Key Skills

Job Description

Find the breakthroughs the Netherlands needs next. The Netherlands has world-class science, but too many brilliant ideas never make it out of the lab. NADI, the new National Agency for Disruptive Innovation, is here to change that. Like ARIA in the UK and SPRIND in Germany, we work with the ARPA model: we start with a big problem worth solving, not with a technology, and we fund the boldest teams to crack it. At a glance Location: Amsterdam Hours: Full-time, 80% possible Start: As soon as possible Contract: Seven months to start Experience: Around 3 to 8 years The role We are looking for our first Fellows. Fellows are NADI's explorers. You dig into a problem until you understand where the real bottleneck sits, you work out what a breakthrough would make possible, and you help turn the strongest ideas into NADI programmes and challenges. Rigorous analysis sits at the heart of the role: Fellows make sure our money goes where it can make the biggest difference. For example: - What bottlenecks do we need to solve to get abundant and cheap renewable energy? - How do we get PFAS alternatives? - Agriculture that strengthens nature? You'll be among the first people to join NADI and we expect you to be entrepreneurial. Over the coming year we're building a team of Fellows with different backgrounds, disciplines and levels of experience. Together, you'll shape both what NADI works on and how we work. You'll report to the founding team member who leads NADI's programmes. What “Fellow” means at NADI Not a short research placement, but a core role in a small team that decides where the agency looks next. Fellows don’t lead programmes themselves; that’s the job of our Programme Directors. Instead, you’ll work closely with them: before a programme starts, by finding and testing the idea, and once it runs, by supporting the Programme Director who leads it. For exceptional Fellows with the right experience, leading a programme may come later. What you'll do Explore opportunity spaces. Pick up a problem area and go deep: what is technically possible today, where does it get stuck, and what would change if it didn't? Form your own view, and defend it. You'll talk to researchers, founders, engineers and the people who would use a solution. But the job isn't to write down what they said. It's to weigh the evidence, spot what others missed, and say clearly what you think and why. Get creative about evidence. When the data you need doesn't exist, you find another way: a quick experiment, a back-of-the-envelope model, a dataset nobody thought to combine, a visit to the place where the problem actually happens. Shape programmes and challenges. Help turn the strongest ideas into programme theses, test them with experts, and support the Programme Directors who will lead them. Build NADI. As one of the first hires, you'll help design how we scout, select and learn, and how we stay honest about what works and what doesn't. Who you are We care far more about how you think than about where you've worked. Depth. You've gone genuinely deep on something hard: a PhD, a product you built, a technology you brought into use, or a field you mastered in industry, research or government. Independent judgement. You reach your own conclusions from evidence, you can explain them simply, and you know where they might be wrong. Range and curiosity. You enjoy getting to grips with a field that isn't your own, and you ask the questions that make experts think. Strategic thinking. You see the bigger picture and find the questions that matter most. With limited time, you go after the facts that could change the answer first. Clear writing. You can make a complex argument in a one pager, in English. It's a bonus if you bring experience in one of our focus areas, strong quantitative or technical skills, a start-up you founded or helped build, or experience of how policy and public money work. You don't need to speak Dutch. This role could be for you if you are… A consultant or analyst ready to apply your skills to science and technology. You've spent three or more years in strategy, venture capital, academia, a think tank or business analysis, and you want to bring that rigour to problems at the frontier. A researcher who wants more impact. You have a PhD or postdoc behind you, you've looked well beyond your own field, and you've seen how research meets industry, start-ups or policy. A builder with an analytical streak. You've founded a company or been an early hire, and the part you loved most was discovery: working out which problem was really worth solving. Other paths are just as welcome. Most of our first Fellows will have around three to eight years of experience. If you're earlier in your career or more senior, and this role excites you, please apply: we're building a team, and we'll shape the role around the right person. This role is probably not for you if you want to lead a programme yourself straight away (see our Programme Director vacancy), you want to keep doing your own research in one field, or you do your best work on a clearly defined brief rather than an open question. You don't need to tick every box If you're wondering whether you're the "right type" for this, you probably are. We want people from every background, discipline and walk of life, including those who've been told "no" before. What we offer A mission that matters. Help decide where a new national agency invests in breakthroughs for the Netherlands and Europe, and help grow a movement of people who connect research, technology and entrepreneurship. Real ownership. Your analysis will directly shape which programmes NADI launches. A founding role. Join a small, ambitious team early, and help build the agency's culture and ways of working. Flexibility. Full-time is our starting point, but we'll consider 80% for the right person. Based in the Netherlands. Our office is in Amsterdam for now, with regular travel across the country and occasionally abroad. Start date and contract. As soon as possible. We start with a seven-month contract while NADI is being set up as an independent organisation. We're hiring for the long term and want to keep building with the Fellows who join us now.

Core Responsibilities

Investigate complex problem areas, identify technical and practical bottlenecks, evaluate evidence, and develop a clear view of where breakthroughs could have the greatest impact. Help shape and test NADI programme ideas and challenges, support Programme Directors, and contribute to building the agency's scouting and learning practices.

Requirements

Candidates should have developed deep expertise through research, building a product or company, or mastering a field, and be able to reach and clearly explain independent conclusions from evidence. The role also calls for curiosity across disciplines, strategic thinking, strong writing in English, and typically around three to eight years of experience; a PhD, technical or quantitative skills, startup experience, or policy experience are advantageous.

Benefits

• Flexible Work Schedule
• Founding Role
• Opportunity to Shape Agency Strategy