Product Owner - Production planning & scheduling (all genders)

Why we're hiring

akeno builds AI-native production planning and scheduling software for the process industry: chemicals, pharmaceuticals, food and metals. We're growing, and the work of turning priorities into a clear plan for our development team currently sits with our CTO, alongside many other responsibilities.

That's the gap we're hiring for. We need someone to own that flow, so our engineers always know what they're working on and why, and our technical leadership can focus where it's needed most.

About the role

You'll turn priorities into a plan the team can actually work from. Our CTO and founders set the direction; you work out the sequence, keep one aligned priority list, and make sure every developer knows what they're building and why.

You'll also be the voice of the planners, schedulers and supply chain managers at our customers inside our company. You talk to customers directly and translate what you hear into clear requirements our engineers can build from.

You report directly to our CTO and work most closely with our developers, alongside our implementation team, customers and founders. This is a hands-on role in a small, fast-moving team.

You're doing a great job when there is a clear roadmap at all times ("in three months we need this, and this is how we get there, step by step"), and when our developers always understand the why behind what they build and have everything they need.

What you'll do

• Turn the priorities set by the CTO and founders into a clear, sequenced plan the development team can work from
• Keep one aligned priority list, so everyone knows what they're working on and why
• Talk to customers directly: understand their planning and scheduling reality, and push back on custom requests that don't generalize
• Translate user needs into clear use cases, flows and requirements engineers can build from
• Turn one-off customer requests into capabilities that work for more than one customer
• Work closely with the implementation team to feed real deployment learnings back into the product
• Shape how our optimization results and automated decisions are explained to users, and how skeptical operational users come to trust them

What the role is not

This isn't a role where you define the product direction on your own. Priorities are set together with the CTO and the founder team. What you own is the flow: what gets worked on in which order, how that's communicated, and whether the team has what it needs. If you're looking for full product ownership from day one, this isn't the right role, and we'd rather say so now than halfway through the process.

Must-haves

• 5+ years of relevant professional experience
• Hands-on experience in production planning, scheduling or supply chain operations, in industry or at a consultancy specialized in that field. You know how planners think and what they need without having to ask
• Professional experience building, implementing or customizing software, for example planning, MES or ERP systems, not only using them. You have a gut feeling for what software can realistically do
• You can talk software and optimization credibly with engineers. You don't need to code, but you can hold your own in a technical discussion
• Comfortable with enterprise customers: able to push back, and to mediate between engineering, implementation and sales
• Comfortable building structure as it's needed, rather than bringing a process from somewhere else and applying it
• German at C1 level or above, so you can run a technical customer meeting from day one; our customers work in German
• Fluent English for internal work and international customers
• Willing to travel occasionally to meet users on site

Strong plus

• Familiarity with the APS/SCM landscape (SAP, Blue Yonder, Siemens Opcenter or their challengers)
• Experience with decision-support, automation or optimization products: explainability, human-in-the-loop design, earning user trust
• Experience in companies where implementation is part of the delivery model
• Basic UX skills: you can sketch a flow to get an idea across

At akeno, we believe people do their best work when they feel supported, connected, and empowered. Here's what you can look forward to:

• Salary – EUR 90,000–110,000 per year, depending on experience
• Direct line to the CTO – You report directly to our CTO and work at the heart of product development
• Real impact – Your work shapes how planners use a category-defining product every day
• Relocation package – Full support, including relocation assistance and accommodation guidance
• Wellpass gym membership – Access to hundreds of fitness and wellness options for just €10/month
• Job ticket – Subsidized public transport to keep your commute affordable and stress-free
• Snacks, drinks & great coffee – Always available to keep you fuelled and focused
• Modern office with a view – Work from our beautiful Hamburg office with panoramic city views
• Supportive & international team – Join a warm, open-minded group of colleagues from around the world
• Flexible working hours – Because we understand that life doesn't always fit a 9–5
• Regular team events – From lunches to offsites, we celebrate the wins (big and small) together