Technical Product Owner

VIVA USA Inc; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

VIVA USA Inc in Washington, DC seeks a Senior Product Owner (Technical Product Owner) to define the product vision and priorities for a research-collaboration tooling initiative, translating business and research needs into clear technical requirements and a practical roadmap. You will partner with DevSecOps and platform leads to keep this initiative's roadmap aligned with broader platform priorities.

The ideal candidate blends product ownership fluency with strong technical literacy, capable of

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a related field, or equivalent experience.

Responsibilities

• Define product vision and priorities for research-collaboration tooling and translate needs into technical specifications and user stories.
• Maintain working knowledge of relevant platforms (source-control, authoring and file-collaboration tools) to assess integration options and constraints.
• Evaluate architectural decisions and tradeoffs with engineering and platform architects to guide delivery.
• Serve as a translator between business stakeholders and DevSecOps engineering and platform leads, communicating constraints and timelines clearly.
• Apply fundamentals of project management and process mapping to keep requirements work on track and document decisions.

Skills

Product ownership

Requirements gathering

Stakeholder communication

Technical literacy

Platform knowledge

Cross-functional collaboration

Roadmap planning

Education

Bachelor's degree in a related field

Job description

Business and Technology Modernization (BTM Program)

BACKGROUND

The Senior Product Owner (specifically Technical Product Owner) will define product vision and priorities for a research-collaboration tooling initiative, translating business and research-collaboration needs into clear technical requirements and an actionable roadmap. This position partners closely with DevSecOps engineering and platform leads to keep this initiative's roadmap aligned with broader platform priorities.

The ideal candidate is both product-ownership fluent and technically literate, with enough platform-level knowledge of source-control, technical authoring, and file-collaboration tools to evaluate feasibility, ask informed questions of technical SMEs, and make informed technology decisions grounded in what the underlying platforms can actually do.

Product Vision & Requirements Definition

• Define product vision and priorities for research-collaboration tooling and technologies, elicited and validated directly with business stakeholders, architects, and technical SMEs.
• Convert business and research-collaboration needs into clear, actionable technical specifications and user stories.
• Prioritize features and enhancements based on both business value and technical feasibility.
• Maintain requirements traceability from business need through to technical delivery.

Platform & Technical Awareness

• Maintain working knowledge of the platforms relevant to external research collaboration – source-control/developer platforms, technical authoring and research-collaboration platforms, and file-collaboration/research-sharing platforms, sufficient to assess integration options and flag technical constraints early.
• Partner with engineering and platform architects to evaluate feasibility and integration approaches (e.g., authoring-platform-to-source-control sync, repository/access models for external collaborators) before decisions are finalized.
• Stay current on the research-collaboration tooling landscape as it evolves and re-scope the roadmap accordingly.

Technical Leadership

• Evaluate architectural decisions and technical tradeoffs with engineering and platform architects.
• Assess scalability and performance implications of product and tooling choices.
• Make informed decisions on technology stack and integration approaches (e.g., authoring-platform-to-source-control sync, repository/access models for external collaborators).

Cross-Functional Communication

• Serve as the primary translator between business stakeholders and DevSecOps engineering and platform leads.
• Communicate technical constraints, tradeoffs, and timelines to non-technical stakeholders in plain language.
• Communicate business priorities and external-collaborator needs to the engineering teams in actionable terms.

Process & Delivery Support

• Apply fundamentals of project management, organization, and process mapping to keep product and requirements work on track.
• Maintain clear documentation of decisions, open questions, and requirement changes (e.g., meeting minutes, decision logs).
• Support planning and prioritization discussions with program leadership.

Knowledge/Skill Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in a related field, or equivalent experience.

VIVA is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants have an equal opportunity for placement, and all employees have an equal opportunity to develop on the job. This means that VIVA will not discriminate against any employee or qualified applicant on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status