Senior Product Owner
Thorn
At Thorn, our cause is our code. We are a nonprofit whose mission of defending children from sexual exploitation and abuse is deeply embedded within our core—a shared code that drives us to do challenging work with resilience and determination.
Here, you’ll work and grow among the best hearts and the best minds in tech, data, and business alongside our network of independent partners, NGOs, and law enforcement agencies. Together, we’re focused on building technology that protects children’s futures. We are looking for dynamic problem solvers with the desire to help address some of today’s toughest issues. You'll collaborate with a diverse group of peers in a remote environment centered on wellness, care, and compassion.
In 2019, we took the stage at TED and shared our audacious goal of eliminating child sexual abuse material from the internet. Come join us to help make this goal a reality and build a world where every child can be safe, curious, and happy.
About the Role
We are seeking a seasoned Senior Product Owner to lead the iterative product development of our software solutions. The Senior Product Owner would act as the bridge between the product and build teams, and would be responsible for the successful execution of the defined roadmap. Following the agile philosophy, the candidate would collaborate with the product and build managers, apply incremental delivery principles to releases, communicate progress to stakeholders, actively participate in sprint ceremonies, and be the ‘voice of customer’ for the build team.
What You’ll Do
- Proactively engage with the product manager, UX designer, and build managers to elaborate on requirements, validate assumptions, and demonstrate new functionalities.
- Break down the roadmap into specific, clearly scoped epics and releases driven by business value.
- Collaborate with the build team on schedule, milestones, metrics, and release documentation for org-wide visibility.
- Prioritize and refine the product backlog regularly and consistently keeping roadmap, business opportunities, and efficiency dials in mind.
- Have a solid technical understanding of the system to be able to healthily balance new feature work against long term maintenance work on an ongoing basis.
- Ensure the development team understands the expected features and acceptance criteria; clarify requirements with stakeholders where necessary.
- Seek consensus and facilitate compromise between engineers and stakeholders to meet the overall needs of the business.
- Lead sprint planning sessions providing clear direction to the development team on sprint goals.
- Actively participate in scrum ceremonies and ensure at least two sprints of work are refined and available at all times for the team.
- Manage efforts from kick off to completion and provide regular status updates to stakeholders on notable wins, upcoming priorities, and risks / blockers.
- Lead beta efforts by collaborating with the account management and support teams.
- Conduct user acceptance testing to validate releases against acceptance criteria.
- Build and maintain strong working relationships with internal stakeholders.
What We’re Looking For
- Integrity, humility, energetic, positive attitude, mission-driven, relationship builder, and self-directed
- 5+ years of experience in the product ownership role
- Deep experience in the agile software development process
- Strong understanding of software development stacks
- Minute attention to accuracy and detail, while being results oriented
- Strong interpersonal skills including written and oral communication
- Superb organizational and time management skills
- Adaptive, analytical, and decisive with good problem-solving skills
- An AI enthusiast who is comfortable using the technology for continuous operational improvement and enhancing ongoing product development.
Ideal
- Education, experience, and/or background in Computer Science
Technologies We Use
- JIRA
- GitHub
- Figma
- Dovetail
- Slab
Compensation and Benefits
A reasonable estimate of the compensation range for this role is $112,500-$148,500/year. This range takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions, including but not limited to location; skill sets; experience and training; licensure, and certifications.
Our remote-first work model is structured around working from home most of the time. But, there will be times that employees are expected to travel. For example, Thorn may host company-wide gatherings, and smaller teams may hold in-person meetings and team-building events, or require attendance at specific conferences.
At Thorn, we know that great people make a great organization. We value our people and offer employees a broad range of benefits. Learn more about what working at Thorn can mean for you.
Thorn is a strong and flexible team because of the diverse backgrounds of our staff. This includes professional background, subject matter expertise, culture, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, language, hobbies, etc. We strongly encourage women, minorities, and people from underrepresented backgrounds to apply. Your skills are needed here.
Thorn is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. In keeping with our our commitment, Thorn will take the steps to assure that people with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations. Accordingly, if reasonable accommodation is required to fully participate in the job application or interview process, to perform the essential functions of the position, and/or to receive all other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact our team at hiring@wearethorn.org
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.