Director of Product

Orcrist is building a next generation data intelligence platform using cutting-edge technologies. We're handling petabyte-scale data with sub-second queries. Our product is a Kubernetes‑based platform delivered as B2B SaaS or as a self‑hosted on‑prem solution, including air‑gapped deployments. We enable customers across defense, law enforcement, and enterprise to turn mission-critical data into actionable intelligence.

Role

As Director of Product you own Orcrist’s entire product portfolio - Orcrist’s OIP and Civitas’ Sentinel, and lead the product organisation. You decide what Orcrist builds and in which order: what becomes platform and what stays customer-specific, which customer problem is solved next, and how we measure that it has been solved. Our promise is demonstrable the effectiveness of our software, and making that promise deliverable is the core of this role. You work directly with Engineers, our Government Development-Team and our customers and report to the COO of Orcrist.

What you’ll do

• Own product strategy and the portfolio roadmap across all product lines – including the decision about what becomes shared platform and what remains customer-specific engineering.
• Build and lead the product organisation: hire and develop Product Managers for the product lines and align them on common standards for discovery, prioritisation and delivery.
• Make product effectiveness and customer activity & usage a measurable product goal: define metrics, measurement logic and the subsequent tasks that are triggered by that.
• Own discovery with our Government Development team and our customers, and translate their requirements into product decisions rather than collecting feature requests.
• Decide prioritisation across competing customer, tender and platform demands, and defend those decisions to customers, the team and the management.
• Plan deliverable releases together with Engineering and QA, holding the balance between speed, quality and platform capability.
• Assess market, competitive and technology developments in the defence and simulation space and feed them into product strategy.

About you

• 8+ years of product management experience with complex technical products, preferably in the Analytics or SAAS-space, including several years leading Product Managers or a product organization.
• Experience in defence, GovTech or data fusion (own military or law enforcement background is an advantage).
• Experience with data analytics platforms.
• Proven track record of delivering products from discovery through to customer rollout – with nameable outcomes, not just roadmaps.
• Experience with B2B or B2G products in long, formal procurement cycles and with demanding enterprise or public sector customers.
• Experience holding platform decisions against customer-specific exceptions – and explaining the commercial consequence of both paths.
• Ability to decide with incomplete information, take ownership, and work in an environment without mature processes.
• Excellent communication skills in German and English across various hierarchy levels.
• Authorization to work in Germany and willingness to travel to customers (approx. 10-20%).

Nice-to-haves

• Experience with on-premise, offline or air-gapped products and their consequences for product decisions is an advantage.
• Experience in building a product organization in a startup or scale-up is an advantage.

What we offer

• Remote-first, Germany-wide: Work from wherever you do your best work, with regular team gatherings in Berlin and other off-site locations.
• Flexibility by default: Flexible working hours help you make work fit your life.
• Your setup, your way: Get a personal home-office equipment budget to create a workspace that works for you.
• 30 days of vacation: Take the time you need to recharge and come back with fresh energy.
• Keep growing: We invest in your personal and professional development.
• Get rewarded for impact: Performance bonuses are tied to agreed objectives and key results.
• A warm welcome: Every new team member gets a welcome goodie bag.
• Good people, good times: From summer and Christmas parties to regular team gatherings, we make time to celebrate together.
• A mission that matters: Work on challenges with tangible impact on public safety and national security.