Product Owner

Role: Product Owner
Location: NYC or Chicago Only locals
Work mode: Hybrid (3 day onsite)
Duration: Contract

Responsibilities:

1. Product Lifecycle Ownership:

• Own features end-to-end from discovery and definition through development, launch, and iteration.
• Maintain and prioritize the product backlog in alignment with business objectives, customer needs, and technical constraints.
• Define success metrics for each release and track outcomes post-launch to inform the next iteration.

2. Requirements & Communication:

• Articulate product requirements clearly and unambiguously to engineering, design, QA, and business stakeholders.
• Lead backlog refinement, sprint planning, and demos; act as the primary point of contact for the development team throughout the sprint.
• Translate ambiguous business problems into concrete scope, acceptance criteria, and release plans.

3. Design Collaboration:

• Work directly in Figma to review flows, annotate designs, create low-fidelity wireframes, and prototype concepts when needed.
• Partner with designers to ensure user flows, edge cases, and interaction details are covered before development begins.

4. Jira & Story Writing:

• Write clear, well-scoped user stories in Jira with strong acceptance criteria, context, and linked design and technical references.
• Structure epics, stories, and sub-tasks so engineering teams can plan and deliver confidently without repeated back-and-forth.
• Maintain a clean, prioritized backlog with consistent labeling, estimation, and release tagging.

5. AI-Accelerated Delivery:

• Use AI tools (e.g., Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot, Notion AI, or similar) to accelerate requirement drafting, story writing, competitive research, and stakeholder communication.
• Identify opportunities to introduce AI-assisted workflows across the product team to improve throughput and quality.
• Apply sound judgment when using AI output - validating, editing, and contextualizing results rather than copying them wholesale.

Required Qualifications:

• 8+ years of experience as a Product Owner, Product Manager, or equivalent role in an agile software environment.
• Demonstrated understanding of the full product lifecycle: discovery, definition, delivery, launch, and iteration.
• Proven ability to write clear, engineer-ready user stories and acceptance criteria in Jira.
• Working proficiency in Figma - able to navigate files, leave structured feedback, and create basic wireframes or prototypes.
• Hands-on experience integrating AI tools into day-to-day product work to improve speed and quality.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; comfortable presenting to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience working in Scrum, Kanban, or hybrid agile environments.

Nice to Have:

• Prior contract or consulting experience; able to ramp quickly in a new domain.
• Exposure to SaaS, B2B platforms, or AI/ML-powered products.
• Familiarity with analytics tools (e.g., Amplitude, Mixpanel, GA4) and basic SQL.
• Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) or equivalent certification.