Product Owner SME

Apogee Engineering, LLC; Fort Wayne (IN); On-site; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Apogee Engineering, LLC is seeking a Product Owner SME to support software modernization for Air Force and USSTRATCOM programs. The role emphasizes backlog prioritization, translating operational needs into use cases, and coordinating with multiple teams to ensure capability delivery.

The candidate will participate in agile ceremonies, prepare briefings for senior leaders, and train stakeholders on backlog management while maintaining alignment with mission priorities and fielding timelines.

Qualifications

• Citizenship: Must be a US citizen.
• Clearance: Must possess and maintain a TS w/SCI eligibility.
• Education: Bachelor's degree.
• Years of Experience: Minimum 12 years of relevant experience including 5+ years supporting the DoW.
• Experience using Jira and Confluence for backlog management and requirements traceability.
• Strong written and oral communication skills for senior leader briefings.

Responsibilities

• Define and prioritize product backlogs for SMPES.
• Translate operations needs into use cases, activity diagrams, and scenarios.
• Coordinate with users, program managers, and development teams on priorities.
• Conduct requirements elicitation with stakeholders and PMO.
• Coordinate scenarios, need statements, and artifacts with users.
• Support agile ceremonies: standups, sprint planning, reviews, backlog reviews.
• Lead or support release planning and backlog synchronization.
• Validate backlog clarity, dependencies, and risks with operational priorities.
• Coordinate actions across requirements, testing, usability, and fielding activities.
• Train stakeholders on backlog prioritization and documentation tools.
• Identify issues needing leadership awareness or cross-org coordination.
• Track feature progress and ensure timely delivery.
• Align mission goals with technical execution and prepare capability updates.

Skills

Backlog management

Stakeholder communication

Agile methodologies

Independent work

Leadership briefings

Requirements tracing

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Jira

Confluence

Job description

Overview

Apogee has an exciting new opportunity for a Product Owner SME to support mission-critical software modernization, development, and deployment efforts for the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center and US Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM)/J56

The Product Owner is responsible for ensuring SMPES capability development, requirements maturation, backlog management, user engagement, testing, and fielding. Supports the SMPES Product Owner by managing the recurring planning and review rhythm, identifying risks and dependencies, providing senior-leader decision support, and maintaining alignment among operational goals, release plans, and capability delivery.

This is a full-time position located on-site at Offutt, Nebraska.

Responsibilities

• Support the SMPES Product Owner in defining and prioritizing product backlogs.
• Translate operational needs into clear, actionable use case diagrams, use case descriptions, activity, diagrams, and operational scenarios.
• Coordinate with users, requirements managers, program managers, and development teams to clarify requirements and priorities.
• Conduct requirements elicitation with users, operators, requirements managers, and PMO personnel.
• Coordinate with users and refine operational scenarios, problem sets, need statements, and requirements artifacts.
• Support Product Owner standups, sprint-ahead planning, executive sprint reviews, backlog reviews, and related agile delivery activities.
• Lead or support recurring backlog reviews, prioritization sessions, and release-planning activities.
• Validate backlog accuracy, clarify operationally focused language, identify dependencies and risks, and align candidate work with operational priorities.
• Coordinate near-term actions, identify impediments and dependencies, and synchronize requirements, development, testing, usability, and fielding activities.
• Coordinate with users and testing organizations to support capability demonstrations, usability sessions, operational assessments, and fielding activities.
• Train functional managers, requirements managers, and other stakeholders on backlog prioritization, requirements documentation, and use of collaboration tools.
• Identify issues requiring leadership awareness, decisions, advocacy, or cross-organizational coordination.
• Track the progress of features and ensure timely delivery.
• Ensure alignment between mission goals, priorities, and technical execution.
• Prepare and present capability updates, reports, and stakeholder briefings.

Qualifications

++Minimum Experience:++

Citizenship:Must be a US citizen

Clearance:Must possess and maintain a TS w/SCI eligibility

Education: Bachelor's degree

Years of Experience:Minimum 12 years of relevant experience including:

• Minimum of 5 years supporting the DoW
• Demonstrated experience translating operational or mission needs into written requirements, use cases, scenarios, workflows, or similar capability-development artifacts.
• Experience using Jira and Confluence, or comparable tools for backlog management, requirements traceability, status reporting, and stakeholder coordination.
• Experience facilitating meetings with technical and nontechnical stakeholders and resolving competing priorities, dependencies, and delivery risks.
• Strong written and oral communication skills, including the ability to brief senior leaders and develop concise decision-support products.
• Ability to analyze user feedback and operational observations, identify priorities, and recommend practical capability improvements.
• Ability to work independently while coordinating across a broad stakeholder network.

++Desired Qualifications++

• Experience as a Product Owner, product manager, or operational requirements lead.
• Experience supporting agile software development processes, release planning, usability assessments, capability demonstrations, and operational fielding.
• Experience in mission planning, targeting, command and control, operational planning, or another directly relevant mission domain.
• Experience designing or improving requirements management and capability delivery processes.
• Experience delivering stakeholder training on requirements methods, collaboration tools, or backlog management practices.

++Additional Information:++

Location:Offutt AFB, Nebraska

On-site:Duties for this position are performed on-site, full-time

Travel:Travel up to 10%