Head of New Products & Innovation (m/w/d)

You will build and lead the New Products Team at Cuculus.

Your mission is to ensure that Cuculus always has a strong pipeline of new product opportunities that can:

• create upsell potential in our existing customer base
• strengthen our position in new sales
• keep Cuculus ahead of the market and ahead of the competition
• turn new technologies, especially AI, into real customer value

You will not only explore ideas. You will create a structured process that takes innovation from opportunity discovery to concept, MVP, and first market proof.

Once a product is validated, it will be handed over to the relevant product team for full development and scaling.
 
What success looks like

This role sits at the intersection of product, technology, and market.

You will work closely with:

• Sales and Business Development to identify market demand and validate opportunities
• Customer Success and Support to uncover real customer pain points and product gaps
• Product Management to ensure successful handover into the long-term product organization
• Engineering teams to develop MVPs and validate technical approaches
• the Technology Innovation Lead, who will be one of the main technical drivers for the New Products Team.

This is a highly collaborative role with real influence across the company.

• Build the innovation engine: Design and run a structured process that continuously identifies, evaluates, and incubates new products and services.
• Scout new opportunities: Identify product ideas from market developments, customer needs, technology trends, AI capabilities, operational pain points, and commercial feedback.
• Turn ideas into product concepts: Evaluate customer value, strategic fit, technical feasibility, competitive differentiation, business potential, and monetization options.
• Drive AI-enabled product innovation: Identify where AI can create new products, strengthen existing offerings, or open up new service models for utilities.
• Bring ideas to MVP level: Lead the development of MVPs and early product versions that can be tested in the market.
• Validate with the market: Work with customers, Sales, Business Development, Customer Success, and Support to achieve first proof of value and first market feedback.
• Shape go-to-market and pricing: Define early positioning, pricing logic, sales models, and market entry approaches for new products.
• Hand products over for scaling: Once a product has enough proof, transfer it into the responsible product vertical team with a strong foundation already in place.

Experience & Background

We are looking for someone who combines entrepreneurial drive, product thinking, market understanding, and technical curiosity. You likely bring:

• strong experience in new product development, product innovation, incubation, or venture building
• a track record of turning ideas into validated products or services
• experience working across commercial and technical teams
• strong understanding of go-to-market strategy, pricing, and product positioning
• the ability to work in a structured way under uncertainty
• a strong interest in AI and emerging technologies
• the ability to move fast from concept to evidence.

Your Way of Working

You do not need to be the deepest architect in the company, but you must be comfortable discussing products with engineers and opportunities with customers and sales teams.
Experience in B2B software, SaaS, industrial software, infrastructure software, utilities, or energy tech is highly relevant.

What you can expect from us:

A flexible work setup within Germany (or optionally Europe), with the option to spend time in our offices in Erfurt, Leipzig, or Ilmenau. Flexible working hours and an environment defined by short decision paths and close collaboration across teams. The opportunity to have a real impact by building products that shape the energy market of tomorrow.