Product Owner

Transit App Inc.; Montreal (administrative region); Hybrid; CAD 100,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

RRSP/FHSA contributions

Medical and dental coverage

Four-day work week

Apple laptop and equipment

Mobility allowance

Training and development budget

Parental leave

Lunch-and-learn with free food

Job summary

Transit App Inc. in Montreal is seeking a Product Owner to be the voice of the agency, coordinating with transit agencies to shape Transit’s product roadmap and advocate for agency needs at Transit HQ.

You will work across teams, leverage data, meet with agencies, and ensure features are delivered on time, with a strong emphasis on public transit improvements and user experience.

Qualifications

• 5–8 years of product/project management experience, ideally in govtech or cities-adjacent.
• Fluent in English; bilingual (English/French) a strong plus.
• Experience coordinating with transit agencies and cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities

• Meet regularly with transit agencies to elicit needs and advocate for built features.
• Align expectations across agencies and Transit, set priorities, and track launches.
• shepherd ideas from concept through development, QA, launch, and follow-up.
• Advocate for rider experience by reviewing app and analytics.
• Analyze usage to ensure agencies and riders get maximum value.

Skills

Agency experience

Public transit knowledge

English fluency

Bilingual

Stakeholder management

Product management experience

Tools

Slack automation

GitHub

Jira

Shortcut

Google Sheets

Amplitude

Job description

With over 200 transit agency partners from Vancouver, BC to Taranaki, NZ… we're looking for a product owner to be the voice of the agency™ within Transit. You'll attend project kickoffs, listen to agency feedback, develop an intuition for what agencies want, and be their advocate at Transit HQ.

For over a decade our little green app has been the right hand of riders and agencies alike, with its radically simple interface, impeccable real-time data, and a devotion to getting people from a-to-b without their own car (with a little help from our transit agency friends, bien sûr.)

We put a lot of effort into building rapport with our colleagues at transit agencies, whether it's alerting them to broken GTFS feeds, helping them benchmark their riders' satisfaction vs. other agencies, or building them tools like Rate-My-Ride and Terminal which keep riders up-to-date about service changes and help agencies monitor shifts in rider behaviour.

We're looking for one of those colleagues — with a strong agency and/or B2G track record — to join us, represent Transit at meetings with agency partners, make sure those partners are getting the most out of new Transit features, and help us put agency needs at the centre (or close to it!) as we develop Transit’s product roadmap.

Sound like your jam? Here’s what we need on your end:

Regularly meet with transit agencies: figure out what their riders need, how Transit might fulfill those needs, and advocate for those products to get built and shipped

Manage expectations and requirements: every road/train track/bike lane may lead to Rome, but building them (and the features to navigate them) takes time. You'll help articulate clear expectations to transit agencies and within Transit, set priorities, and take responsibility for making sure that feature launches are consistently delighting our partners

Be our human pizza delivery tracker: from agency request to napkin sketch to roadmap item to in-app product, you'll nudge ideas along through development, QA, launch, and follow up with agencies, making sure nothing slips through the cracks onto the tracks

Be an advocate for the rider experience: use the app, read the reviews, figure out how it could be better adapted to local contexts, and dig into the analytics to make your case

Dust off those spreadsheets: we spend a lot of time building new products for agencies and their riders — how are they being used? Are agencies and their riders getting the most they can out of the app? You'll dig into our app and website metrics to find out exactly that

Work across teams: fromdevelopers, to product designers, to data analysts, to all the folks across the business team, you'll make fast friends, identify stakeholders, overcome technical hurdles, and be the plucky coxswain who can rally a feature into harbour with speed and aplomb

Abiding love for all things public transit: you’ve worked at a transit agency… MPO… TMA… or you at least know what those acronyms mean. You're a regular sight on your city's public transit vehicles, and know firsthand what issues your fellow riders face

You use Transit! Or okay, maybe you don't every day (maybe you've sworn allegiance to a different trip planning app?) but you have strong opinions on how apps can help folks traverse their cities, and you can help us figure out how we can adapt Transit to the needs of riders who have yet to be convinced of our app’s utility

You’ve got 5-8 years of experience in product/project management: either at a small company or startup — preferably something in govtech or cities-adjacent. AKA you thrive in ambiguity, and won't bat an eye if goalposts occasionally shift mid-shift!

You keep the (product) trains running on time: we want to hear about how you successfully manage requirements and get software shipped

You’re tech savvy: you know how to set up automated Slack workflows, track features with GitHub/Jira/Shortcut, and can read analytical tea leaves from a cursory glance at Google Sheets and Amplitude

You’re fluent in English: 95% of our transit agency partners are outside of Québec, although if you are fluently bilingual that is a huge, huge plus

Would be nice if

Based in Montréal or nearby! We're a stone's throw from two of the world's best bagel shops, a métro, BIXI stands, so many parks — what's not to love? If you're not currently based in Montréal but are the perfect person for this gig, we're also open to remote. Let us know!

Don't feel like all the requirements apply to you but you still think you'd be a great fit for Transit? Don't hesitate to apply!

Compensation and benefits

$100,000 - $140,000 CAD per year, based on experience

• Stock options
• RRSP/FHSA contributions
• Comprehensive medical and dental coverage
• Four-day work week at full-time salary (yes, you read that right)
• Apple laptop and equipment
• $1,600 annual mobility allowance. STM? BIXI? Uber? E-bike? Scooter? Going car-free is free at Transit.
• A training and development budget
• Generous maternal/paternal/parental leave policy. Gotta fill out our tandem bicycles somehow!
• Spend your days surrounded by first-rate teammates and the best view of Montreal and/or [insert exotic Zoom background]
• When you're in the office: you'll be in urbanist heaven, surrounded by Mile End's urban gardens, bike paths, BIXI docks, bus stops, a metro station, and limitless restaurants… cafés… bars… concert halls… bagel boutiques…
• Communal lunch-and-learn with free food in the office each week

Public transit is used by overwhelmingly more women and people of colour than other modes of transportation. We try to make sure the diversity of our users is reflected in the team that serves them. Because when we include people of all races, genders, sexual orientations, ages, and identities — we end up building a better app for everyone who uses Transit.

We encourage candidates of all ages, genders, origins and orientations to apply. If you'd like to specify which pronouns you use, feel free to include that in your application email.

And if your lived experience has given you a unique perspective on all things transportation, mobility, accessibility, urbanism? Let us know, and we'll make sure your application gets the attention it merits.