Senior Product Owner I

Sage Pub; Washington; Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid or remote work

PPO medical, dental, and vision

401(k) matching up to 5%

Anniversary trip every 5 years

Tuition support for degrees and learn-

Learning for personal interest

Job summary

Sage Publishing is seeking a Product Owner to own and prioritize the product backlog, align with business objectives, and balance roadmap with technology strategy. You will translate needs from textbook sales and journal advertising sales into clear, valuable work for the delivery team.

You will lead discovery, work with Sage Technology, and manage cross-team dependencies while measuring success with adoption data and user feedback. Hybrid or remote work options apply.

Qualifications

• 3-5 years of experience as a product owner or product manager with backlog responsibility.
• Proven ability to write clear user stories and acceptance criteria for a delivery team.
• Strong stakeholder management and ability to say no with rationale.
• Comfort using data to inform prioritization and challenge numbers.
• Experience in agile delivery teams across multiple locations/time zones.
• Genuine curiosity about the business and users served.

Responsibilities

• Own and prioritize the backlog, sequenced to align with objectives and tech strategy.
• Build relationships with internal customers in textbook and journal advertising sales.
• Lead discovery and validate ideas before engineering effort.
• Partner with Sage Technology to anticipate delivery risks and feasible solutions.
• Manage cross-team dependencies and maintain stakeholder alignment.
• Define success metrics and measure impact using data and feedback.
• Support agile practices within the Product Management team.

Skills

Backlog ownership & prioritization

User story writing

Stakeholder management

Data-driven prioritization

Agile delivery

Cross-location collaboration

Curiosity about business/users

Tools

CSPO certification

Job description

What you will do

• Own and prioritize the product backlog, making clear decisions about sequencing and trade-offs, and keeping the roadmap connected to both business objectives and the wider technology strategy.
• Build strong relationships with your internal customers in textbook sales and journal advertising sales, translating their needs into well‑defined, valuable work for the delivery team.
• Lead discovery and validation. Talk to users, interrogate the data, and test assumptions before committing engineering effort.
• Partner closely with engineers and architects in Sage Technology, developing enough technical understanding of the platform to anticipate delivery risks and shape feasible solutions.
• Manage competing priorities and cross‑team dependencies within the technology estate, negotiating openly when demands conflict and keeping stakeholders aligned on what is happening and why.
• Define what success looks like, then measure it. Use adoption data, performance metrics, and user feedback to judge whether changes actually worked.
• Contribute to the Product Management team's own practice, supporting your delivery team's agile ways of working and mentoring colleagues in good product habits.

What you will bring

• 3-5 years of experience as a product owner, product manager, or in a comparable role, with hands‑on responsibility for a backlog. If your experience sits slightly outside that range but you can show the capability, we would still like to hear from you.
• A track record of writing clear user stories and acceptance criteria, and running effective refinement with a delivery team.
• Strong stakeholder management. You can hold your ground with senior people, say no with a reason, and keep relationships intact.
• Confidence working with data to inform prioritization, and the critical thinking to question what the numbers are actually telling you.
• Experience working in agile delivery teams, ideally with colleagues in multiple locations and time zones.
• Genuine curiosity about the business you support and the users you serve.

Preferred Requirements

• Experience with Microsoft Dynamics 365, or with another CRM platform such as Salesforce or HubSpot.
• Background in publishing, higher education, media, or advertising sales.
• Experience with system integrations, data migration, or the wider Microsoft Power Platform.
• Experience supporting teams through changes in process or tooling.
• A product owner or agile certification such as CSPO. Helpful context, not a requirement.

Pay Transparency & Benefits Package:

Sage Publishing is committed to being an inclusive employer where all individuals are treated with fairness and respect. Sage is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer.

Compensation at Sage is influenced by several factors, including but not limited to skill set, nature and level of experience, qualifications, and other relevant considerations. Please note that the compensation details listed in U.S. role postings reflect the base salary only and do not include bonuses or benefits. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range and additional aspects of the compensation/benefits package for this position during the hiring process. If your desired salary falls outside of this range, we hope you'll still apply as there may be other positions that better align.

In addition to compensation, Sage offers a highly competitive and comprehensive PPO medical, dental, and vision care benefits package with SAGE covering most of the premium costs. Unique program benefits that support a healthy life, a company-sponsored anniversary trip every 5 years, a 401(k)-matching program of 100% up to 5% of pay, and other significant meaningful benefits. In alignment with our value for education, Sage offers financial support for bachelor's and graduate-level degree programs as well as learning for personal interest.

• PPO medical, dental, and vision care benefits package
• SAGE covering most of the premium costs
• Unique program benefits that support a healthy life
• a company-sponsored anniversary trip every 5 years
• 401(k)-matching program of 100% up to 5% of pay
• other significant meaningful benefits
• financial support for bachelor's and graduate-level degree programs
• learning for personal interest

Sage offers freedom and autonomy in your day-to-day with hybrid or remote work, depending on the role. Join the nearly 2,000 Sage employees worldwide who deliver products and services that serve to fulfill our noble goal of education and dissemination of knowledge globally. We’d love to meet you!

If you have a disability and you need any support during the application process, please contact [e-mail] All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Sage Publishing is committed to being an inclusive employer where all individuals are treated with fairness and respect, regardless of age, disability, gender identity, marriage and partnership status, pregnancy and parental responsibilities, race, religion and belief, sex, or sexual orientation.

We believe that diversity is a cornerstone of a vibrant culture. We want Sage to be an organization where the most talented staff and high-potential staff are recruited, have the opportunity to grow, and want to work. We strive to achieve a better representation of diverse talent at all levels, including leadership, across our workforce.