Operations Manager

Operations Manager - Deep Tech Momentum (DTM)

Our mission: build Europe's No. 1 Deep Tech & AI Innovation Marketplace and be the undisputed leader on the continent. DTM27 will operate at 3x the scale of DTM26 across attendance, content, matchmaking, and operations.

To get there, we are building an online-offline flywheel: a business intelligence and matchmaking platform powered by Europe's premier Deep Tech conference and early-stage investment arm. Our objective is to catalyse 100 billion euros in additional enterprise procurement and 100 billion euros in venture capital into European Deep Tech and AI by 2030.

DTM has achieved substantial traction in just two years. Over 300 Deep Tech funds, 300+ corporate partners, and 1,000+ startups are already part of our ecosystem, alongside key partners including Lakestar, Vsquared, EIF, DCVC, SAP, Elaia, HV Capital, Earlybird, IQ Capital, McKinsey, BCG, Aumovio, BASF, The Exploration Company, Tekever, Axelera AI, Robco, Marvel Fusion and many others shaping Europe's Deep Tech landscape.

DTM26 held in May 2026 at Wilhelm Studios, Berlin, was Europe's most ambitious Deep Tech innovation marketplace to date: 3,000+ attendees, 100 DTM100 startup pitches, 300+ corporate innovation leaders, and programming spanning Defence, Space, Energy, Advanced Materials, Manufacturing & Robotics, and High-Performance Computing, with AI as a cross-cutting layer. DTM.Capital, our early-stage investment vehicle, is going live and growing alongside the platform.

The Role

DTM27 takes place on 12 and 13 May 2027 at Wilhelm Studios in Berlin and will host 6,000 people. SPARTA , our Defence and Space satellite event, runs on the 11th February 2027 in Munich alongside the Munich Security Conference. Between them sits a calendar of smaller formats: dinners, roundtables, delegation visits, DTM100 pitch sessions and partner activations.

As Operations Manager you produce all of it. This is the role that turns a floorplan into a built event: suppliers contracted, trucks scheduled, stages up, signage hung, crew briefed, doors open on time and in budget.

It is also the role that most greatly impacts how DTM feels. Our attendees are CTOs, fund partners, procurement leads and founders who spend their year at the best events in the world. What they remember is not the agenda, it is whether the coffee queue moved, whether they found their meeting, whether the room they walked into felt like something worth flying to Berlin for. You own that standard, and you own the budget that delivers it.

You are deep in the detail, working alongside the Event Director and the wider team, and you grow the production team around you as the event scales.

Your Mission

• Produce every DTM event end to end. Own the production plan for DTM27, SPARTA and the wider event calendar: venue logistics, floorplans, AV and staging, catering, registration, exhibitor and startup village setup, attendee flow, accessibility, signage and wayfinding. You hold the critical path and you hold it to the day.
• Design an experience people talk about for a year. Attendee experience is an operational output, not a marketing one. Own the journey end to end: arrival and registration, how quickly someone gets from the door to their first meeting, where they eat, where they can take a call, how a Guardian finds the startup they flew in to meet, how the last hour of day two feels. Measure it, learn from it, and raise the bar every cycle. DTM should feel tier 1 in a way that European Deep Tech has not experienced before.
• Own the operations budget. DTM's operational budget is one of the largest cost centres in the business and you run it: build, venue, AV, catering, staffing, freight, technology. Forecast it, defend it, track every purchase order and change order, reconcile it after the event, and make the trade-offs that protect both margin and experience. Efficiency wins are part of the job, and so is knowing where not to save.
• Own vendor management and negotiation. Source, brief, contract and manage venues, stand builders, AV, catering, furniture, freight, security, cleaning and registration platforms. Run competitive tenders, negotiate hard on rate and scope, hold suppliers to what they promised, and lock the spec in early so Partnerships can sell against it.
• Run build-up and breakdown. Own the build and breakdown schedule, dock and traffic management, contractor access, and the crew on the floor. You are on-site from first truck to last, running a tight, safe, on-schedule build across a venue handling thousands of people.
• Staff and lead the on-site operation. Plan and be responsible for the on-site manpower model: producers, coordinators, freelancers, crew, stewards, volunteers and agency staff. Build the run-of-show, write the briefing pack, run the daily stand-ups, and lead a 100+ person on-site team through two high-pressure days. Every one of them is a touchpoint for an attendee, so how they are briefed matters as much as how many there are.
• Deliver the creative production. Bring the DTM brand into the physical space: main stage and side stage design, meeting and featured areas, networking zones, partner activations and sponsor deliverables. Work with designers and fabricators and stand builders to hit brand guidelines and contracted sponsor deliverables together with the customer success team, on spec and on budget.
• Run large-scale project management across functions. Maintain the master timeline and dependency map. Drive weekly operational alignment with Sales, Marketing, Content, Partnerships and Product so that every commitment made to a partner or speaker is deliverable on site. Escalate blockers early and clearly.
• Hire and grow the operations team. Recruit producers and coordinators, set clear goals, hand over real ownership, give regular feedback, and coach people through chaos. You set the standard the team works to and you are invested in where they go next.
• Keep the event safe and permitted. Venue regulations, permits, insurance, security planning, fire and safety, GEMA and local requirements in Berlin, Munich and wherever else we take an event. Get it right early so it never becomes a conversation on show day.

You Are

• An events operations professional with 4+ years of hands-on production experience on conferences, exhibitions or trade shows of 1,000+ attendees, ideally from an exhibition organiser, event agency or rapid-growth event business.
• Proven on build and breakdown. You have run a live show floor, managed contractors and freight, AV management experience, held a build schedule together, and solved problems on site under time pressure without escalating the panic.
• Genuinely interested in experience, not just delivery. You notice queue design, room temperature, sightlines, signage that nobody reads, and the ten minutes between a session ending and the next conversation starting. You have opinions about what good feels like.
• A strong supplier manager and negotiator. You know what things should cost, you push back on quotes, and you build relationships that get you looked after when you need a favour at short notice.
• Confident with a large budget. Forecasting, purchase orders, variance tracking and reconciliation are routine for you, and you can explain a number to the rest of the business without it being a fight.
• Operationally obsessive. Timelines, floorplans, spec sheets, run-of-shows, running orders. You catch the detail others miss and you close it out before it becomes a problem.
• Someone people want to work for. You have led coordinators, freelancers or large on-site teams, and you want to build a team as DTM scales.
• Cross-functionally fluent. You can work with Partnerships on what has actually been sold, with Content on what the stage needs to do, and with Marketing on how the space should look, and find a way to make all three work in one room.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and ownership. DTM is a small, fast-scaling team. There is no finished playbook. You will write it.
• Based in or willing to relocate to Berlin. On-site availability during planning and execution is essential. German is a strong advantage but not a requirement.

Build Europe's most ambitious Deep Tech marketplace, physically. Every stage, every meeting space, every conversation between a corporate buyer and a founder happens inside an environment you produced.

Founder culture with scale. High autonomy and real responsibility, working directly with DTM's founders and leadership team. Build the production systems that take the business from 3,000 to 6,000+ attendees in a single cycle.

Real budget ownership. You run one of the largest cost centres in the business and make the calls on how it is spent. Your decisions are visible across the company.

Build the team. You will hire and shape DTM's production team and set how we operate as we scale.

Range across formats. A 6,000-person flagship in Berlin, a high-security defence event in Munich, and a calendar of intimate senior-level formats in between. You will not be running the same show twice.

Compensation

Competitive package combining base salary, target bonus tied to operational delivery, and equity in a validated, high-growth business with seed-stage traction and a profitable business model.

On-site availability in Berlin is essential, particularly during the 6 months leading into DTM27 and SPARTA, and during both events.