Product Owner

Reports to:  Director of Product & Engineering

The Product Owner (Jr. PO) supports the product management function by helping translate business and client needs into clearly defined well prioritized work for engineering teams. This role is ideal for an early career product professional who is developing a strong foundation in Agile delivery, requirements definition, and stakeholder collaboration. 

Working closely with Product Managers, Engineering, and cross functional partners, the Junior Product Owner ensures that product backlogs are well groomed, user stories are clearly defined, and delivery teams have the context they need to execute efficiently and effectively.  

Key Responsibilities 

Product Backlog & Requirements Support 

• Assist in maintaining and grooming the product backlog to ensure work items are clearly defined, prioritized, and ready for development. 

• Write clear, concise user stories and acceptance criteria under the guidance of a Product Manager. 

• Break down larger product initiatives into smaller, actionable backlog items. 

• Help validate requirements by asking clarifying questions and confirming business intent. 

Agile Team Collaboration 

• Partner with Engineering, Design, and QA to clarify scope, answer questions, and support sprint execution. 

• Participate in Agile ceremonies including sprint planning, backlog refinement, sprint reviews, and retrospectives. 

• Support sprint planning by ensuring stories are well prepared and appropriately sized. 

Stakeholder & Business Support 

• Act as a liaison between business stakeholders and delivery teams for assigned features or workstreams. 

• Help gather input from internal teams such as Sales, Operations, Support, and Compliance. 

• Assist in documenting feedback, open questions, and decisions related to product features. 

Documentation & Communication 

• Maintain clear product documentation, including user stories, acceptance criteria, feature notes, and release documentation. 

• Help communicate feature progress, changes, and delivery timelines to internal stakeholders. 

• Support Product Managers in preparing materials for demos, reviews, or leadership updates. 

Learning & Product Development 

• Develop a strong understanding of the product, customer workflows, and business processes. 

• Learn and apply Agile and product management best practices. 

• Build foundational skills in prioritization, tradeoff analysis, and outcome driven product thinking. 

Qualifications & Experience

Required 

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Information Systems, Computer Science, or a related field (or equivalent experience). 

• 0–2 years of experience in a product, business analyst, project coordination, or technology adjacent role. 

• Strong written and verbal communication skills. 

• Ability to break down problems and think logically about solutions. 

• High attention to detail and strong organizational skills. 

Preferred 

• Exposure to Agile or Scrum environments. 

• Familiarity with tools such as Jira, Azure DevOps, Confluence, Notion, or similar product/project tools. 

• Basic understanding of software development lifecycles. 

• Interest in building customer centric, data informed products. 

Core Competencies 

• Analytical Thinking: Able to understand business problems and translate them into structured requirements. 

• Collaboration: Comfortable working with cross functional teams and asking thoughtful questions. 

• Communication: Can clearly explain requirements and document decisions. 

• Curiosity & Growth Mindset: Eager to learn product management fundamentals and grow into increased ownership. 

• Execution Focus: Helps ensure ideas move from concept to delivery.