Technical Product Owner in e-commerce

Svitla Systems Inc. is looking for a Technical Product Owner and Technical Chief of Staff for a full-time position (40 hours per week) in Europe. Our client is an API-first payments company focused on helping smaller e-commerce businesses offer more flexible payment experiences and better payment processor orchestration. The platform enables buyers to complete a transaction using multiple payment methods while helping merchants manage routing logic across payment processors. The company is focused on serving small and mid-sized merchants and improving both merchant onboarding and payment processor onboarding, while building toward broader product capabilities over time. 

You'll work directly with the founder and help accelerate product execution across an existing distributed engineering team. It is not a traditional project management role, nor is it a passive backlog-management function. The perfect candidate will operate as a force multiplier for the founder by bringing structure, urgency, prioritization, product judgment, and technical fluency to the organization. This person will be expected to move quickly, absorb context rapidly, identify high-priority work, challenge assumptions, improve team focus, and help push critical product initiatives across the finish line. The role sits at the intersection of product ownership, technical leadership, delivery acceleration, and operational problem-solving. The right candidate must be able to work independently, self-organize, and drive action without needing extensive direction. 

Requirements:

• Strong experience as a Technical Product Owner, Technical Program Lead, Product Delivery Lead, Startup Product Leader, or similar role in a fast-moving software environment.

• At least 5 years of experience in software development as a Product Owner.

• Ability to operate in a founder-led startup where priorities shift quickly and speed matters.

• Strong product instincts combined with enough technical depth to work credibly with engineers, architects, APIs, and platform integrations.

• Experience driving execution in environments with an existing technical team, but with stronger coordination, prioritization, and velocity needed.

• Expertise in identifying, organizing, and pushing through high-priority work without waiting for detailed instructions.

• Strong understanding of product delivery in software companies serving external customers.

• Ability to connect product decisions to customer impact, onboarding friction, business growth, and revenue outcomes.

• High level of self-organization, self-starting behavior, urgency, and ownership.

• Ability to work well with engineers while also holding them accountable for speed and execution quality.

• Be comfortable operating without heavy processes, large support structures, or enterprise-style bureaucracy.

• Fast-moving and highly proactive individual.

• Technically credible professional, but not narrowly attached to one engineering specialty.

• The ability to quickly absorb complex product context.

• Strong judgment around priorities, trade-offs, and what actually matters now.

• Be comfortable with ambiguity and startup pressure.

• Willingness to push, question, organize, and accelerate.

• A person who can "run circles around the team" in terms of technical capability, urgency, structure, follow-through, and execution discipline, while still working well with others.

• Strong written and spoken English, with the ability to work directly with the founder and a geographically distributed team.

Technical skills:

• Solid experience in developing with PHP-based platforms.

• Strong knowledge of WooCommerce.

• Familiarity with Magento.

• Strong understanding of the development of API-first products.

• Experience in developing JavaScript-based front-end or integration layers.

• Understanding of payment flows, payment processor orchestration, merchant onboarding, e-commerce platforms, or checkout systems is highly valuable.

• Familiarity with AWS-based architectures, messaging patterns, or platform integrations is helpful, though this role is not intended to replace infrastructure leadership.

• Ability to quickly evaluate technical feasibility and product impact for integrations such as Shopify or other commerce platforms.

What we offer:

• US and EU projects based on advanced technologies.

• Competitive compensation based on skills and experience.

• Regular performance appraisals to support your growth.

• Flexibility in workspace, either remote or our welcoming office.

• Bonuses for article writing, public talks, and other activities.

• Generous time off, including vacation, national holidays, sick leaves, and family days.

• Personalized learning programs tailored to your interests and skill development.

• Free tech webinars and meetups organized by Svitla.

• Regular corporate online activities.

• Awesome team and a friendly, supportive community