Founding Product Manager

About Circonomit

We are developing a revolutionary decision infrastructure platform acting as the strategic counterpart for industrial organizations, addressing complex combinatorial challenges. Our technology transforms real-world operational levers and constraints into computational models, running multi-dimensional optimizations to support critical value-chain decisions. Our work primarily supports Europe's industrial strength and Germany's Mittelstand sector amidst market uncertainties, orders, machinery, and workforce management.

Founded by Dana (CEO) and Erik (CTO) from RWTH research backgrounds, and backed by €2.8 million in funding led by Vorwerk Ventures, we already have live customers benefiting from our optimization models. Our culture is fast-paced, solution-oriented, and highly driven to solve problems decisively.

Role Overview

As the Founding Product Manager, you will have full accountability for the product and its prioritization. Your core challenge will be balancing a vertically focused go-to-market approach addressing use cases individually, while maintaining a product general enough to serve future customers without rebuilding.

You will act as the intermediary between Sales and Engineering. Your role encompasses clarifying current sellable use cases, setting realistic customer demo expectations, defining engineering requirements with precise scopes and acceptance criteria, and determining what features will intentionally be excluded.

This is an early-stage position with significant opportunity to shape both role and product direction. You will work closely on customer projects, engaging directly with decision-makers to identify valuable patterns suitable for productization.

Expect a demanding environment with tight deadlines, a dynamic workload, and continuous iteration on the product and technology simultaneously as you push it to market readiness.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and maintain the product roadmap, making informed choices on development priorities and features to defer.
• Establish clear guidelines distinguishing standard product functionality, customizable configurations, and bespoke manual work for clients.
• Create actionable engineering requirements including detailed scope, acceptance criteria, and explicit exclusions.
• Ensure credible customer commitments by transparently communicating the current capabilities and limits of the product.
• Lead validation exercises, including 'Proofs of Value,' maintaining accountability for specific client relationships.
• Develop prototypes to evaluate potential features with customers before allocating engineering resources.
• Drive the product discovery and prioritization processes, setting standards for collaboration between product and engineering teams.

Candidate Profile and Requirements

• Strong technical and analytical background with education or experience in engineering, data analytics, data science, operations research, quantitative controlling, or finance specialising in real-world modelling.
• A minimum of five years' experience in product management or consulting roles with close product involvement, having fully owned a product area rather than only managing backlogs.
• Proven ability to make decisions amid incomplete information, articulating the rationale and associated trade-offs clearly.
• Comfort engaging with diverse stakeholders such as plant managers or controllers to understand and translate their operational decision-making needs into product requirements.
• Preferred but not mandatory: expertise in optimization techniques, familiarity with manufacturing, supply chain or Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP), knowledge of enterprise B2B sales with cross-functional operations, IT, and controlling, or prior experience in an early-stage startup environment.
• Fluency in German at C1 level or above, and English proficiency.
• Located in North Rhine-Westphalia (Cologne preferred), Munich, Stuttgart, Berlin or willing to work in a hybrid arrangement. Flexible location arrangements possible for the right fit.

Compensation and Benefits

• Direct impact and leadership over product strategy and development.
• Substantial ownership over product processes with autonomy to define product scope and project boundaries without bureaucratic delays.
• Opportunity to work closely with researchers, modelers, and the founding team at an equal level.
• Visibility and involvement in high-level board presentations and strategic discussions.
• Rapid feedback cycles promoting agile growth and continuous improvement in a collaborative setting.
• Competitive salary package complemented by equity participation (VSOP) reflecting your contributions and career trajectory.

Recruitment Process

The selection includes an initial conversation with one of the founders, followed by an interview with a team member, a 60 to 90-minute live case exercise based on an actual customer need, and subsequent in-person discussions. Candidates are encouraged to request candid feedback from current team members before finalizing their decision.

Additional Information

We emphasize a mindset of "hustle the day, analyse at night, reinforce something outstanding." Quick adaptation and strong analytical skills are essential.