Operations & Reliability Manager

Your role at C12

C12 builds quantum computers in-house in Paris, on a unique carbon-nanotube qubit platform. As we scale, our lab is becoming a real production facility: cleanrooms, industrial fabrication tools, dilution refrigerators, gas and cryogenic systems that must run reliably every day.

We are looking for an Operations & Reliability Manager to build and lead the team that keeps this facility available, reliable and ready to scale. You will own how we run operations day to day and how we make them progressively more robust: preventive maintenance, monitoring and data, resilience, and the operational readiness of our current and future facilities. You will build and grow a team of technicians and, over time, an on-call and shift coverage team, own the facility operations budget, and work hand in hand with Production, R&D, Qubit Control and Software.

This role reports to the R&D Operations lead.

Key Responsibilities:

Build, lead and grow the Operations team

• Build and lead the Operations function, covering both day-to-day operation (Run) and reliability and facility projects (Build).
• Manage and grow a team of technicians across facilities and equipment, and set a clear operating rhythm (reviews, priorities, follow-up).
• Be the operational owner of facility and equipment availability, and the escalation point when the first line cannot resolve an issue.
• Set and be accountable for the operations KPIs: uptime, lost production days due to facility or equipment downtime, planned versus unplanned maintenance ratio, MTBF and MTTR.

Reliability and preventive maintenance

• Build and own the preventive-maintenance program for the cryostats, cleanroom tools and facility systems (planned maintenance, maintenance management system, spare-parts strategy).
• Continuously improve equipment reliability and uptime, evolving from scheduled maintenance toward condition-based and predictive maintenance as the data layer matures.

Data and monitoring

• Own the facility and equipment data layer and its monitoring dashboards, built with the Software team, to track performance and surface issues early.
• Use data to prioritize, detect drift early, and make operational decisions evidence-based rather than reactive.

Facilities, utilities and suppliers

• Ensure the availability of the facility and its utilities (power, water, gas, HVAC, cooling-water and cryogenic systems).
• Manage, coordinate and challenge external service providers and contractors, owning both the budget and the quality of the works they perform.
• Support the design, commissioning and operational readiness of new facilities (a new measurement center and a larger production facility).

Coverage, incident response and safety

• Structure, staff and coordinate the on-call rotation, and over the medium term a shift (3x8) team, for nights and weekends; define the escalation paths and response protocols.
• Ensure safety practices and emergency-response readiness across gas, cryogenic, chemical and high-voltage systems, and ensure SOPs and runbooks are written, followed and kept up to date.

Cross-functional interface

• Partner with Production, R&D, Qubit Control and Software, translate their needs into clear service commitments, and keep the facility and equipment ready so they can operate.

About you:

• You have 6-8 years in operations, maintenance or reliability in a technically demanding, critical-uptime environment, including significant experience leading and growing technical teams.
• You have a track record of building a preventive-maintenance program and moving an organization from reactive to preventive.
• You have experience owning an operations or facility budget and managing external contractors and suppliers at scale.
• You are comfortable owning a facility and equipment data layer and the KPIs that go with it, and steering what gets built with a software team.
• You understand how a facility network fits together (power, water, gas, HVAC) and ramp up fast on cryogenics and cleanroom specifics.
• You are rigorous, hands-on and dependable; you thrive in a scaling, still-ambiguous environment and are trusted to own things end to end.
• You are fluent in English, written and spoken.

Preferred Experience

• Operations, maintenance or reliability leadership in a semiconductor or microelectronics fab, a datacenter, a pharma or biotech cleanroom, or large scientific and research infrastructure.
• Hands-on with a maintenance management system (CMMS) and with facility monitoring or building-automation systems (GTB, SCADA).
• Experience structuring and running on-call or shift (3x8) coverage.
• Experience commissioning new facilities, cleanrooms or production lines, and owning the associated budgets.
• Exposure to cryogenics, vacuum systems or cleanroom environments.
• Safety and EHS experience in environments with compressed gases, cryogenics, chemicals or high voltage.