Senior Product Manager
Tokyo
Product 📈 – Product Management /
Full-time /
Hybrid
Help us use technology to make a big green dent in the universe!
Kraken powers some of the most innovative global developments in energy.
We’re a technology company focused on creating a smart, sustainable energy system. From optimising renewable generation, creating a more intelligent grid and enabling utilities to provide excellent customer experiences, our operating system for energy is transforming the industry around the world in a way that benefits everyone.
It’s a really exciting time in energy. Help us make a real impact on shaping a better, more sustainable future.
Kraken Customer
What we do: build the most AI-driven, innovative, forward-thinking platform for energy management. From optimizing resources to delivering cost-effective, exceptional customer experiences through advanced Customer Information Systems (CIS), billing, meter data management, CRM, and AI-driven communications, Kraken is powering the next wave of innovation in the energy industry.
Why we do it: future energy will not look like energy as we know it today. We need to not just think about our future, but build for it. Now.
While Kraken Technologies is run by a 800+ people strong, multi-discipline engineering team, you’ll be part of a new, early stage product division within: Kraken Flow.
Kraken Flow is about a year old, <40 people in size, and responsible for the development of an end-to-end business process management platform. The new web-based tool allows internal teams and clients to configure, execute, and track their business processes, with a drag-n-drop workflow builder at its core. This is a unique opportunity that combines early-stage challenges with the benefits of the highly successful scale-up that is Kraken.
We work agile and use tools like Notion, Asana, and Figma to specify & plan our work; Github, CircleCI and Terraform Enterprise as part of an immutable-infrastructure, continuous delivery pipeline; Sentry and CloudWatch to measure performance and monitor production. Some of our coding conventions are open-source. Kraken is a great place to learn, work with some talented engineers and level-up your skills.
About the Opportunity
Given our rapid growth, we are looking for a proactive Senior Product Manager to join the Kraken Flow team. You’ll be the first PM in the Asia/Pacific region, working closely with the engineering team while ensuring a strong bridge with the other teams of our globally distributed product group.
Your product area has not previously operated within a traditional product structure. As such, there is a unique opportunity to shape and define your product area.
You’ll be working with the core workflow engine team. This team owns the service which validates flow configurations and executes them robustly and at scale. It’s a center piece for Kraken Flow, and you will be its first dedicated product manager. The team is dealing with highly technical challenges around scale, resilience, and providing the backbone for keeping configuration flexible and maintainable for our users.
What you'll do
- Be the product manager of the Engine squad within the Kraken Flow product group.
- Work closely with your APAC-based squad and help shape a strong regional product culture.
- Collaborate closely with developers to ensure that complex technical challenges are met in a way that ensures scalability, resilience, performance.
- Drive the development process, ensuring that products are delivered on time and meet the highest quality standards.
- Participate in strengthening the overall product group in close collaboration with your globally distributed team of fellow PMs.
- Work with stakeholders to align product goals with business objectives and customer needs.
- You’ll work in an international team with people from timezones between the US and New Zealand. Given that you’ll be the first PM in APAC, collaboration particularly with members in the EU timezone will be frequent. As such, you should also expect to have occasional out of hour calls with teams, as well as be familiar with working asynchronously.
- Liaise with tech, our clients and others to identify how best to manage your product. You’ll spot problems, take ownership and see them through to resolution.
- Gather technical requirements from internal and external stakeholders, define the approach and help write PRDs and tickets so developers can hit the ground running.
- Coordinate discussions on technical proposals and use your own technical understanding to cut through complexity.
- Own the backlog of work to support development of your product. We use Asana to keep track and prioritise what’s up next.
- Report on the progress of products and projects, including new features and your team’s roadmap, across the wider organisation. This involves building, maintaining, and updating success metrics and KPIs to effectively measure and communicate the success and impact of our initiatives.
- Help teams that are working on front-line support to quickly resolve issues.
- Contribute to improving the product management community at Kraken, including thinking strategically and supporting other team members.
As your product develops and matures, your day to day will likely be:
What we're looking
- Prior experience in product management/ technical product management
- Background in software development, enabling you to be involved in technical conversations and understand nuanced tradeoffs when it comes to system robustness and performance.
- Experience in working with workflow engines, python, event queues or database performance optimization is a plus.
- Excellent written and verbal English communication skills, capable of interacting with individuals at varying levels of technical expertise.
- A confident communicator, comfortable collaborating with international teams to achieve global objectives.
- Fluency in Japanese is a plus, so you can directly communicate with local customers.
- A self-starter with a proactive approach, who sees problems and feels compelled to solve them, can self-learn, and engages with various people in the business to understand global operations.
- Highly organised, methodical, and clear in ensuring projects progress smoothly from inception to completion. Demonstrated ability to manage products from conception through to launch.
- Adaptability to thrive in a dynamic, ever-changing environment. Experience in a fast-paced start-up or scale-up setting is advantageous.
- Willingness to roll up your sleeves and dive into tasks, from doing your own data analysis, mocking up prototypes, or exploring our logging system.
- We’re looking for people with a variety of skills and experience to build our team, so if you fit some (and not all) of the criteria, please do apply.
If this sounds like you then we'd love to hear from you.
Are you ready for a career with us? We want to ensure you have all the tools and environment you need to unleash your potential. Need any specific accommodations? Whether you require specific accommodations or have a unique preference, let us know, and we'll do what we can to customise your interview process for comfort and maximum magic!
Studies have shown that some groups of people, like women, are less likely to apply to a role unless they meet 100% of the job requirements. Whoever you are, if you like one of our jobs, we encourage you to apply as you might just be the candidate we hire. Across Kraken, we're looking for genuinely decent people who are honest and empathetic. Our people are our strongest asset and the unique skills and perspectives people bring to the team are the driving force of our success. As an equal opportunity employer, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected attribute. Our commitment is to provide equal opportunities, an inclusive work environment, and fairness for everyone.
