Coursedog is hiring a Product Owner to drive product execution from strategy to delivery. You will focus on three key domains: advancing our design system and accessibility standards, rolling out a major AI product roadmap, and improving platform stability and performance for our 400+ university partners. In this role, you will translate high-level goals into actionable plans, own the product backlog, and ensure successful outcomes from discovery through launch.
What You'll Do
- Write detailed PRDs and specs for epics, translating strategic product goals into clear User Stories with testable acceptance criteria.
- Own prioritization for focus areas in collaboration with the Head of Platform, ensuring alignment with roadmap priorities and the Product Development Lifecycle.
- Partner with engineering to refine and sequence the backlog, ensuring the team has well-prepared work ahead of them.
- Act as the first line of triage for product issues, validating and integrating bugs into the development backlog.
- Uphold a strong "Definition of Done" to ensure quality and readiness for release.
- Collaborate with design to create wireframes and clickable prototypes to communicate product concepts and accelerate engineering handoff.
- Partner with design to ensure UX consistency, accessibility, and quality within Coursedog's design system.
- Own product areas from discovery through development and rollout, accountable for the outcome.
- Serve as the primary point of contact for the development team on product-related questions, resolving ambiguities quickly.
- Support execution of the product roadmap by ensuring User Stories and Epics are delivered against defined timelines and quality standards.
- Monitor post-release performance and iterate based on feedback and product metrics.
- Represent the voice of the customer and product in team ceremonies and cross-functional discussions.
- Communicate feature updates and release details to internal stakeholders including Customer Success, Sales, and Support.
- Gather insights from customers and internal teams to inform backlog refinement and future iterations.
- Support implementations for early-stage products by serving as a product expert, gathering feedback, and clarifying functionality.
- Actively lean in where needed to maximize product value, which may include supporting sales enablement, contributing to user documentation, or providing internal feature demos.
- Step in where needed to support the product team, flexibly responding to evolving priorities.
- Lead the rollout of Coursedog's design system across the platform, focusing on achieving accessibility standards.
- Own the execution of four major AI feature initiatives planned for this cycle, breaking complex AI-powered capabilities into shippable increments.
- Lead initiatives to reduce bugs and eliminate technical debt, improving reliability and performance for 400+ university partners.
What We're Looking For
- 1–3+ years of experience as a Product Owner or Product Manager in an Agile SaaS environment, with a proven track record of managing backlogs and shipping software.
- Technical or analytics background — comfortable in conversations with engineers, can read data fluently, and understand how software is built.
- Direct, hands-on experience collaborating with engineering teams; engineers trust you and you earn that trust through clarity and follow-through.
- Experience writing real specs and PRDs — detailed, reasoned documentation that gives engineering what they need to execute.
- Ability to create wireframes or clickable prototypes (Figma or equivalent).
- Exceptional communication skills and a proactive, resourceful working style.
- Comfort operating in fast-paced environments with evolving priorities.
Nice to Have
- Experience in higher education or education technology; familiarity with university administrative workflows (curriculum management, academic approvals, catalog publishing, etc.).
- Client-facing experience — worked directly with external customers, institutional stakeholders, or implementation teams and comfortable translating user needs into product improvements.
- Exposure to AI/ML product development, including prior experience shipping AI-powered features or collaborating with engineering teams integrating AI capabilities.
- Accessibility experience, including familiarity with WCAG standards, accessibility testing practices, or building products used across diverse user populations.
- Developer-facing documentation experience, such as creating API documentation, integration guides, SDK documentation, or other technical resources.
- Experience triaging and managing a bug backlog, including coordinating with engineering teams to prioritize defects and balance stability work with feature delivery.
- Experience working on platform performance and reliability initiatives, such as improving application performance, supporting stability improvements, or prioritizing technical debt.
- Experience leading developer experience initiatives, familiarity with platform products or developer ecosystems.
Technical Stack
- Figma
Team & Environment
You will report directly to the Senior Product Manager. You will partner closely with engineering, design, and internal stakeholders, working with the Head of Platform and Director of Product.
Benefits & Compensation
- Compensation: $90,000-$120,000 base salary + equity. Equity is granted to all employees aligned to role and tenure.
- Healthcare, Dental & Vision: Fixed contribution model; company covers 65% to 99% of monthly premiums for employee-only coverage and 45% to 75% for employee plus dependents. Partners with Aetna and Guardian. Access to Spring Health (mental health), XP Health (vision), Carrot Fertility (family planning), One Medical (primary care). HSA and FSA support.
- Retirement Planning: Safe Harbor 401(k) plan from day one. Coursedog provides a 4% employer match on total compensation (subject to federal limits).
- Paid Time Off: Unlimited Paid Time Off policy.
- Remote-First Since Inception: Remote-first organization indefinitely, emphasizing flexibility, outcomes, and transparency.
- Equity: All employees are granted equity in the company aligned to role and tenure. Equity grants reviewed and adjusted with promotions.
- Paid Parental Leave: Up to 12 weeks of fully paid leave, available to all eligible employees regardless of gender or family structure.
Work Mode
This is a remote position. Coursedog has been remote-first since inception and will remain so indefinitely.
Coursedog is an equal opportunity employer.
