Founding Product Manager arbeitnow Circonomit Berlin, Germany · 10/2/2026

Primetime; Berlin; Hybrid; EUR 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

VSOP package

Hybrid work

HQ in Cologne

Hardware allowance

AI tooling budget

Sports membership

Deutschland-Ticket

Job summary

Circonomit is seeking a founding product lead to shape our decision platform for industrial production. You will own the product area end to end, bridging customer needs and engineering to decide what we build next.

You’ll work with plant managers and controllers, present roadmaps to the board, and define the standards between product and customer projects. German C1+ and fluent English are essential, with a valid Germany work visa.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in product management or consulting with genuine product proximity.
• End-to-end ownership of a product area.
• Strong technical/analytical foundation: engineering, data, OR, or modelling.
• Recognise when a requirement creates technical debt or will not be reusable for the next customer.
• Experience deciding under incomplete information and explaining trade-offs.
• Comfort working with plant managers and controllers; German C1+ and fluent English; existing work visa for Germany.

Skills

Product management

Stakeholder management

Analytical thinking

German (C1+)

English (fluent)

Work visa Germany

Job description

Hi, we're Dana and Erik, the founders of Circonomit. We build the decision platform industrial companies use to plan their production.

Dana sees the customer side. She needs to know which use cases we can sell today, which we cannot, and what a demo is allowed to claim.

Erik sees the engineering side. He needs requirements that are ready to be built, complete, and clear about what we deliberately leave out.

The product sits between the two, and that is this role. We sell vertically, one use case at a time, while the product has to stay general enough to serve the next customer without being rebuilt. You decide what we build next, in which order, and what we decline.

How you will be measured: how much of today's project work is standard product a year from now, and how quickly a recognised customer problem becomes a usable capability.

We came out of RWTH research, raised €2.8M with Vorwerk Ventures, and have customers running on our models today. Small team, Cologne office.

Requirements

• 5+ years in product management, or consulting with genuine product proximity. You have owned a product area end to end, not only a backlog.
• A technical and analytical foundation: engineering, data, operations research, quantitative controlling, or finance with real modelling.
• You recognise when a requirement creates technical debt or will not be reusable at the next customer. You will not write production code.
• Experience deciding under incomplete information, and explaining the trade-offs afterwards: what you chose, why, and what it cost.
• You are comfortable working directly with plant managers and controllers, and understand how they decide today.
• German at C1 level or above, and fluent English. Customer conversations happen in German.
• Existing work visa for Germany.

You should enjoy being in front of customers in your first week, and deciding without a research team behind you. Priorities change as we learn from customers, and we make scope and trade-offs explicit together.

• Ownership. The roadmap, and where the line between product and customer project sits.
• Shaping the role. This is the founding product role. You define how product works here: discovery, prioritisation, and the standards between product and engineering.
• Exposure. You present your roadmap and the reasoning behind it to the board, and you sit in the core strategy conversations.
• Real-world impact. Customers plan their production on our models today.
• Direct collaboration. Small team, no org chart. We work directly together. Weekly feedback, both ways.
• Compensation. Competitive salary plus a VSOP package reflecting your contribution and development in the role.
• Hybrid work. Our HQ is in Cologne, and we meet there regularly.
• Your setup and everyday extras. Hardware of your choice · AI tooling budget · sports membership · Deutschland-Ticket.

Process

An intro call, a second conversation with the team, a 60- to 90-minute live case on a real customer requirement, then in-person conversations with the team.

"Hustle the day, analyse at night, reinforce something outstanding." Period.

This overview was written from the original listing to help you understand the role. Always confirm the specifics on the employer’s application page.