Product Manager- Junior

Product Manager - Junior

Location: Rocky Mount, North Carolina (Hybrid: 3 days onsite per week with limited travel as needed; on-site required on the first day to collect equipment)

Experience Required: 2+ Years of relevant experience in digital product development, software delivery, or technology modernization efforts

Employment Type: Contract

About the Role:

Our client is seeking a Junior Product Manager to help lead the discovery, delivery, and continuous improvement of digital products that improve customer experience, modernize operations, and increase service efficiency. Working directly with customers, frontline staff, stakeholders, vendors, and technical teams, you will identify problems, validate solutions, prioritize work, and deliver measurable outcomes. This role reports to the Product Owner and is responsible for day-to-day execution.

Key Responsibilities:

• Execute the direction of the Product Owner by leading complex digital products and service initiatives from discovery through delivery (including online services, appointment scheduling, queue management, portals, websites, mobile driver licenses, and internal operational tools).
• Translate business needs, operational requirements, and customer feedback into actionable product requirements, workflows, user stories, and prioritized backlogs.
• Conduct and support user research and usability testing activities such as customer interviews, prototype testing, operational observations, and feedback analysis.
• Serve as a day-to-day lead for assigned initiatives by coordinating across vendors, agency stakeholders, and internal teams.
• Partner closely with vendor teams to drive iterative delivery and hold them accountable for timelines, product quality, usability, testing readiness, and issue resolution.
• Lead backlog refinement, sprint planning, release coordination, and product prioritization activities while supporting roadmap development.
• Monitor product performance and operational outcomes through analytics, customer feedback, and metrics to identify trends and opportunities for continuous improvement.

Required Skills & Qualifications:

• Experience leading the development, launch, modernization, or continuous improvement of digital products, software platforms, or customer-facing technology services.
• Demonstrated experience working across the full product lifecycle (discovery, prioritization, delivery, launch, measurement, and continuous improvement).
• Experience working closely with software development teams, designers, vendors, and engineers in Agile or iterative delivery environments.
• Strong ability to balance user needs, operational constraints, business objectives, policy requirements, and technical considerations.
• Experience conducting user research, usability testing, customer interviews, or service design activities.
• Strong problem-solving, prioritization, organization, leadership, and collaboration skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Preferred Skills:

• Critical thinking and consulting experience.
• Experience using performance metrics, customer feedback, and data to evaluate products or business processes.
• Experience with large-scale software modernization efforts.
• Experience working in government, transportation, healthcare, financial services, or other regulated environments.
• Familiarity with accessibility, customer experience, or digital transformation initiatives.
• Experience with MS Project and/or Visio.

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in a related field (such as business, public administration, information systems, computer science, engineering, design, human-computer interaction, or communications) or equivalent professional experience.
• Certifications in product management, Agile, Scrum, service design, UX research, or customer experience are a plus.