Contract Product Owner

Remote - Austin, TX

This is a 6-12-month W2 contract. It is a 100% remote role based anywhere in the United States. 

Our client is in the midst of a major acquisition and is looking for experienced Product Owners who can embed quickly into agile teams and ensure continuity in backlog creation & management, prioritization, and stakeholder alignment in anticipation of the acquisition. Potential for contract to hire as long-term strategy unfolds.

The surge Product Owner(s) will be responsible for:

  • Acting as the primary point of contact for one or more agile delivery teams.
  • Creating, managing, and refining the team backlog in alignment with the following strategies:
  • ○     Employee Experience Program
  • ○     Billing Experience
  • ○     Mid-Market Experience
  • ○     Customer Experience (non-mid market)
  • ○     Data Migration
  • Writing clear, actionable user stories and acceptance criteria.
  • Prioritizing work based on value delivery, dependencies, and team capacity.Participating in key agile ceremonies (e.g., sprint planning, reviews, retrospectives, daily stand-ups).
  • Collaborate with cross-functional teams to drive successful product delivery during organizational transitions.
  • Partner with business SMEs for domain knowledge transfer
  • Engaging with business stakeholders to gather requirements and translate them into product features.
  • Ensuring delivered functionality meets business expectations and acceptance criteria.
  • Escalating risks or blockers that impact delivery timelines or scope.
  • Serve as the voice of the customer and internal stakeholders throughout the M&A lifecycle, ensuring business continuity and minimal service disruption.
  • Monitor and communicate KPIs related to product performance, user adoption, and operational readiness in the context of post-merger integration.

Deliverables:

  • A groomed and prioritized product backlog for assigned teams
  • Documented user stories with clear acceptance criteria
  • Participation in all agile ceremonies
  • Weekly progress reports or updates to key stakeholders
  • Clear articulation of risks, blockers, and mitigation plans

Qualifications

  • 3+ years of experience as a Product Owner in an agile environment
  • Strong understanding of Agile frameworks (Scrum, SAFe, or equivalent)
  • Proven experience translating business requirements into technical deliverables
  • Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills
  • Experience with tools such as Jira, Confluence, LucidChat, or similar

Preferred:

  • Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) or SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager (POPM)
  • Experience working with decentralized or offshore agile teams
  • Familiarity with telecom or similar infastructure systems like OSS/BSS, network inventory, service activation, and billing