How to apply for (Senior) Product Manager - Procurement & Portfolio Management (m/f/d)

About 1KOMMA5°

1KOMMA5° builds a virtual power plant that connects solar, batteries, heat pumps, and e-mobility into one system controlled by Heartbeat AI. The company aims to move 1.5 million households to renewable energy by 2030 and has over 3,000 employees at more than 80 locations. This role sits inside the energy retail business, where software directly changes how electricity is bought and sold.

About the role

You will design how 1KOMMA5° procures, hedges, and optimizes electricity for a flexible customer portfolio. The role connects energy markets, procurement, flexibility assets, and customer tariff strategy. Your work determines how the company turns market positions and flexibility into measurable commercial results.

A typical day

You might review portfolio positions and flexibility forecasts with trading or engineering, then turn those into product requirements or prioritization decisions. Later you could align with tariff or customer teams on how procurement strategy affects product offers. The exact daily rhythm is not stated in the job details, so ask the hiring team how the product, trading, and engineering groups interact day to day.

Who 1KOMMA5° is looking for

• Has product management experience in energy retail, energy trading, or a related market-facing role.
• Understands electricity procurement, hedging, and how flexible assets such as batteries or heat pumps affect portfolio risk.
• Can work with data and models to define product requirements for procurement and portfolio optimization.
• Is comfortable coordinating across energy markets, trading, engineering, and customer tariff teams in a remote setup.

Tips for this application

• Name specific energy markets or procurement workflows you have worked on, such as day-ahead, intraday, hedging, or balancing.
• Explain how you have used customer flexibility or demand response in a product decision.
• Reference Heartbeat AI and the virtual power plant in your materials to show you understand the company's technical setup.
• Quantify commercial outcomes from past product work, such as margin improvement, reduced procurement cost, or portfolio performance.
• Check whether the role is senior or mid-level and address the level you are applying for in your first paragraph.

What to cover in your cover letter

['Your direct experience with electricity procurement, hedging, or portfolio management in a retail or trading context.', 'How you have translated energy market rules and risk into product requirements that engineering teams can build.', 'A concrete example of optimizing a flexible customer portfolio or integrating flexibility assets into procurement.', 'Why the 1KOMMA5° setup, combining regional craftsmanship with a virtual power plant, fits your product approach.']

Research before applying

• Read how Heartbeat AI controls solar, batteries, heat pumps, and e-mobility as one system in the virtual power plant.
• Find public information on 1KOMMA5°'s energy retail business and any tariffs or procurement products they offer.
• Check the company's 2030 goal of 1.5 million households and what that implies for portfolio size and procurement volume.
• Look for 1KOMMA5° press or product updates about electricity market participation and flexibility assets.

Likely interview topics

Based on the job description, expect questions about:

• How would you design a product that procures and hedges electricity for a portfolio with increasing numbers of batteries and heat pumps?
• Walk through a time you connected energy market data to a customer-facing tariff or product decision.
• How do you measure success for a procurement and portfolio management product?
• What trade-offs do you see between hedging risk and enabling customer flexibility in a virtual power plant?
• How would you work with engineering, trading, and regional teams across more than 80 locations to ship this product?

Common mistakes to avoid

• Applying without showing any knowledge of electricity procurement, hedging, or energy retail products.
• Writing a generic product manager cover letter that could apply to any software company.
• Ignoring the virtual power plant and Heartbeat AI context, which is central to how this role creates value.