Product Owner - Search Retrieval (f/m/d)
Product Owner - Search Retrieval
About the Role
As the top Swiss e-commerce platform, with a crew of over 4’000 across Switzerland, Germany, and Serbia, Galaxus is poised to move into new markets. Our driving force is our determination to keep challenging the status quo. That’s why we’re on the lookout for characters who’re passionate about making genuine improvements. We’ll give you the freedom and trust to make an impact, to grow with us and to be yourself. Act galactic. Be you.
In the role as Product Owner - Search Retrieval, you own the foundation of our search: making sure the right products make it into the result set for every query. Search at Galaxus is organized in three teams: Query Understanding, Retrieval and Ranking. Success means a broad and relevant candidate set for every query, delivered fast enough for ranking and personalization to do their job. You operate with high autonomy in a flat, trust-based engineering culture where outcomes matter more than output.
This role is an ideal next step if you have moved from data science, analytics or engineering into product and want to own a technically deep domain. Even if you don't tick every box, we encourage you to apply.
Your Responsibilities
- Own the product vision and roadmap for search retrieval, from discovery and prioritization through to delivery and measurement
- Define what good retrieval means: establish recall and quality metrics, offline evaluation and query-level tracking together with Data Science
- Shape the evolution of our retrieval architecture alongside engineers, e.g., new retrieval channels and the trade-offs between recall, latency, cost and product data quality
- Treat retrieval as a platform product: align closely with Query Understanding, Ranking and other consuming teams on clear interfaces and requirements
- Maintain a well-structured backlog in close collaboration with the engineering lead, engineers and data scientists
- Track and interpret product KPIs and A/B test results to drive data-informed decisions and evaluate initiative outcomes
- Collaborate with engineers and data scientists as peers, providing strategic direction while trusting the team's technical judgment and promising clear communication
- Keep stakeholders informed with clear, transparent communication, shielding the team from noise while maintaining appropriate visibility
- Actively contribute to team culture, adoption of best practices, and knowledge-sharing within the broader product community
Your Qualifications
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, data science, mathematics, physics, or a related technical field
- A professional background in analytics, data science, machine learning engineering, or data-heavy software engineering, with first experience (around 1 to 3 years) as a Product Owner, Product Manager, or in a similar product role
- Experience working in agile product teams and managing product backlogs
- Deep understanding of data and ML systems, with the curiosity to quickly get into new, complex problems like how search works end to end
- Hands-on analytical skills (SQL, ideally Python) and experience with A/B testing and offline evaluation of search or ML systems
- Ability to switch between strategic discussions with stakeholders and technical deep dives with engineers and data scientists
- Experience with search technologies such as keyword and vector retrieval, hybrid search, embeddings, or LLM-based retrieval systems
- Experience with Elasticsearch, OpenSearch, Vespa, or vector databases is a plus
- Strong ownership, collaboration, and communication skills
- Fluent in English; German is a plus
- The capacity to adapt to ongoing changes in the work environment
- A willingness to challenge standard approaches and propose more efficient, automated, or effective solutions
Benefits
Values, not empty words: Cooperative, innovative, responsible, ambitious - these five values define how we work. Courageous thinking: we encourage bold ideas and embrace a culture of innovation. Uncomplicated approach: simplicity is at our core. Flexibility and freedom: we offer working-from-home options, up to 8 weeks of workation, and a flexible 80% workload. Rapid growth: we support your development with 2,000 learning credits annually, plus a modern tech stack. Opportunities to engage in social events and contribute to our tech blog, plus 25 days of holiday and exclusive employee benefits.