Principal/Senior Product Owner
Full-time opportunity
Charlotte, NC (will consider remote with travel)
SMART IT People has an exciting full-time opportunity for a Principal/Senior Product Owner for our client in Charlotte, NC. This position will be the connective tissue between the business divisions, enterprise strategy, and technology modernization agenda. You will own an end-to-end product portfolio, set a clear vision in partnership with senior leaders, and employ a data-driven prioritization framework to deliver customer value. This role requires equal parts strategic thinking, servant leadership, and hands‑on execution.
Qualifications:
- 10+ years of progressive product management / product ownership experience with recent success scaling product culture and frameworks.
- Demonstrated ability to own enterprise-wide roadmaps and lead cross-functional teams
- Hands-on experience with SaaS/eCommerce platforms, customer escalations, and performance engineering.
- Deep familiarity with modern product discovery, backlog management, Agile/Scrum, and Lean experimentation practices.
- Proven track record partnering with technology on cloud migration, API-first architectures, and technical‑debt reduction.
- Technical foundation in Java, JavaScript, SQL, REST APIs, observability. platforms, and cloud computing is preferred.
- Proven track record implementing automation and secure system rollouts.
- Strong analytical skills—comfortable with SQL/BI tools, cohort analysis, funnel metrics, and financial modeling to build data‑backed business cases.
- Exceptional communication and storytelling skills; able to influence C‑suite and front‑line stakeholders alike.
- Experience driving change management in matrixed organizations, including rollout planning, training, and adoption measurement.
- Experience in home‑services, consumer finance, or other high‑volume, multi‑division B2C environments preferred.
- Background integrating AI/ML or advanced analytics into product features preferred.
- Certifications such as CSPO, SAFe PO/PM
Job description:
Vision & Strategy
- Co-create a multi-year product vision aligned to enterprise growth objectives.
- Translate strategic themes into outcome‑oriented product roadmaps.
- Leverage SaaS platform and cloud product expertise to define secure, scalable, customer-focused solutions
Prioritization & Road‑Mapping
- Implement a measurable framework (OKRs / RICE / WSJF) to rank features, tech‑debt retirement, and modernization initiatives.
- Make explicit trade‑off decisions; articulate what not to build to preserve focus.
- Apply incident analysis and performance data to guide prioritization.
- Apply hands-on experience triaging and prioritizing escalations, defects, and performance improvements into structured backlogs that balance short-term fixes with long-term modernization
Stakeholder Partnership
- Act as trusted adviser to Division Presidents, Ops, Sales, and Marketing leaders; synthesize diverse needs into a cohesive backlog.
- Facilitate quarterly planning and roadmap reviews.
- Bridge business requirements with technical feasibility, ensuring alignment across teams.
- Act as a primary advocate for enterprise customers during escalations and critical incidents, ensuring their needs are translated into productimprovements.
Technology Modernization
- Partner with Engineering, Data, and Architecture leads to migrate legacy platforms, introduce cloud‑native capabilities, and strengthen DevSecOps practices.
- Apply technical expertise in Java, SQL, APIs, cloud computing, and observability platforms (AppDynamics, Splunk, ScienceLogic, Grafana) to guide product decisions.
- Own defect triage with detailed documentation, enabling expedited fixes and reducing customer disruption
- Lead initiatives to implement monitoring frameworks, automation, and system optimization for high-impact operations.
Data & Experimentation
- Define north‑star and leading KPIs; build business cases grounded in CAC, LTV, conversion, and productivity metrics.
- Design A/B and multivariate experiments to validate hypotheses and de‑risk investments.
- Use SQL and BI tools to measure performance outcomes and adoption across product portfolios.
- Use incident analysis, operational telemetry, and performance monitoring data to validate assumptions and continuously optimize product decisions
Change Management
- Craft communication plans, training, and adoption metrics to ensure successful roll‑outs.
- Serve as product evangelist, nurturing a customer‑centric product culture enterprise‑wide.
- Create playbooks, knowledge templates, and technical documentation to standardize processes and enable cross-team adoption.
Team & Culture Leadership
- Mentor other Product Owners and cross‑functional squad members on product mindset, discovery techniques, and outcome thinking.
- Contribute to organizational playbooks, templates, and reusable processes to standardize delivery.
To apply, please send resume in MS Word format to: alice@smart-itpeople.com with job title in subject line.