Product Owner

Description

Join Purple Wave as a Product Owner and help us build the software that powers the nation's leading online equipment auction. Working hand-in-hand with a cross-functional agile team, you'll turn the needs of our business and customers into a clear, well-ordered backlog and a steady stream of shipped improvements. AI is part of how we build at Purple Wave-you'll use modern AI tools daily work and help bring AI-powered features to our customers. If you love breaking big ideas into buildable pieces, making sharp prioritization calls, and seeing your decisions go live iteration after iteration, this role is for you. Enjoy a competitive salary, a monthly bonus program, comprehensive benefits, and a collaborative, fully remote work culture.

The Product Owner (PO) is the voice of the business and the customer within a Purple Wave agile team. The PO owns and prioritizes the team's product backlog, translating business goals, subject matter expert (SME) and user feedback into clear, buildable work that the development team can deliver each iteration. This is a hands-on delivery role: the PO refines the backlog, writes outcomes with well-defined acceptance criteria, makes day-to-day prioritization decisions, and partners closely with the Scrum Master and engineers to keep work flowing. As AI reshapes how products are built and used, the PO is expected to work fluently with AI tools in their own workflow, help prioritize and deliver AI-powered capabilities on the team's roadmap, and use AI, data, and analytics to sharpen prioritization and measure outcomes. Success in this role means the team is focused on building the right increment, releases deliver real value, and learnings from each release feed back into a continuously improving product.

Responsibilities:

• Own, order, and maintain a clear, transparent product backlog that reflects business priorities and delivers the most value first.
• Refine the backlog on an ongoing basis with clear, testable acceptance criteria that are ready for the team to pick up.
• Translate business needs, SME input, and sometimes ambiguous ideas into well-defined, actionable backlog items.
• Set and communicate priorities, making the trade-off and prioritization calls needed to keep the team focused on the highest-value work.
• Prioritize and help deliver AI- and data-powered features on the team's roadmap, partnering with engineering and data teams to turn them into shippable customer value.
• Use AI, data, and analytics to inform prioritization decisions, measure release outcomes, and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Use AI tools in day-to-day product work-drafting and refining stories, summarizing user and stakeholder feedback, researching solutions, and accelerating analysis-while applying sound judgment to the results.
• Participate actively in team events-backlog refinement, sprint planning, daily standups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives-in partnership with the Scrum Master and development team.
• Be readily available to the team throughout the sprint to answer questions, clarify requirements, and resolve ambiguity so work keeps moving.
• Review completed work against acceptance criteria and the Definition of Done, accepting or returning stories as appropriate.
• Maintain a forward-looking view of upcoming work so the team always has a healthy, prioritized backlog ready.
• Keep stakeholders informed with transparent, timely communication about priorities, progress, scope changes, and release timing.
• Gather feedback from releases and end users, measure outcomes, and feed learnings back into the backlog to drive continuous improvement.
• Navigate and resolve competing priorities and conflicting ideas among stakeholders and the development team, keeping decisions anchored to business objectives and desired outcomes.
• Collaborate across departments and with other Product Owners to align on shared goals, dependencies, and company strategy.
• Maintain customer personas and possess a deep understanding of customer needs.
• Maintain product scorecard revealing product health and performance to the organization.
• Undertake additional assigned duties as requested.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• None.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or relevant experience preferred. High school diploma or GED required.
• At least 2 years of experience as a Product Owner, Business Analyst, or in a similar agile product delivery role.
• Working knowledge of agile software development and the Scrumban framework, including backlog management, user stories, and sprint execution.
• Experience writing clear user stories and acceptance criteria and managing a backlog in a tool such as Jira.
• Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) or Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO) is a plus, or a willingness to earn certification.
• Comfort using AI tools (such as AI assistants and copilots) to improve productivity and quality, with the judgment to evaluate their output and the curiosity to adopt new tools as they emerge.
• Interest in, or exposure to, AI/ML-powered product features and how they create customer value is a plus.
• Strong prioritization and decision-making skills, with the ability to balance competing needs and stay focused on outcomes in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to work effectively with both business stakeholders and technical teams.
• Highly organized and self-directed, comfortable managing multiple priorities at once.
• Proficiency with common productivity and collaboration tools, including spreadsheet applications (Excel, Google Sheets), word processing (Word, Google Docs), presentation tools (PowerPoint, Google Slides), and reporting/analytics tools such as Tableau; familiarity with Jira and agile tooling.
• Understanding of, or strong interest in, online auction, marketplace, or e-commerce services and processes is a plus.
• Spanish fluency is a plus, given our growing Spanish speaking customer base.
• Candidates may be requested to complete position specific skills assessments.
• Applicants must be either a U.S. Citizen or eligible to work in the U.S.
• Requires the ability to satisfactorily complete a background check.

Working Settings:

• Full-time Salaried Exempt, not eligible for overtime.
• Office hours are 8am-5pm, Monday through Friday, Central Time zone; additional hours may be required depending on priorities.
• This position is remote work eligible with the United States. Please note: one week of employment training is required to be in Manhattan, KS headquarters. There will also be quarterly in-person meeting requirements.
• Upon hire, in person training will be required at the Purple Wave headquarters.
• Prolonged periods sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Must be able to lift up to 15 pounds at times.
• Must be able to access various departments of a given location.

Compensation:

• The salary varies based on experience and qualifications, but typically ranges from $75,000 to $120,000 per year.
• Monthly Bonus Program - determined by the Company's monthly revenue result and are paid on a "percent to plan" payout formula (90% = $300, 100% = $600, 110% = $900, 120% = $1,200).
• Monthly phone stipend in accordance with the Company's cell phone policy, currently $120/month.
• Health insurance, Dental insurance, and Vision insurance.
• 401(k) plan with an employer match up to 4% starting the first day of employment.
• Company-paid Life Insurance with options for supplemental coverage.
• Fully paid Short-Term Disability provided by the Company.
• 3 Weeks of PTO annually (details shared during onboarding).
• Employee Stock Purchase Program (ESPP) - Eligible to purchase company stock at a discount after 90 days of employment, with enrollment opportunities each May and November.

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