Senior Solutions Engineer - AI & Operations Research for Planning/Scheduling

We are building the next generation of AI-native production planning and scheduling software primarily for process industries and pharma manufacturing. Our product is deep, domain-complex, and deployed at large enterprise customers where the planning process is mission-critical.

We are looking for a Senior Solutions Engineer AI & Operations Research for Planning/Scheduling who will own the full post-sales lifecycle: from implementation handover through go-live support, steady-state operations, and continuous value delivery. Your job is to ensure customers succeed with our product — and to systematically feed what you learn back into the product so that every implementation gets easier than the last.

This role is designed to grow into a Product Owner position within 6 to 9 months. You will be the most senior technical person on the customer-facing side and the voice of the customer in our product decisions.

Tasks

• Lead the solution design and implementation phases of our product at customer locations for planning, scheduling and execution control in production environments.
• Co-create solutions with our customers and internal development teams.
• Write own code and data analysis based on operations research approaches in supply chain.
• Build internal prototypes leveraging AI coding assistance (e.g. Claude Code to build a small optimizer for loading dock scheduling).
• Lead and partially implement data integrations to customer data sources.
• Own the hypercare phase (4–8 weeks post go-live): act as primary point of contact, triage issues together with colleagues, coordinate with engineering.
• Build and maintain configuration documentation for each customer — what was set up, why, and what the known edge cases are.
• Travel to customer sides to conduct requirements and solution design workshops.

Product ownership (growing over time)

• Translate customer learnings into structured requirements, user stories and acceptance criteria
• Participate in backlog refinement and sprint planning with the Fullstack and AI/Optimization teams
• Prioritize customer requests against roadmap goals and communicate trade-offs to customers
• Run product discovery sessions with planners and supply chain leads
• Gradually take ownership of a defined product area

Team

You will be part of the Solution Delivery Team working close with our customers and the rest of our Tech Teams (Fullstack, AI/Optimization & DevOps).

Our team members are very senior (~10 years of experience) and driven to build innovative and valuable solutions for our customers. You can expect to have competent team mates.

We have regular team activities aside of our typical work (game nights, poker, sailing, gym and more), that everybody is of course free to participate it.

Requirements

Relevant skills

• Coding in Python and Postgres
• Applied experience in production planning and scheduling problems
• Ability to navigate supply chain processes in process industry
• Ability to lead and moderate customer workshops
• Methodological knowledge of optimization and decision-making technologies
• Ability to structure and prioritize requirements from multiple customers into a coherent product view
• Experience in agile product teams (Scrum, Kanban), writing user stories and acceptance criteria
• Optional: mathematical or statistical understanding of non-deterministic solving technologies

Experience

• Leading internal or customer-facing software projects
• Deep domain understanding of manufacturing operations, ideally process industries, pharma, chemicals or food & beverage
• Strong technical skills: SQL, APIs, debugging integrations, data flows between ERP/MES and planning applications
• Knowledge of typical ERP systems in planning and scheduling (e.g. SAP ePP/DS, MRP elements)
• Ideally first experience in a product-facing role (Product Owner, Product Manager, Technical Product Lead) or a clear ambition to move there
• Ability to say no to customers constructively and explain product decisions
• Fluent German and English (customer-facing in DACH, internal communication in English).

Languages

• German (Fluent, C2)
• English (Fluent)

Benefits

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

• Generous Annual Compensation
• 40 Hours Working Week – Supporting work-life balance without compromising impact
• 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
• German Language Courses – Learn or improve your German with our supported language program
• 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
• Real Ownership – You'll have space to take initiative and make a tangible impact
• Flexible Working Hours – Because we understand that life and studies don’t always fit a 9–5
• Regular Team Events – From lunches to offsites—we celebrate the wins (big and small) together