Carbon Re is on a mission to abate gigatonnes of carbon emissions by applying intelligence to heavy industries.

We're looking for a Technical Product Owner (Cement) to join our Product team.

About Carbon Re

Carbon Re is a research and development company with an AI product with the same name, on a mission to remove gigatonnes of CO2 emissions each year by focusing on some of the biggest emitting sectors, such as cement and steel. We leverage world-class expertise from UCL and Cambridge University in AI, energy efficiency, and industrial process improvement.

Our product enables cement producers to optimise their production processes, reducing both fuel costs and emissions. Longer term, we aim to achieve our ambitious mission by leveraging AI and machine learning to design novel industrial processes and speed up the development of new climate-friendly materials.

We recognise the value of bringing different views and perspectives to the table and feel strongly that this is key to developing a successful business. As such, we aim to build a truly diverse company, attracting people from a variety of backgrounds and with different skill sets.

How we operate

Our dream is to create a workplace where every single person is someone you’re genuinely inspired by; someone you respect and learn from. A place filled with lofty ambitions, lots of laughs and intense learning. To achieve this, we embed our operating principles in all that we do, and we expect that new joiners will do the same.

🏭 Concrete Honesty  - Be honest — as concrete forms the foundation of our world, genuine honesty and transparency are our cultural bedrock.

📈Forever Optimising - Always look for ways to improve — we are in the process improvement game, we have high standards and we’re striving to improve.

⏩ Increase Torque - Move with urgency — Our world depends on us, we have a responsibility to find a way to move faster, always.

🔧 Maintain Reliability - Earn trust — Machines break, humans falter. We recognise that to inspire confidence in ourselves, we must earn our teammate’s trust.

😄 Cement it with Fun & Kindness - Have fun, be kind — We’re here to extend earth’s life but ours is still limited. We want to enjoy it.

The role

We are seeking an experienced Technical Product Owner with a strong background in the cement or other heavy industry, ideally someone who has worked across multiple sites and held roles focused on operational improvement and process optimisation in pyroprocess.

This role requires regular travel to customer sites, where you will apply your expertise to uncovering the key problems that our cement customers face, articulating this and working closely with our software and machine learning engineering teams to develop our product towards, and owning the deployment of this to cement plants in a safe and structured way - ensuring they deliver measurable cost and carbon results. This role is perfect for someone transitioning from the cement or heavy industry into product management, offering a hands-on opportunity to shape innovative AI solutions while leveraging their industry expertise.

We offer a dynamic and supportive environment, an excellent engineering culture, and the opportunity to fight climate change. We’re proud of our flexible working guidelines, and are happy to support employees with childcare or other flexibility needs.

Main responsibilities

Product Discovery for Process Optimisation:

• Engage directly with cement plant teams, including operators, engineers, and managers, to understand their operations, challenges, and priorities.

• Identify and explore areas where AI-driven optimisation can address key pain points or improve performance on fuel cost, carbon emissions, and product quality.

Site Engagement & Deployment:

• Lead the implementation of Carbon Re’s solutions across various customer sites.

• Train plant teams to effectively utilise the product and support their integration into daily operations.

Data-Driven Decision Making:

• Analyse plant data to assess and identify opportunities, and evaluate the performance of Carbon Re’s software.

• Collaborate with machine learning engineers to refine algorithms and recommendations based on real-world outcomes.

Stakeholder Communication:

• Act as a bridge between plant teams, Carbon Re’s internal teams (sales, marketing, engineering), and other stakeholders to ensure alignment on goals and expectations.

• Communicate technical insights and results to non-technical audiences clearly and effectively.

Travel & Site Work:

• Visit customer sites to understand local challenges, oversee deployments, and provide on-site technical support.

• Foster relationships with plant managers and operators to drive adoption and long-term success.

Creating Product Requirements:

• Develop comprehensive PRDs that outline customer needs, use cases, technical requirements, and success metrics.

• Collaborate with stakeholders to ensure PRDs are clear, actionable, and align with product and business objectives.

Requirements

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Chemical, Manufacturing, or a related field).

• Minimum 5 years of experience in the process industries - ideally cement, with hands-on exposure to multiple sites.

• Demonstrated expertise in operational improvement or process optimisation roles, including energy efficiency, quality control, and process stability.

• Experience delivering or working with and improving the impact of advanced process control (APC) systems, such as kiln controllers, raw mill optimisation systems, or other control solutions.

• Experience in product management

Technical Skills:

• Strong understanding of cement manufacturing processes, including kiln operations.

• Proficiency in process data analysis and optimisation tools (e.g., Python, MATLAB, Excel).

• Familiarity with AI/ML solutions and their application in industrial settings is highly desirable.

Soft Skills:

• Exceptional problem-solving skills and a hands-on approach to troubleshooting.

• Strong interpersonal and communication abilities to engage effectively with plant teams and stakeholders.

• Proven adaptability and willingness to travel extensively for work.

You’ll excel if

• You Take Ownership: You thrive when you’re given full responsibility for projects, and you see them through from inception to delivery, holding yourself accountable for the outcomes.

• You Work Independently: You don’t wait for instructions but take the initiative to identify problems and act decisively to solve them.

• You’re a Natural Problem Finder: You can uncover hidden inefficiencies and challenges by asking the right questions and listening actively.

• You’re Empathetic and Collaborative: You build trust with plant teams, understanding their perspective and aligning solutions to their goals.

• You’re Curious and Analytical: You love diving into complex processes to uncover root causes and identify actionable insights.

• You Communicate Effectively: You can translate technical insights into clear, actionable opportunities for both technical and non-technical audiences.

• You’re Comfortable in a Dynamic Environment: You thrive in a fast-paced, evolving setting where you can adapt and innovate.

You are not expected to check every box, and we’d love to hear from you even if your experience isn’t an exact match.

The interview process

We run a three stage interview process. You can choose to interview remotely or on-site, but it’s easier to build rapport in person.

Intro call - We’ll have an introductory call with you to make sure that we’re aligned on salary and right to work, and to check any questions on your CV. You’ll meet Kenny, Head of Product or Bronte, People Manager.

Technical Interview - A two-part interview where you’ll meet some of the solutions team.

1. Cement and process optimisation understanding. You will be presented with a real-world scenario involving a cement plant facing operational inefficiencies. We want to gauge your understanding of cement or related manufacturing processes and process optimisation techniques and see how you think critically and systematically.

2. Product management, problem discovery and technical communication. You will be given a hypothetical product scenario where you will need to engage with a cement plant team to discover optimisation opportunities for an AI-driven product. We want to see your problem-discovery skills with an emphasis on customer empathy, clear and structured communication of technical requirements and product vision and your ability to collaborate effectively across technical and non-technical teams.

Operating Principles interview

You’ll meet with other team members from across the company to discuss how you like to work and how you align with Carbon Re’s Operating Principles.

Finally, you will meet Josh, our CEO, or Buffy, our COO.

In the same way we reference-check our candidates before making final offers, we offer you the opportunity to reference-check us by chatting informally with any team members you didn’t meet as part of the hiring process.

Once the interviews are over, we’ll try to make a decision as quickly as possible, and you can ask us for feedback on any stage.