Product Manager (New Product Development)

Job description

**This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Product Manager (New Product Development) based in the United States.** This is a hands-on product leadership opportunity for an experienced professional passionate about building cloud-native software applications and delivering measurable user value. You will take ownership of a product backlog, working closely with engineers and designers to turn user needs and business goals into effective solutions. Combining product discovery, technical collaboration, and agile delivery, you will guide one dedicated team through the full product development lifecycle. You will use research, experimentation, and product analytics to make informed decisions and continuously improve releases. As a key client-facing partner, you will communicate progress, recommend priorities, and ensure stakeholders remain confident in the product direction. The role offers a dynamic, project-based consulting environment with a strong emphasis on accountability and delivery. ### Accountabilities You will own the day-to-day product direction and delivery, ensuring that the team consistently builds the right solutions and achieves agreed user and business outcomes. Your responsibilities will include: - **Backlog ownership:** Manage the product backlog end to end, personally writing user stories and acceptance criteria, breaking work into manageable increments, and maintaining at least two sprints of refined, ready-to-build work. - **Product discovery:** Partner with UX and engineering teams to conduct user interviews, usability tests, prototyping, and lightweight experiments, ensuring product decisions are grounded in user research and evidence. - **Daily team collaboration:** Work closely with engineers and designers, participate in daily stand-ups, resolve questions promptly, review work in progress, and accept or reject completed stories against defined acceptance criteria. - **Prioritization and decision-making:** Rank initiatives according to user value and business impact, make timely scope and sequencing decisions, explain trade-offs, and adapt priorities as new evidence emerges. - **Outcome measurement:** Establish success metrics with client sponsors, track indicators such as adoption, task completion, conversion, and user satisfaction, and use release performance to inform future backlog decisions. - **Technical collaboration:** Develop a strong understanding of product architecture and engage in discussions about APIs, data models, and integrations. Independently retrieve and analyze product data to support decisions. - **Release management:** Coordinate frequent releases with engineering teams through CI/CD processes, prepare release notes, and manage rollout communications with client stakeholders. - **Product vision and roadmap:** Translate client objectives into a clear product vision and actionable near-term roadmap that guides team execution. - **Agile delivery:** Participate actively in Sprint Planning, Reviews, Retrospectives, and scaled Agile activities such as PI Planning. Maintain a refined, sized, and dependency-mapped backlog while collaborating with the Scrum Master to improve delivery flow and predictability. - **Client engagement:** Act as the primary product representative to client sponsors, leading demonstrations, regular check-ins, discovery workshops, and stakeholder discussions with clear, evidence-based recommendations. - **Delivery performance:** Track engagement-specific success measures, including outcomes delivered, backlog quality, release frequency, and client satisfaction. - **Initial delivery milestones:** Establish a product baseline within the first 30 days, covering users, objectives, current metrics, and backlog health, and deliver an agreed roadmap with measurable outcome targets within 90 days. - **Risk and stakeholder management:** Anticipate upcoming decisions and delivery risks, escalate issues early with recommended solutions, and keep clients and teammates informed. - **Consulting delivery:** Balance client outcomes with project schedules, utilization targets, and the expectations of a billable, project-based environment. ### Requirements The ideal candidate is a decisive, technically fluent product professional who combines strong discovery and delivery skills with client-facing experience. The required qualifications include: - Bachelor's degree in a relevant field; an advanced degree is considered an advantage. - At least five years of hands-on Product Manager or Product Owner experience within software or application development teams. - Demonstrated ownership of product backlogs, including personally writing user stories and acceptance criteria. - Current or recent experience, ideally within the past five years, at a product-led technology company or in the digital or product practice of a leading consulting firm. - Proven experience conducting product discovery with UX and design teams, including user interviews, usability testing, and prototyping. - Experience working with teams that release frequently through CI/CD and measure product outcomes and delivery flow rather than relying solely on velocity. - Strong technical understanding, including the ability to discuss APIs, data models, and software architecture with engineers. - Ability to independently analyze product data using SQL, analytics platforms, or comparable tools. - Strong working knowledge of Jira and Confluence, along with experience using Figma or similar design tools. - Experience working within Scrum and SAFe or another scaled Agile framework, including participation in PI Planning. - At least three years of client-facing experience in consulting, professional services, or direct collaboration with business stakeholders. - Excellent communication skills, with the ability to present concise, polished, executive-ready recommendations and lead with the key message. - A proactive ownership mindset, strong judgment, curiosity, and the ability to structure ambiguous problems and make decisions independently. - Must be located in and legally authorized to work in the United States for the entire duration of the engagement. **Additional qualifications considered an advantage:** - CSPO, SAFe POPM, or another relevant product management certification. - Experience with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) or other public cloud application development environments. - Hands-on experience with prototyping, product analytics, or experimentation tools, including A/B testing. - Previous professional experience in engineering, design, or data before transitioning into product management. - Experience working with government or public sector clients. - Experience collaborating with geographically distributed teams. ### Benefits - Full-time engagement with remote work options across the United States, including Chicago, Illinois. - Opportunity to work on modern, cloud-native applications built on Google Cloud Platform. - Hands-on ownership of product direction, backlog management, discovery, and delivery. - Close collaboration with dedicated engineering and design teams. - Direct engagement with client sponsors and business stakeholders. - Opportunity to influence measurable product and business outcomes. - Exposure to agile delivery practices, frequent releases, and modern product development tools. - Structured onboarding during the first several weeks, including training materials, compliance requirements, and introductions to key collaborators. - Expected start date: As soon as possible.