Technical Product Owner (m/w/d) - AI & Automation

You've built software, think in architectures, and can still talk to customers on a business level? And AI is not a new career theme for you, but something you deal with every day? Then keep reading.

We are a technology-driven digital agency from Dortmund. For many years, we have been developing complex web applications for customers from the Mittelstand to the public sector – with modern technologies, clear processes, and an open development culture.

About what this role is really about

You are a Product Owner – but your product is not just one customer project, but the theme of AI & Automation at raphael. As soon as it's about AI in a project or with a customer, you work together: sometimes personally in a customer meeting, sometimes behind the scenes as a sparring partner for our other POs. You also build our internal AI structures.

You're not alone. You have direct sparring with internal AI enthusiasts from development, project management, and management. You set the direction together – you are the owner. As the theme grows, so does your role, until you lead the AI & Automation department.

About what this role is really about

You are a Product Owner – but your product is not just one customer project, but the theme of AI & Automation at raphael. As soon as it's about AI in a project or with a customer, you work together: sometimes personally in a customer meeting, sometimes behind the scenes as a sparring partner for our other POs. You also build our internal AI structures.

You're not alone. You have direct sparring with internal AI enthusiasts from development, project management, and management. You set the direction together – you are the owner. As the theme grows, so does your role, until you lead the AI & Automation department.

Tasks

Bring AI into our projects and to our customers

• You work with our POs and project managers: What's going on with this customer regarding AI? Listen, ask follow-up questions, develop use cases together that we can present to the customer.
• You estimate feasibility, effort, and business value realistically – including the honest answer if AI is not the right solution.
• You build your own prototypes with LLMs, RAG, agent workflows, and automation tools (e.g. n8n, Make) and write concept papers that our development team can implement directly.
• You set up individual chatbots for customer projects, develop MCP interfaces, sharpen prompts, and ensure output quality until our POs can do it independently.

BUILD KI COMPETENCE IN THE TEAM

• You build our AI structures further: tools, processes, standards – always with a view to effective use.
• You bring your knowledge step by step to our POs and developers until standard cases run smoothly in the team.
• You establish best practices and evaluation frameworks for use case decisions, in close coordination with management.

Qualification

Tech

• A proven long-term technical foundation: You have built software yourself and/or designed systems. Web and digital have been your home for many years, not just since the AI hype.
• Multiple-year experience as a Product Owner, technical project manager, consultant, or senior developer with customer contact, ideally in the digital or agency field.
• Solid understanding of modern web architectures: API-first, headless, REST/Webhooks, integrations with CMS, CRM, and ERP.
• Python or TypeScript at a productive level, you build prototypes yourself.
• Practical AI experience: LLMs, prompting, and context engineering, RAG, automation tools. Whether professionally or out of personal interest is irrelevant, as long as you can show it.
• Agile methods from practice, not just from the book.

Persönlich

• You can translate technology into business value – for decision-makers at the customer's company just as much as for developers.
• You are proactive: You don't wait for tasks, you take them yourself.
• You are creative in generating use cases and see opportunities where others say