Function: Global E-business within the Global Commerce department 
Fulltime: 40 hours a week 

Closing date: 31 May 2025 

 

Our Global E-business team is about serving our customers better, faster and smarter by strengthening our Route to Consumer [i.e. how we engage with our distribution partners and outlets to put HEINEKEN beers in everyone’s hands], understanding our customers deeply through customer-centric approaches and driving this through cross-functional collaboration.

We achieve this by digitising all touchpoints, including distributors, sales representatives, telesales, and customer care, to serve our customers in a better, faster and smarter way.

 

What you'll do

We are looking for a technically-oriented Senior Product Owner to lead the vision, strategy, and execution of our eCommerce search experience as well as manage adjacent back-end services that drive this experience. You will be responsible for technical components such as API layers, identification systems, and scalable back-end architecture — in close collaboration with engineers and architects.

You will own the roadmap for both front and back-end experiences, with a strong focus on technical performance, search relevance, ranking, and personalization. While experience with UX/UI or front-end optimization is considered a plus, a strong technical background and proven experience working with complex back-end systems is essential for this role.

You will collaborate with engineers, data scientists, UX designers, and business stakeholders to deliver a world-class search and discovery experience that drives revenue and customer satisfaction.

Your roles & responsibilities:

Define and execute the technical product roadmap for search and associated back-end services, focusing on performance, reliability, and scalability. Manage key back-end services in close partnership with architecture and engineering teams to enable a seamless search experience. Collaborate with solution architects to ensure alignment with technical design and system architecture. Leverage data and analytics to measure technical performance (e.g., latency, availability) and user experience metrics. Work with engineering teams to develop, test, and deploy advanced search algorithms and AI/ML enhancements. Ensure high availability and technical resilience of search-related APIs and services. Coordinate with front-end and design teams to improve UI/UX elements such as filtering, autocomplete, and results layout. Own and prioritize the technical product backlog, user stories, and requirements in an Agile environment. Monitor emerging technologies, industry trends, and best practices in search, data engineering, and cloud-native solutions. Conduct A/B testing and experimentation to improve technical KPIs and user satisfaction. Act as a bridge between business needs and technical feasibility, advocating for scalable and efficient solutions.

 

Who you are

We are looking for an ambitious professional with a strong technical mindset, who can effectively collaborate with architects and engineers, and has hands-on experience with technical products like Search Engines, API frameworks, and complex identification systems. You are comfortable owning technically complex domains and aligning cross-functional stakeholders.

You’ll bring:

5+ years of experience as a Product Owner or Product Manager in a technical environment (e.g., Search, APIs, Data Infrastructure, AI/ML, or similar). Proven experience working with architectural and engineering teams on back-end systems. Solid understanding of search platforms (e.g., Elasticsearch, Solr, Algolia) and how they integrate into broader system landscapes. Familiarity with concepts such as NLP, ranking models, and machine learning for search. Ability to interpret technical KPIs and make data-driven decisions. Experience working with REST APIs, identity/authentication solutions, and service orchestration. Strong stakeholder management and communication skills. Bonus: Knowledge of front-end optimization, UI/UX design, or customer-facing search experience.

 

What’s in it for you – let’s uncork:

Competitive salary between €7600 and €9500 (gross per month) and an excellent pension scheme. HEINEKEN is an international company with all the related perks: (inter)national career opportunities, ability to go places and diverse projects. We focus on developing HEINEKEN and ourselves: knowledge sharing is key and there is dedicated time for professional development through workshops, community sessions, Microsoft/Databricks courses/certifications and learning days. HEINEKEN embraces a hybrid working environment moving forward, with flexibility to define how often you are in the office. Covered commuting expenses. Awesome social events! :)

 

Ready to join our team?

Please apply via the green application button. For questions about the recruitment process please contact Leonie Reuvers (Talent Acquisition Business Partner): leonie.reuvers@heineken.com. Please note, we may close vacancies early where we receive significant numbers of applications, so don’t delay!