Product Owner / Customer Success Downstream Refining & Petrochemicals USA

Job Description Description Were building the next of industrial AI for Downstream Oil & Gas, intelligent systems that reason over time series sensor, process operations, and unstructured data to optimise refinery and petrochemical process decisions. As our Customer Success Leader and Product Owner, youll be the bridge between the market, the users, and our engineering team. Your role is to define what gets built working customer backwards, why it matters, and how it aligns with operator workflows. Youll own the product specification, market/user requirements, and competitive analysis, translating industry needs into actionable engineering deliverables. We expect you to engage directly with process engineers, site technologists, reliability engineers, and panel operators understanding their standard work process, pain points, mapping them into system requirements, and driving clarity on how Orbitals AI should solve them. This isnt a generic product role, youll be shaping how advanced AI is applied to refining and petrochemical operations, defining the product playbook for one of the hardest industries to transform. Core Responsibilities

Market & User Research

Engage with downstream panel operators, process engineers, site technologists, reliability engineers, and service companies to capture needs across exploration, drilling, completions, and production. Analyse market trends, regulations, and digital initiatives in O&G to identify product opportunities. Map competitor offerings and gaps in the digital refining / downstream AI space. Define Product Requirements

Write Product Requirements Documents (PRDs) that translate user problems into clear specs. Prioritise features based on business value, technical feasibility, and market impact. Ensure requirements address both AI model development (time-series, physics-informed, LLMs) and user-facing workflows (dashboards, anomaly detection, RCA, optimisation). Collaborate with Engineering & Research

Act as the voice of the customer in sprint planning and backlog refinement. Translate ambiguous industry workflows (e.g. process anomaly detection, emerging operating windows with feedstock changes, process optimisation) into structured product stories. Work closely with AI engineers and domain experts to validate feasibility and refine scope. Drive Execution & Validation

Ensure each release ties back to user outcomes and upstream operational KPIs. Pilot features with operators in live upstream environments and capture structured feedback. Iterate rapidly on product scope, balancing long-term vision with near-term delivery. Requirements

Proven experience as a Product Owner / Product Manager in Downstream Oil & Gas domain. Strong understanding of downstream oil & gas workflows (panel operations, thermodynamics & kinetics, catalysis, simulation & process optimisation, reliability and integrity process & equipment, etc). Front-line experience as an operator or technologist is a plus. Ability to conduct structured market research and user research and distil findings into clear product direction. Experience writing detailed PRDs, user stories, and specs for technical teams. Experience with model development (data-driven or physics-based) is strongly desired Familiarity with AI/ML-driven products or industrial digital twins is a plus. Excellent communication skills for engaging with both field operators and engineering teams. What Success Looks Like

Clear product specifications exist that reflect both market reality and user workflows. Engineering team has unambiguous guidance on what to build and why. Customers see new releases that directly address their operational pain points. Orbitals upstream product is differentiated in the market, solving problems competitors dont. Remote work

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