Senior Product Manager - Ceramic Membranes​/Desalination

Are you ready to shape how cutting-edge technologies are positioned, understood, and adopted by real markets? At Venture One, we build ventures and commercialize breakthrough technologies emerging from advanced research. Our focus spans Aerospace and Space, Security and Defense, Sustainability, Environment and Energy, and Transportation, with technologies across Cryptography, Secure Systems, Directed Energy, Advanced Materials, Autonomous Systems, and more.

We are looking for a Product Manager / Senior Manager with strong hands‑on experience in SWRO desalination plants, a solid understanding of RO and upstream pretreatment, and direct ceramic membrane experience. The role is product-focused, with a strong operational angle. The person will work closely with research, engineering and commercial teams to ensure the membrane product reflects real plant requirements and that customer pilots are designed around the KPIs that matter most for adoption.

• Own the product definition and evolution of the ceramic membrane solution, incorporating customer, operational and technical requirements.
• Bring a strong plant-operations perspective to product and system design, ensuring solutions are practical and suited to real desalination operating conditions.
• Work closely with research and engineering teams to translate operational requirements and customer feedback into product improvements.
• Own the product roadmap and support the scale-up and commercialization of the product, including the transition from pilot deployments to standardized commercial offerings and broader customer implementation.
• Define pilot scope, operating parameters, KPIs and success criteria around the performance indicators that are most relevant to customers.
• Anticipate operational challenges and incorporate these considerations into product and pilot design.
• Support pilot commissioning, operation and performance assessment, translating results and customer feedback into product improvements.
• Engage with customers, plant operators and O&M teams to understand operational needs and translate them into product requirements.
• Support the scale-up and commercialization of the product, including the transition from pilot deployments to broader customer implementation

• Own the product cost model and target cost per module and per m³ treated, working with the research and manufacturing teams.
• Build the customer's total cost of ownership case against conventional pretreatment and RO processes ( e.g.: membrane life, flux, cleaning frequency, chemical use, footprint...)
• Make the trade‑offs between performance, membrane life and manufacturing cost explicit in product decisions.

• Work with the research centre and the manufacturing lead to freeze product specifications, tolerances and quality acceptance criteria as the product moves from lab to pilot line to volume production.
• Work with the research and manufacturing teams to assess how design choices (including geometry, materials, coatings and module format) affect scalability, manufacturing yield, product cost and performance
• Support the product roadmap and stage gates for technology and manufacturing readiness.

• Identify critical raw materials (e.g., alumina, silicon carbide and zirconia powders) and bought-in components (housings, seals, potting, skid parts).
• Support supplier selection and qualification, second sourcing, lead-time planning and localisation, and flag supply risks that affect cost or delivery.

• Define standard module and skid formats, interfaces with existing RO plants, and retrofit options for plants already running.
• Own product…