How to apply for IT Product Owner (m/w/x)

About IONITY

IONITY builds and operates a high-power charging network for electric vehicles across Europe. The company's focus is on making long-distance EV travel workable. This role sits in the digital product group that supports that charging ecosystem.

About the role

You are the IT Product Owner for an agile backend team inside an Agile Release Train. You turn features from Product Management and System Architects into detailed technical stories, own the backlog, and drive delivery across planning intervals. The role is the link between business priorities and the backend domain logic that powers IONITY's digital products.

A typical day

The job description does not describe a daily routine, so ask about it in the interview. Expect work around backlog refinement, writing and clarifying stories, aligning with other Product Owners on dependencies, and preparing for or following up on PI planning. Confirm the meeting cadence and how much time is spent with engineers versus stakeholders.

Who IONITY is looking for

• Has worked as a Product Owner or similar role for a backend or platform team, not only frontend or mobile.
• Has hands-on experience in a SAFe environment, including PI planning, features, and cross-team dependency management.
• Can write detailed technical user stories with functional and non-functional acceptance criteria that engineers can test against.
• Has worked in or near e-mobility, charging, energy, or another domain with hardware-to-backend integration.
• Can make and explain trade-offs on value, feasibility, risk, and dependencies to both business and technical stakeholders.

Tips for this application

• Name concrete SAFe artifacts you have owned: features, PI objectives, program board dependencies, or backlog refinement at the ART level.
• Give one example of a backend story you wrote, including the acceptance criteria, so the reviewer can judge your technical depth.
• Show how you handled a cross-domain dependency with another Product Owner. IONITY explicitly lists this as a responsibility.
• Mention any exposure to e-mobility, charging protocols, or energy systems. This is a differentiator for this company.
• Since the role is remote across the EU, state your location and your working language level in English clearly.

What to cover in your cover letter

['Your experience translating features into technical stories for a backend team, with one concrete example.', 'How you have prioritized a backlog using value, feasibility, risk, and dependencies, and what the outcome was.', 'Your SAFe experience, specifically how you worked with other Product Owners on integration points and release coherence.', "Why EV charging and the e-mobility ecosystem is the domain you want to work in, tied to something specific about IONITY's network."]

Research before applying

• IONITY's charging network: number of stations, countries covered, and charger power levels.
• The company's shareholders and how the joint-venture structure may affect product decisions.
• What backend systems a charging network needs: session management, pricing, roaming, and payment.
• Common charging standards and protocols in Europe, such as OCPP and Plug and Charge, to speak the domain language.

Likely interview topics

Based on the job description, expect questions about:

• How you would structure a backlog for a backend team delivering domain logic, and how you slice it into incremental releases.
• A time you disagreed with a System Architect or Business Owner on scope, and how you resolved it.
• How you define non-functional acceptance criteria for backend services and make them testable.
• How you coordinate with other Product Owners to find integration points and keep releases coherent.
• Your understanding of IONITY's charging network and what backend problems a charging operator likely faces.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Applying with only frontend or consumer-app Product Owner experience and not addressing backend domain logic.
• Describing SAFe in vague terms without naming the ceremonies and artifacts you actually worked in.
• Ignoring the e-mobility domain entirely and treating this as a generic IT Product Owner role.