Technical Product Owner III (Need Locals to KY) - Only W2

Role: Technical Product Owner III

Location: Louisville KY (Hybrid, on-site Tues and Thursday - must be local)

Job Type: W2 Contract

Role Overview:

• The Technical Product Owner III is responsible for maximizing the value of internal platform products by translating the needs of engineering teams into well-defined, prioritized backlog items.
• This role sits within the US Solutions Architecture team and supports the platform capabilities that underpin company's digital operations, spanning restaurant-facing ordering systems, cloud infrastructure, developer tooling, and systems integration.
• The role partners closely with platform engineering to improve developer experience, enable self-service and automation, and ensure platform capabilities are adopted, usable, and aligned to business and engineering priorities.

Key Responsibilities:

Product & Backlog Management

• Support and contribute to the product roadmap for internal developer platforms (CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment), infrastructure, observability, automation tools) supporting US.

• Own and manage the product backlog, translating customer needs into clear epics, user stories, and acceptance criteria.

• Track and report on product metrics such as adoption, user satisfaction, operational efficiency, and productivity indicators.

• Communicate product updates, prioritization decisions, and progress to cross-functional stakeholders.

• Support planning, intake, and capacity management activities for platform initiatives.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Gather and represent feedback from internal engineering teams through interviews, surveys, office hours, and ongoing engagement.

• Partner closely with engineering teams (SRE (Site Reliability Engineering), DevOps, Solutions Architecture) to balance product priorities with technical execution.

• Collaborate with brand product teams, the brand SRE team, platform engineering, and enterprise cloud and security teams.

Platform Adoption & Automation

• Support adoption of platform capabilities through customer-focused prioritization and clear communication.

• Contribute to self-service and automation initiatives that reduce manual support work and improve developer efficiency.

Required Qualifications:

• 1 2+ years of experience in product management or technical product ownership.

• ~3 years of experience working on technical products for technical users (engineers, developers, IT teams).

• Experience owning and managing a product backlog in an Agile environment.

• Experience with user research, requirements gathering, and translating needs into product deliverables.

• Familiarity with product metrics and measuring adoption or outcomes.

• Ability to collaborate effectively with engineering and cross-functional stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with developer tools, internal platforms, or infrastructure-related products.

• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, cloud infrastructure, DevOps, or SRE concepts.

• Exposure to automation, self-service platforms, or workflow tooling.

• Technical background or prior hands-on experience working closely with engineers.

• Experience contributing to developer experience or productivity initiatives.

• Product management certifications or formal product training.

• Experience in a consumer-scale digital platform environment such as QSR (Quick Service Restaurant), retail, or high-transaction systems.

• Familiarity with restaurant technology or POS (Point of Sale) systems.

Key Competencies:

Client evaluates associates at this level against the following Smart Heart & Courage (SHC) behaviors:

• People Grower: You share knowledge freely, create learning opportunities, and make the team around you better.

• Influencer: You earn credibility through consistent delivery and clear communication. You bring people along rather than going it alone, and you build trusted relationships across teams.

• Results-Focused: You take ownership of outcomes, not just tasks. You define what success looks like, execute with urgency, and follow through.

In addition, this role requires:

• Service orientation: treating engineering teams as customers of the platform and holding a high bar for their experience.

• Clear prioritization communication: stakeholders always understand what is being built, what is not, and why.