Product Operations Manager

Applied Computing was founded in 2024 to build Orbital, a physics-informed foundation model for energy operations. We’re live across oil and gas, refineries, and petrochemicals, working towards our mission: sustainable
abundance for a growing planet.

The hydrocarbon industry keeps the world running. But its complexity has left operators tied to legacy systems, making critical decisions on less than 10% of available data. We built Orbital to change that. It’s a foundation model built specifically for energy that lets companies use AI at scale, harnessing all of their operational
data and optimising in real time for any metric. Decisions get faster, operations get safer, and carbon intensity falls.

We’ve raised over $32 million, including one of the largest seed rounds for an
AI company in the UK. We’re just getting started

The Role

The Product Operations Manager is the operational backbone of the product team. This role exists to ensure that execution is clear, delivery is predictable, and engineering teams can focus on building, without being slowed down by process theatre or rigid Agile dogma.

You will own product execution mechanics: Jira, sprint flow, delivery visibility, and cross-PM coordination (customer facing). This is not a product vision role, and not a Scrum Master role. It is a hands-on, high-agency position for someone who thrives in ambiguity and knows how to keep teams shipping.

What You’ll Own

• Jira as the single source of truth for product execution

• Sprint and delivery flow across internal product teams

• Execution visibility for leadership and stakeholders

• Day-to-day coordination between internal PMs and customer-facing PMs

• Lightweight process that scales with team maturity, not ceremony

Must-Have Qualifications

· 3 years + in product operations, delivery management, or execution-focused PM roles

· Hands-on ownership of Jira in engineering-heavy teams

· Experience working closely with senior engineers and technical leads

· Strong organisational skills with the ability to operate under ambiguity

· Clear, structured written and verbal communication

Nice to haves (you’ll learn)

· Experience in deep-tech, B2B SaaS, or infrastructure-heavy products

· Exposure to Oil & Gas customers or enterprise delivery environments

· Technical & AI literacy; able to follow engineering and AI research discussions and trade-offs

· Experience scaling lightweight process in fast-growing teams

How We Work

· Process exists to serve delivery, not the other way around

· Pragmatism beats dogma, we adapt tools and rituals to reality

· We value clarity, speed, and ownership over perfect frameworks

· We iterate on process the same way we iterate on product

What This Role Is Not

· Not a Scrum Master enforcing rigid ceremonies

· Not a project manager running Gantt charts

· Not the owner of product vision or roadmap strategy

· Not a passive ticket-admin role, this position has real agency

Core Responsibilities

Engineering Execution & Jira Ownership

· Own the structure, hygiene, and prioritisation of Jira across product teams

· Ensure epics, stories, dependencies, and acceptance criteria are clear and current

· Maintain a healthy, prioritised backlog aligned to near-term delivery goals

· Proactively identify stale, duplicated, or ambiguous tickets and resolve them

Sprint & Delivery Flow (Pragmatic, Not Dogmatic)

· Facilitate sprint planning, reviews, and retros where they add value

· Adapt delivery process to team maturity and context; no rigid Scrum enforcement

· Track progress, surface blockers early, and drive resolution

· Optimise for throughput, clarity, and predictability over velocity theatre

Cross-PM & Stakeholder Coordination

· Act as the connective tissue between:

· Internal platform / engineering PMs

· Customer-facing PMs and deployment teams

· Translate customer commitments into executable engineering plans

· Ensure delivery timelines reflect real capacity and constraints

Communication & Delivery Visibility

· Provide clear, concise delivery updates to leadership on a regular cadence

· Surface risks, slips, and trade-offs early; no surprises

· Maintain shared artefacts such as delivery snapshots, execution roadmaps, and sprint summaries

What Success Looks Like

First 60–90 Days

· Jira is clean, trusted, and actively used by engineers and PMs

· Engineers know what they’re working on, why it matters, and what “done” means

· Leadership has clear, credible visibility into delivery status

· Fewer last-minute scrambles or unclear ownership

6–12 Months

· Product teams ship faster with less coordination overhead

· Continuous bi-weekly feature releases well documented and shared with company & customers

· Internal and customer-facing PMs are aligned on timelines and scope

· Execution issues are surfaced early and handled calmly