Job description
About Shift Paradigm
Shift Paradigm is a client services business that focuses on implementing and activating technology and data to make sales and marketing work. Our people bring combined experience across technology, data & analytics, business strategy and campaign operations to accelerate our clients’ businesses. We keep pace with change in modern marketing and technology in order to create both effective, scalable and future-proof solutions for our clients that span both the Fortune 500 list and emerging industry leaders. We have also built strong relationships with the world’s most influential martech platforms and are key partners to them and their clients.
Please note
We’re looking to add experienced Product Owners to add to our contractor bench for upcoming project-based work. While there is no immediate need, we’re building a go-to group of strong, reliable POs we can call on for special projects as they arise. This is a part-time, freelance opportunity (estimated 10–30 hours per week when active), supporting custom software engineering projects in a fast-paced agency environment. Ideal candidates will be comfortable jumping into cross-functional teams and actively driving projects to successful delivery.
We are looking for someone with custom software development experience (web applications/ APIs/databases). If you don’t have experience with this type of work, this role will unfortunately not be the right fit for you. Please ensure your resume clearly articulates the types of projects you’ve worked on. If we’re missing this relevant information we won’t be able to proceed with your application. Thank you!
Overview
As a Product Owner, you are responsible for the end-to-end development and delivery of large and technically complex software projects using Agile methodology, ensuring solutions meet or exceed client expectations while enabling internal teams to perform at their best. You will own the product lifecycle, from collaborating with clients to defining product requirements to translating project requirements into executable and manageable work for Engineering.
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
Qualifications
- 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
- Licensing or certifications are a plus (e.g., CSPO)
- This is a fully remote position, requiring a 1099 contractor relationship
- Must have current US work authorization
Key Competencies
Be a strong communicator who is a doer, team member, team builder and proactive problem solver.
