Product Owner

Title: Product Owner


Location: Chicago, IL (hybrid, minimum 2 days/week in office)


Type: 12-month contract, renewable, with potential conversion to full-time


Reports to: VP, Global Product Development

Description:


Our client is looking for a Product Owner to bring rigor and structure to a workforce engagement platform built for restaurant owner-operators, recently acquired and now part of a growing technology portfolio serving one of the largest restaurant systems in the country. The product already works. It has real production stores, a loyal user community, and a founder who built it from inside the industry. What it needs now is a single, accountable owner to turn that foundation into a disciplined roadmap and a predictable delivery cadence.

What you'll do:


Own the product roadmap, priorities, and timelines, deciding what gets built, what waits, and what doesn't happen


Translate owner-operator requests into the underlying problem, and build solutions that scale across stores, not just one


Own a healthy, well-groomed backlog, partnering with a dedicated Business Analyst to turn intent into buildable requirements


Run the staged release process from prototype through alpha, beta, and general availability


Bridge design, brand, and creative teams with engineering to protect design intent through production


Partner daily with a stable, long-tenured engineering team, an engineering lead, and a dedicated Scrum Master


Become the definitive product SME, equipping the commercial team to sell and feeding field learnings back into prioritization


Give leadership clear, honest visibility into what's shipping, what's at risk, and what tradeoffs are being made

What you bring:


Demonstrated experience owning a software product end to end: roadmap, backlog, and delivery


Track record shipping software in an Agile environment, working directly with engineering through the full delivery cycle


Strong prioritization judgment and the ability to say no in terms stakeholders accept


Skill at uncovering the real problem behind a requested feature


Excellent written communication


Comfort working across design, creative, and commercial functions, including distributed and contract team members


Modern product/delivery tooling experience (Jira, Confluence, Figma, or equivalent)


Ability to build credibility quickly with a founder and a long-tenured team who know the product deeply


Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience

Nice to haves:


Restaurant, retail, or franchise industry familiarity


Experience supporting a sales team as the product expert


Experience running alpha/beta programs with live customers


Experience with post-acquisition product integration or a scaling inflection point


Experience working with data/analytics teams on product metrics