders feel at home, where the density is addictive and the community is unmatched.

• Deliver the physical space. Manage the renovation of 4,000 m² and work with architects who understand that a great space creates great collisions. Plan for growth toward 10,000 m² as the community scales.

• Hire and lead the team. Hire a team of 5 to 10 people who thrive with ownership and move at startup speed.

• Own the business. Full P&L responsibility. Tight governance. Clean finances. You run the company, you know that operational grip is what eventually turns into something real.

• Be the voice. Represent the hub on stages, in media, and in the rooms where the future of Dutch AI is being shaped. When someone says "National AI Hub," they think of you.

• Connect the ecosystem. Link the hub into a network of Europe's leading tech destinations. Attract international founders, corporate partners, and investors into the community.

Who we're looking for

This role is rare, and so is the person who fits it.
Here's what matters most:

• You've guided plenty of organisations through strategic plans. 

• You've started, scaled, or run a business from scratch. You know what it takes to make the first hire, sign the first lease, and sell a vision before it exists.

• The AI community knows and respects you. When founders see your name attached to this hub, they lean in. They trust you because you've been in the arena yourself.

• You've carried real responsibility: P&L, legal, team, board. And you can stand on a stage and make 500 people believe in something that's still taking shape.

• Your network opens doors, in the Netherlands and internationally. 

• You can brief an architect, manage a renovation, and shape a physical space, or you know exactly who to bring in for what you can't do yourself.

• You communicate with force and warmth. On stage, in writing, one-on-one over coffee.

• You live and work in the Netherlands. Fluent English is required. Dutch is a plus.

What we offer you in return

This role is a real chance to build something from scratch that an entire country needs, with real money behind it, real partners around it, and total freedom to make it yours. We also offer:

• A front-row seat at the fastest growing AI community in the Netherlands.

• A team of people who are just as excited about this as you are.

• Salary up to €10,200 gross/month.

• 8% holiday allowance.

• 15% pension allowance, self-allocated.

• Home office and BYOD allowance.

• Travel allowance.

• Hybrid setup.

• Full-time contract.