Product Owner – B2B Digital Ecosystem Platform at ETH Space

Lead stakeholder scoping workshops: plan and facilitate targeted requirement workshops with diverse user groups – ranging from institutional managers and corporate partners to startup founders – to align expectations and unify the product vision.

Finalize product specifications: evolve the current draft concept into a comprehensive, production-ready product specification package and structured backlog.

Vendor & partner management: lead the technical evaluation and onboarding process for the external software development partner.

Roadmap ownership: manage the overarching project timeline, ensuring key milestones are met for a timely, high-quality deployment.

Oversee development & quality: supervise the external implementation partner throughout the development, testing, and deployment cycles, ensuring rigorous adherence to timelines and scope.

Ensure technical & security excellence: Define and enforce robust platform governance, including strict role-based access management, secure third-party data integrations, high-standard data residency compliance, and system scalability.

Stakeholder management: beyond the scoping workshops, you are the principal person to interact with diverse stakeholders, to integrate their different perspectives, and to make sure that the project stays on track and delivers the promised results.

ETH Zurich | Space’s mission is to boost space activities to establish ETH Zurich as the leading university in space research and Earth observation, education and entrepreneurship within Europe and beyond. ETH Zurich | Space encompasses overall five units: Education, Research, Entrepreneurship, the ETH Swiss GeoLab, and the space mission LIFE.

In support of our initiatives within the Entrepreneurship unit of ETH Zurich | Space, we are spearheading the creation of a highly secure, closed B2B digital platform in collaboration with ESA and their ESA Commercialization network. The ultimate objective of this ecosystem platform is to give the European space startup and industry ecosystem a boost, by facilitating more cross-border connections, commercial deals, and collaboration across Europe, to accelerate companies’ development overall.

The platform is designed to connect international institutional stakeholders, space and related industry partners, startup founders (e.g. from ESA Business Incubation Centers across Europe), and other important players. The platform will integrate data-driven insights and advanced matching capabilities (including via AI).

ETH Zurich is one of the world’s leading universities specialising in science and technology. We are renowned for our excellent education, cutting-edge fundamental research and direct transfer of new knowledge into society. Over 30,000 people from more than 120 countries find our university to be a place that promotes independent thinking and an environment that inspires excellence. Located in the heart of Europe, yet forging connections all over the world, we work together to develop solutions for the global challenges of today and tomorrow.

• A university degree in computer science or a related field is expected. We are open to other degrees if you have significant, relevant work experience.

• You have a minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience with a proven track record as a Product Owner or Product Manager leading the delivery of complex web-based B2B portals, collaboration networks, or enterprise-grade software applications.

• Strong technical literacy: sound understanding of modern web application frameworks, API / webhook architecture, role-based access control, and modern AI / LLM deployment frameworks.

• Data & AI savviness: experience defining requirements for smart matching engines, data-processing pipelines, or AI-driven user feeds is highly advantageous.

• Stakeholder management: exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills with a demonstrated ability to navigate and build consensus within academic, (inter-) governmental (like ESA), corporate and startup environments.

• Vendor management expertise: practical experience in coordinating external software development vendor, supervising agile sprints, and overseeing quality assurance/testing phases.

• Independent approach and strong organizational skills.

• Proactive and reliable personality.

• Solution-oriented and service-oriented working style.

• Enjoy working with complex project structures.

• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to build bridges across teams and cultures.

• Full professional fluency in English (written and spoken) is required; German is a plus.