Projectmanager Customer Projects (Solar Technology)

Working at Lightyear is a unique experience. You get the opportunity to work for a company with a pure and meaningful mission: accelerating sustainable mobility through cutting-edge solar innovation.

At Lightyear, we don’t just develop technology — we bring it to life with real customers. Together with leading car manufacturers (OEMs), we deliver proof-of-concept and prototype solar charging projects that push the boundaries of what’s possible in sustainable mobility. These PoC projects are often the starting point of something much bigger. When successful, they can evolve into large-scale customer programs and industrial delivery projects — meaning you won’t only help prove the technology, but also play a key role in scaling it toward real-world adoption.

That’s why we are looking for a special kind of Project Manager. Someone who is comfortable in balancing customer needs, commercial goals, and engineering realities and enjoys the challenge of solving complex and dynamic challenges. Someone who brings structure without rigidity, stays calm and knows how to move teams forward with clarity and trust.

If you are pragmatic, flexible, and rock-solid under pressure — and if you love delivering meaningful innovation with real-world partners — this might be your next role.

What will you do as a Project Manager at Lightyear?

In this role, you will sit at the heart of Lightyear’s customer projects. You will lead proof-of-concept and development programs with OEMs, ensuring we deliver high-quality results under tight timelines and startup constraints.

From the moment a customer opportunity becomes a real project, you take ownership. You translate commercial ambition into executable plans, align priorities across teams, and drive delivery from start to finish.

As our partnerships grow, your projects may also shift from PoCs into larger-scale deployment and industrialization programs — requiring the ability to adapt from fast experimental execution to structured, long-term delivery.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Leading customer-facing projects end-to-end, shaping scope, deliverables, planning, and execution in close collaboration with both the customer and internal stakeholders.
• Acting as the key bridge between OEMs, Sales, and Engineering — balancing customer expectations, technical realities, and business priorities.
• Driving progress across cross-functional teams in a fast-moving environment with limited resources.
• Building trusted relationships at all levels, from hands-on engineers to senior customer executives, ensuring alignment, transparency, and commitment throughout the project lifecycle.
• Owning budgets, timelines, and risk management — identifying obstacles early and solving them pragmatically before they become issues.
• Supporting commercial discussions when needed, managing agreements, change requests, and long-term partnerships with confidence and professionalism.
• Helping mature our project delivery approach as Lightyear scales from innovation projects to customer programs with real volume and impact.
• Continuously improving how we execute, collaborate, and deliver — learning fast and getting better with every project.

At the end of the day, success means more than delivering a technical milestone but building relationships that lead to long term collaborations. It means delivering it together — with a happy customer, a motivated team, and momentum for what comes next.

The kind of Project Manager we are looking for

We are not hiring for a specific industry background. Automotive experience is a plus, not a requirement. What matters most is the person, and the drive.

To succeed at Lightyear, you are someone who is:

• Pragmatic – you focus on solutions, not problems.
• Flexible in style – you adapt your approach depending on the situation and people.
• Comfortable with changing priorities – startup life energizes you, it doesn’t overwhelm you.
• A natural connector – you build bridges between teams and stakeholders, internally and externally.
• Cool, calm and collected – when challenges arise, you stay rock-solid and steer the ship.
• Execution-driven – you get things done, even when the path isn’t fully defined.

What do we expect from you?

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Engineering, Business, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience in project or program management, preferably in a tech-driven environment.
• Proven ability to deliver complex projects under tight deadlines.
• Experience working in a startup or scale-up environment.
• Familiarity with project management methodologies (Agile, Scrum, Waterfall).
• Excellent communication, leadership, and stakeholder management skills.
• Strong commercial awareness and confidence in working with external partners.
• Fluency in English (Dutch is a plus).

Experience with subsidies, regulatory frameworks, or sustainable technology is considered an advantage.

What can you expect from Lightyear?

• A high degree of freedom and independence in your role.
• A role within a multidisciplinary team consisting of highly motivated, inquisitive and talented people with a broad diversity of experience.
• Participation in a good pension scheme.
• 40 vacation days per year (based on a 40 hour contract).
• A commitment to your personal career development and goals.

Why join us?

• Be a part of a small and driven team at a technology start-up with a strong focus on sustainability.
• Engage in a collaborative work environment that encourages innovation, independent thinking and close cooperation.
• Opportunity to grow with the company as we accelerate and expand our impact in clean mobility.

Join Lightyear Layer and be a part of driving the future of sustainable mobility with our innovative solutions.