Product Owner

Data Product Owner

Location: Krakow, hybrid 3 days/week
Type: Full-time / B2B Contract

About the Role

We are looking for a Data Product Owner to co-develop and execute the vision for scalable data products and analytics solutions. You will bridge Federal governance requirements with State-level adoption, managing backlogs in GitLab while driving OKRs and reusability across multiple Crews and Pods.

This is a hands-on role requiring equal parts strategic thinking, stakeholder management, and backlog discipline.

Key Responsibilities

Product Strategy & Roadmap

• Co-develop and maintain a clear product vision, strategy, and roadmap for data products and analytics solutions.

• Define and maintain Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) aligned to product and business strategy.

Collaboration & Adoption

• Collaborate with other Crews and Pods to build a roadmap for adoption of data products and aggregated data products.

• Support State teams with expertise and frameworks to drive broad adoption across Operations.

Backlog & Governance

• Maintain backlog for Federal Book of Work and related artefacts.

• Obtain necessary governance approvals for new use cases / solutions.

Value Assessment & Design

• Assess potential use cases objectively and understand business value vs. cost of solution.

• Look to reuse or extend existing capabilities where feasible.

• Influence the design of new solutions to deliver benefit for multiple stakeholders where possible.

Technical Execution

• Maintain pod and iteration backlogs in GitLab to a high standard.

• Assist with relevant data sourcing, ensuring compliance with firm policies.

Industry & Impediment Management

• Keep current with industry trends and emerging technologies in data stream / event-based architecture.

• Apply external perspectives and insights to improve our offering.

• Mitigate impediments to the team’s goals, align across pods and with other crews where needed.

• Act as your pod’s ambassador towards internal stakeholders and clients.

Technical Environment

Proficiency Required

GitLab Hands-on backlog & iteration management
Event Streaming Kafka, Kinesis, or similar (conceptual understanding)
Data Products Design, reuse, and adoption tracking
OKRs Definition, tracking, and alignment
Governance Federal/State compliance and approvals

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years as a Product Owner, Product Manager, or Data Product Manager.

• Proven experience with data products and analytics solutions (not just software features).

• Hands-on backlog management in GitLab (please highlight this in your CV).

• Understanding of event-based / data streaming architectures.

• Experience working with Federal or State government stakeholders (preferred).

• Strong ability to assess business value vs. cost and prioritize reuse.

• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.

Nice to Have

• Experience working across multiple Crews/Pods in a scaled Agile environment.

• Prior work supporting State teams (e.g., health, human services, transport).

• Certifications: SAFe PO/PM, CSPO, or equivalent.