Product Owner

Benchmark Analytics; Chicago (IL); Remote; USD 100,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote-friendly (US-based)

Unlimited PTO

401(k) and health plans

Summer Fridays

Professional growth opportunities

Job summary

Benchmark Analytics is seeking a Product Owner to take full ownership of a defined product surface within our platform, collaborating with a lead engineer and a junior engineer. You will use our AI-augmented software development lifecycle to deliver at a pace that traditionally required much larger teams.

This role requires owning scope, priority, and delivery accountability, producing engineering-ready specifications, and engaging directly with customers to ground decisions in evidence.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional experience in product management, technical product management, engineering, design, or another role where you owned both the what and the how of a product or technical surface
• Demonstrated ability to produce engineering-ready specifications — not just PRDs or user stories, but complete specifications including visual designs, user flows, data requirements, and acceptance criteria that engineering can build from directly
• Fluency with AI-assisted workflows; you already use AI tools daily in your professional work and can demonstrate how they accelerate your output and raise the quality of your work
• Strong written and verbal communication; you write clearly enough that engineers can build from your documents and customers or stakeholders can understand your roadmap
• Experience working directly with engineering teams in an agile or continuous-delivery environment as a genuine partner, not just a requirements source
• Strong analytical and quantitative skills — you think in terms of evidence, tradeoffs, and measurable outcomes; you use data to frame problems, evaluate options, and build the case for decisions
• Ability to synthesize information from multiple sources — customer feedback, user research, internal expertise, data, competitive context — into clear product direction and actionable plans
• Comfort with ambiguity and incomplete information; you make decisions with the data available rather than waiting for certainty
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience working in a software development environment
• Intellectually curious self-starter who proactively identifies problems and opportunities without waiting to be asked

Responsibilities

• Own your product surface end to end — deciding what gets built, when it ships, and how it serves your users or consuming teams, with full accountability for scope, priority, and quality
• Produce engineering-ready specifications for all features — complete user flows, visual designs, data requirements, edge cases, and acceptance criteria — using AI tools as a core part of your workflow; engineering builds from your specifications directly, without ambiguity about what the experience should be
• Make priority decisions and defend them — customer success, sales, and leadership will bring you requests; you decide which enter the roadmap and which don’t, with clear reasoning and transparent communication
• Maintain deep fluency with your customers — whether they are law enforcement practitioners, agency administrators, internal platform consumers, or data science teams — through direct engagement, user research, and ongoing relationship-building
• Conduct or commission user research as needed — interviews, usability testing, workflow observation, product analytics review — and engage internal subject matter experts to ground product decisions in direct evidence rather than assumptions
• Partner directly with your engineering pair as a trio; bring clarity on what to build and why while they bring clarity on how to build it and what is feasible
• Own post-launch adoption and feedback — evangelize new capabilities, train internal teams, track feature adoption, gather user feedback, maintain documentation, and iterate based on real-world usage rather than handing off after launch
• Support enterprise sales conversations with substantive product and domain knowledge when needed — not just feature lists, but the depth that builds customer confidence
• Leverage AI tools and technologies across all aspects of your work — research, specification, design, analysis, prototyping, and documentation

Skills

Product ownership

AI-assisted workflows

Strong communication

Data-driven decision making

Analytical thinking

Stakeholder management

Ambiguity tolerance

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

Tools

AI tooling

CI/CD tooling

Job description

The Role:

We are looking for a Product Owner who will take full ownership of a defined product surface within our platform — whether that is shared infrastructure, a new product being built from scratch, a specialized law enforcement workflow, or a data-driven analytics experience. You will work as a trio alongside a lead engineer and a junior engineer, using our AI-augmented software development lifecycle to deliver at a pace that traditionally required much larger teams. This is not a traditional product manager role: you own scope, priority, and delivery accountability in one seat, and you produce complete, engineering-ready specifications that your engineering pair can build from directly.

Responsibilities:

• Own your product surface end to end — deciding what gets built, when it ships, and how it serves your users or consuming teams, with full accountability for scope, priority, and quality

• Produce engineering-ready specifications for all features — complete user flows, visual designs, data requirements, edge cases, and acceptance criteria — using AI tools as a core part of your workflow; engineering builds from your specifications directly, without ambiguity about what the experience should be

• Make priority decisions and defend them — customer success, sales, and leadership will bring you requests; you decide which enter the roadmap and which don’t, with clear reasoning and transparent communication

• Maintain deep fluency with your customers — whether they are law enforcement practitioners, agency administrators, internal platform consumers, or data science teams — through direct engagement, user research, and ongoing relationship-building

• Conduct or commission user research as needed — interviews, usability testing, workflow observation, product analytics review — and engage internal subject matter experts to ground product decisions in direct evidence rather than assumptions

• Partner directly with your engineering pair as a trio; bring clarity on what to build and why while they bring clarity on how to build it and what is feasible

• Own post-launch adoption and feedback — evangelize new capabilities, train internal teams, track feature adoption, gather user feedback, maintain documentation, and iterate based on real-world usage rather than handing off after launch

• Support enterprise sales conversations with substantive product and domain knowledge when needed — not just feature lists, but the depth that builds customer confidence

• Leverage AI tools and technologies across all aspects of your work — research, specification, design, analysis, prototyping, and documentation

Requirements:

• 5+ years of professional experience in product management, technical product management, engineering, design, or another role where you owned both the what and the how of a product or technical surface

• Demonstrated ability to produce engineering-ready specifications — not just PRDs or user stories, but complete specifications including visual designs, user flows, data requirements, and acceptance criteria that engineering can build from directly

• Fluency with AI-assisted workflows; you already use AI tools daily in your professional work and can demonstrate how they accelerate your output and raise the quality of your work

• Strong written and verbal communication; you write clearly enough that engineers can build from your documents and customers or stakeholders can understand your roadmap

• Experience working directly with engineering teams in an agile or continuous-delivery environment as a genuine partner, not just a requirements source

• Strong analytical and quantitative skills — you think in terms of evidence, tradeoffs, and measurable outcomes; you use data to frame problems, evaluate options, and build the case for decisions

• Ability to synthesize information from multiple sources — customer feedback, user research, internal expertise, data, competitive context — into clear product direction and actionable plans

• Comfort with ambiguity and incomplete information; you make decisions with the data available rather than waiting for certainty

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience working in a software development environment

• Intellectually curious self-starter who proactively identifies problems and opportunities without waiting to be asked

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with formal user research methods — interviews, usability testing, workflow observation, product analytics

• Experience in law enforcement, public safety, or govtech domains

• Experience with products that serve regulated industries or specialized professional audiences where domain credibility matters

• Strong visual and interaction design skills — the ability to design clear, effective information displays and workflows, not just describe them

• Technical fluency sufficient to participate in architecture conversations — you understand tradeoffs in data models, API design, and system integration

• Experience taking a product from zero to one, not just iterating on an established product

• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS preferred), modern web development stacks, and CI/CD practices

• Experience working in an early- to growth-stage startup environment

What We Offer:

• A competitive salary and benefits package.

• Unlimited Paid Time Off.

• Ability to work in a fully remote environment (must be based in the U.S. and willing to work in Central Time Zone).

• Summer Half-Day Fridays.

• Freed Up Fridays during Spring, Fall, and Winter months to promote productivity and dedicated heads-down work time.

• Medical, dental, and vision plan offerings along with 401(k).

• Employer-paid Short-Term Disability, Long-Term Disability, and Life Insurance.

• Other Voluntary Benefits include additional Life Insurance, Spouse Life Insurance, and Accident Insurance.

• The satisfaction that comes with being part of a solution that has real impact in the world.

• A diverse workforce and inclusive environment that embraces unique contributions and experiences.

• An empowered culture that encourages creativity and professional growth.

Estimated Annual Salary Range:

• 100k-160k; based on role, experience, and location

Additional Information:

• Benchmark Analytics is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value diversity of all kinds in our effort to create a stellar workforce of committed and passionate team members.

• Unfortunately, we are not able to sponsor employment visas at this time, so we can only accept applications from candidates who are authorized to work in the U.S.