Product Owner 5 (Chicago)

Role: Product Owner 5

Client: Caterpillar

Location: Chicago, IL

Work Model: Hybrid – currently 2 days/week in office; may increase to more days in the future

Duration: 12 months

Position Overview

Client is seeking a Lead Product Owner to provide day-to-day support to customers and field service teams related to product implementation, customization, product questions, and problem resolution.

The Product Owner will work closely with product development engineers, field support specialists, and customers to identify and resolve product issues, coordinate solutions, gather customer feedback, and support product integration and infrastructure needs.

This is a new headcount supporting the product team.

Key Responsibilities:

Coordinate with product development engineers to track and communicate design, development, support, and maintenance issues and solutions.

Identify, document, and report design, reliability, maintenance issues, and software bugs.

Gather and consolidate feedback from customers and field staff.

Coordinate with field support specialists and customers to resolve product issues and expand product usage.

Answer customer and field support questions related to product integration and infrastructure.

Support product implementation and customization activities.

Manage and communicate software change requests from customers, vendors, and internal teams.

Track and support resolution of software problems, including documentation, escalation, and customer communication.

Collect, document, and maintain product functional requirements and provide recommendations.

Support major product installations and customizations.

Participate in User Acceptance Testing (UAT) activities, including acceptance criteria, test strategies, plans, and approaches.

Work collaboratively with stakeholders, development teams, testing teams, customers, and field support teams.

Required Qualifications:

10+ years of experience as a Lead Product Owner.

Bachelor's degree is not required, but is preferred.

Strong experience in business analysis, including identifying business needs and recommending solutions that deliver stakeholder value.

Extensive decision-making and critical-thinking experience.

Extensive communication and stakeholder-management skills.

Extensive experience managing software change requests.

Working knowledge of software engineering, software development methodologies, product integration, and software design practices.

Working knowledge of software problem management, issue tracking, resolution, escalation, and customer communication.

Extensive experience with software product business knowledge, including product requirements, product vision, customer usage, installations, and customizations.

Extensive experience with User Acceptance Testing (UAT), including acceptance criteria, test planning, test strategies, and end-user involvement.

Work Environment:

Hybrid work model.

Currently 2 days per week in the Chicago office.

Office requirement may increase in the future.

Monday–Friday, 1st shift.

0–25% potential travel.

Interview Process

3 interview rounds via Microsoft Teams with video ON:

Technical interview – Coding

Technical interview – Architecture

Team interview – Behavioral

The final round could be conducted in the office.

Red Flags / Disqualifiers:

Consistent job hopping or choppy employment tenure.

Candidates who are not local should clearly indicate on their resume that they are willing to relocate at their own expense and be onsite from Day 1.