Product Owner

Summary

Join Shift Paradigm as a Product Owner to contribute to the end-to-end development and delivery of large, complex software projects using Agile methodology. This part-time, freelance opportunity (10–30 hours/week) involves overseeing multiple workstreams and client projects concurrently, from scoping to post-release activities. You will lead discovery, define project requirements, and translate them into executable stories for the project team. The role requires strong analytical and communication skills, experience with Agile methodologies, and proficiency with project management tools like Jira. This fully remote position requires a 1099 contractor relationship and US work authorization. Ideal candidates possess custom software development experience (web applications/APIs/databases).

Requirements

• 4+ years of product owner experience in a technical environment
• Strong analytical, interpersonal and verbal/written communication skills with both technical and non-technical groups
• Strong understanding of Scrum/Kanban/Agile/DevOps methodologies and practices
• Significant experience with Jira or other project management tools
• Ability to see the big picture, but love to get the details right
• Excellent stakeholder management skills
• This is a fully remote position, requiring a 1099 contractor relationship
• Must have current US work authorization

Responsibilities

• Oversee multiple workstreams and client projects concurrently through every stage of the project lifecycle, from scoping through delivery, including solutioning, scoping, planning, discovery, requirements definition, execution, release management and post-release activities
• Lead discovery with relevant SMEs and collaborate with client to define project requirements, flush out overlooked details and manage expectations
• Partner closely with cross-functional teams to ensure that the product meets customer needs and is delivered on time and within budget
• Author business requirements, translating them into detailed functional and technical project requirements of varying complexities. Further translate functional/technical requirements into executable and manageable stories for project team, ensuring they are complete with acceptance criteria (definition of done) with a focus on quality, usability and scalability
• Own project backlog - reprioritizing, refining and negotiating around triple constraints to achieve successful outcomes and optimizing against feedback and changing priorities
• Organize and lead Agile ceremonies, including backlog grooming, sprint planning, daily standups, demos/reviews and retrospectives
• Facilitate technical conversations to align teams and identify opportunities for process and tool improvements
• Monitor team capacity and plan velocity to ensure efficient and sustainable delivery
• Ensure awareness, management and tracking of project progress, dependencies, blockers, risks and action items. Track and report on sprint and release progress using tools such as burn-down and burn-up charts
• Forecast delivery timelines and identify potential bottlenecks or challenges early
• Proactively anticipate potential risks and define mitigation plans, ensuring operational readiness in order to deliver successfully on schedule, on budget and within scope
• Partner with project SMEs on execution strategy and contingency planning activities to ensure policies, standards and best practices are met
• Effectively and frequently communicate project status to a diverse set of stakeholders and promote open communication
• Lead project teams with authority, and supervise execution through each project stage
• Take initiative to assess situations and navigate successfully through ambiguous situations

Preferred Qualifications

Licensing or certifications are a plus (e.g., CSPO)