Product Owner

Product Owner – Workforce Engagement Platform Hybrid – West Loop - Chicago Contract to hire TalentFish is casting a line for an experienced Product Owner to lead product strategy, prioritization, and delivery for an established workforce engagement technology platform built for restaurant owner-operators. This is a hybrid contract to hire opportunity in Chicago's west loop! Cool neighborhood and creative environment! The platform is already in production with an established customer base and loyal user community. Following a recent acquisition, the organization is entering an exciting stage of growth and is looking for a Product Owner who can bring structure, prioritization, and disciplined execution to the product roadmap. In this role, you will own the product roadmap, backlog, priorities, and release timelines. You will partner closely with engineering, business analysis, design, commercial, customer success, and leadership teams to turn customer needs and business opportunities into successful product releases. The product vision will continue to be informed by the founder and the operator community, while you will own execution — bringing structure, sequencing, and follow-through to turn ideas into shipped product. This is an opportunity to join an established technology product at an important growth stage. The platform has a proven customer base, an experienced engineering team, and significant opportunities for expansion. The Product Owner will play a central role in determining what gets built, why it gets built, and how the product evolves — making this an ideal opportunity for a product professional who enjoys ownership, autonomy, and turning customer insight into measurable product outcomes. What You'll Do Own the Product Roadmap: Develop, maintain, and communicate a product roadmap that balances immediate customer needs with long-term product vision. Own Prioritization and Timelines: Make clear decisions about what gets built, what is deferred, and what will not be pursued based on customer impact, business value, and delivery capacity. Understand Customer Problems: Look beyond feature requests to identify the underlying customer problem and develop scalable solutions that can benefit the broader customer base. Manage the Product Backlog: Maintain a prioritized, well-groomed backlog and partner with the Business Analyst to translate product strategy and intent into clear requirements. Lead the Release Process: Manage the product lifecycle from prototype through general availability, including alpha and beta releases with select customers to validate functionality in real-world environments. Bridge Design and Engineering: Connect design and creative teams with engineering to ensure product vision and design intent are effectively translated into production while incorporating technical considerations early. Partner with Engineering: Work closely with engineering leadership and development teams throughout refinement, sprint planning, development, testing, and acceptance. Make timely product decisions to keep delivery moving. Serve as the Product SME: Become the organization's go-to expert on product functionality, roadmap priorities, upcoming releases, and product decisions. Support Commercial Teams: Provide product expertise to support customer conversations, demos, roadmap discussions, and prospect questions. Bring market and customer feedback back into product prioritization. Build Customer Understanding: Develop a strong understanding of how customers use the platform and build relationships with users to ensure product decisions are grounded in real-world needs. Communicate Progress: Provide leadership and stakeholders with clear visibility into delivery progress, risks, priorities, and tradeoffs. Required Qualifications Demonstrated experience as a Product Owner or Product Manager owning a software product through roadmap development, backlog management, prioritization, and delivery. Proven experience shipping software in an Agile/Scrum environment while working directly with engineering teams throughout the development lifecycle. Strong prioritization and decision-making skills, with the ability to communicate and defend difficult tradeoffs. Ability to move quickly, take calculated risks, and apply appropriate rigor without creating unnecessary processes. Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to uncover the underlying need behind a customer or stakeholder request. Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to provide clear requirements, documentation, and status updates. Experience collaborating cross-functionally with engineering, design, creative, commercial, and customer-facing teams. Experience with modern product and delivery tools such as Jira, Confluence, Figma, or equivalent platforms. Ability to quickly establish credibility with senior leadership, subject matter experts, and experienced technical teams. Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience. Preferred Qualifications Experience in the restaurant, retail, hospitality, franchise, or workforce technology industries. Experience supporting commercial or sales teams as a product subject matter expert. Experience conducting product demos, roadmap discussions, or customer/prospect presentations. Experience managing alpha and beta programs with live customers. Experience working with products during a post-acquisition integration or growth/scaling phase. Experience partnering with data and analytics teams to establish product metrics and measure feature success. Experience working in a lean, entrepreneurial environment where the Product Owner is closely involved in product decisions. What Success Looks Like First 90 Days Develop a strong understanding of the product and establish trust with leadership and the engineering team. Understand how customers use the platform and identify key customer needs and pain points. Establish a prioritized, well-organized, and transparent product backlog. Develop a clear roadmap aligned with leadership, commercial priorities, customer needs, and engineering capacity. By Six Months Establish a predictable product delivery cadence with clear and actionable requirements. Become a trusted product resource for internal stakeholders and customer-facing teams. Equip commercial teams with the product knowledge and roadmap information needed to confidently support customer conversations. Establish effective processes for gathering and incorporating customer feedback into product decisions. By Nine Months Demonstrate measurable impact from shipped features through adoption, engagement, or other defined product metrics. Ensure product decisions are supported by customer and business data and documented rationale. Establish a sustainable product operating model that supports continued growth and does not depend on any single individual. Compensation Information The expected salary range for this position $45/hr - $65/hr, depending on experience and qualifications. This role also qualifies for comprehensive benefits such as health insurance, 401(k), and paid time off. TalentFish is committed to pay transparency and equal opportunity. The salary range provided is in compliance with applicable state and federal regulations. This role requires authorization to work in the U.S. without current or future visa sponsorship. All offers are contingent upon the completion of a background check, which may include but is not limited to reference checks, education verification, employment verification, drug testing, criminal records checks, and any required certifications or compliance requirements based on the end client's background check policies and applicable laws. TalentFish is an employee-owned company pioneering a new realm in talent acquisition. We are redefining IT staffing by evolving AI, video screening, and our unique platform. TalentFish focuses on providing the best employee, consultant, and client experience possible. At TalentFish we are an Equal Opportunity Employer; we embrace and encourage diversity! TalentFish