How to apply for (Senior) Product Manager Heating & Cooling (m/f/d)

About 1KOMMA5°

1KOMMA5° builds a virtual power plant that controls solar, batteries, heat pumps, and e-mobility as one integrated system connected to the electricity market in real time. The company combines regional craftsmanship with scalable software and aims to transition 1.5 million households to renewable energy by 2030. With over 3,000 employees across more than 80 locations, it offers a chance to work on hardware and software that directly reduce CO2 in buildings.

About the role

As Senior Product Manager for Heating & Cooling, you own heat as a product. You decide which problems to solve first for space heating, hot water, and cooling, and how hardware partners, the Energy Management System, and the customer experience add up to one result in Germany and other markets. This role is impactful because heating and cooling are core to making CO2-neutral buildings work at scale.

A typical day

A typical day might involve meeting with hardware partners and the Energy Management System team to align on heating and cooling features. You could also review customer feedback or market data to decide which problems to solve next for space heating, hot water, or cooling. You would likely spend time with engineers and designers to ensure Heartbeat controls deliver a result households can trust at a cost that makes sense.

Who 1KOMMA5° is looking for

• Has product management experience in energy, HVAC, or hardware-software integration, ideally with heat pumps or building systems.
• Can define and prioritize problems across space heating, hot water, and cooling, balancing customer trust, cost, and control via Heartbeat.
• Understands how to work with hardware partners, an Energy Management System, and customer experience teams to deliver one integrated result.
• Is comfortable making decisions for multiple markets, starting with Germany, and can own the roadmap for heating and cooling.

Tips for this application

• Highlight any experience you have with heat pumps, HVAC, or building energy systems, and explain how you prioritized features for space heating, hot water, or cooling.
• Show that you understand 1KOMMA5°'s virtual power plant and Heartbeat AI: mention how heating and cooling connect to real-time electricity market control.
• Provide examples of working with hardware partners and software teams to deliver a single product outcome, not isolated components.
• If you have worked in Germany or other European markets, state which ones and what you learned about customer needs for heating and cooling.
• In your resume or cover letter, use terms from the job description like 'Energy Management System', 'Heartbeat', 'space heating', 'hot water', and 'cooling' to show alignment.

What to cover in your cover letter

['Why you want to own heat as a product at 1KOMMA5° and how you would decide where heating and cooling goes next.', 'A specific example of how you defined what must be true in a household for space heating, hot water, or cooling to be trustworthy and cost-effective.', 'How you would integrate hardware partners, the Energy Management System, and customer experience into one result for Germany and other markets.', "Your understanding of 1KOMMA5°'s goal to transition 1.5 million households by 2030 and how this role contributes to that."]

Research before applying

• Study 1KOMMA5°'s Heartbeat AI and virtual power plant: how they control solar, batteries, heat pumps, and e-mobility in real time.
• Learn about the company's goal to transition 1.5 million households by 2030 and its presence in over 80 locations from Finland to Australia.
• Research common heat pump and HVAC systems in Germany, including typical customer concerns about space heating, hot water, and cooling costs.
• Find out what 1KOMMA5° has said publicly about its heating and cooling products or partnerships, if any, to understand the current state.

Likely interview topics

Based on the job description, expect questions about:

• How would you prioritize problems for heating and cooling across space heating, hot water, and cooling in the first 90 days?
• Describe how you would work with hardware partners and the Energy Management System team to ensure customers can trust the heating and cooling result.
• What does 'cost that makes sense' mean for a household using Heartbeat to control heating and cooling?
• How would you adapt the heating and cooling product for Germany versus other markets 1KOMMA5° operates in?
• Walk us through a time you owned a product that combined hardware and software and how you measured success.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Applying without showing any knowledge of heat pumps, HVAC, or building energy systems, since this role owns heat as a product.
• Focusing only on software product management and ignoring the hardware partner and craftsmanship side that 1KOMMA5° combines with software.
• Giving generic answers about sustainability without connecting them to specific problems in space heating, hot water, or cooling for households.