Product Owner

Kerridge Commercial Systems; Stellenbosch; Hybrid; ZAR 600 000 - 800 000; Full time

Job summary

A global technology company is seeking a highly organized Product Owner in Stellenbosch, South Africa. This role involves managing the development backlog, prioritizing tasks, and facilitating agile ceremonies across engineering teams. The ideal candidate should have experience in managing ERP products, creating actionable user stories, and ensure effective communication between stakeholders. This position follows a hybrid work model, combining office presence with remote work flexibility.

Benefits

Flexible hybrid work policy

Inclusive workplace culture

Continuous training and development

Qualifications

• Previous experience in managing ERP products is essential.
• Skilled in creating detailed, actionable user stories.
• In-depth understanding of Agile and Scrum frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Manage the backlog and priorities for engineering teams.
• Translate the roadmap into a clear and actionable backlog.
• Participate in scrum events and define sprint goals.

Skills

Backlog management

Agile methodologies

User story creation

Technical debt management

Stakeholder communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Computer Science, or related field

Tools

JIRA

Job description

Job description

At Klipboard we've introduced a flexible hybrid work policy, where employees spend three days in the office and two days working from home. This approach promotes a balanced work environment that combines office collaboration with the comfort and convenience of remote work.

Klipboard provides specialist software, services and support to deliver fully integrated trading and business management solutions to companies in the distributive trade – wherever they are in the world. With a unique depth of knowledge and experience in ERP/SaaS solutions, Klipboard has a wide range of clients includes wholesalers, distributors, merchants and retailers from small traders to multinational enterprises. Klipboard has offices in the UK, Ireland, The Netherlands, South Africa, Kenya and North America. Our mission is simple: to design and deliver high performance, integrated ERP solutions that enable our distributive trade customers to source effectively, stock efficiently, sell profitably and service competitively.

We are looking for a highly organised and detail‑oriented Product Owner to drive the development and delivery across engineering teams. Reporting to the Product Manager, the Product Owner will be responsible for managing the backlog and priorities for engineering teams, each potentially focused on different areas of the product. This role requires the ability to balance product vision with the need of engineers, ensuring alignment on strategic objectives, technical requirements, and operational efficiency.

As the Product Owner, you’ll play a crucial role in translating the roadmap into a clear and actionable backlog, prioritising features, technical debt, and security tasks across the engineering team. Working with the Product Manager, you’ll help define roadmap priorities and support the engineering team's success by writing detailed user stories, facilitating backlog refinement, and leading Agile ceremonies. Your focus on cross‑functional collaboration, agile expertise, and structured prioritisation will drive cohesive, high‑quality development across all product areas.

Requirement analysis

• Collaborates with Business Stakeholders and Product Management to assess the feasibility of the development in alignment with other development requests and product priorities.
• Facilitate workshops to analyse and document specific development requirements.
• Document product requirements by using appropriate methodologies (process flow diagrams, data flow diagrams, use case diagrams etc.).
• Work with the Product Development teams to accurately estimate effort required to deliver against the product requirement.
• Communicate time and effort estimates to the Project Manager / Customer Stakeholder / Product Manager.

Requirement documentation

• Document requirements following standard processes and procedures (workflow and data diagrams, conditions, flow of events, exception criteria, acceptance criteria, expected outcomes) in such a format that developers can easily follow what the customer is looking for.
• Ensure that all items on the priority list meets the definition of ready before it is added to the team’s backlog.
• Capture requirements in JIRA in the right format and with the appropriate supporting documentation and information required.

Requirement decomposition and review

• Decomposes features and epics in such a way that development efforts can be easily estimated and scope can be added to JIRA.
• Participate in effective Epic and Story Decomposition and ensure that Epics and Stories are clearly defined in JIRA.

Backlog Management

• Engage in high level product strategy and roadmap discussions with the Product Team (Product Director, Product Manager).
• Ensure that there is an ordered list of priorities in JIRA aligned with the product roadmap as defined by the Product Manager / Product Director.
• Communicate the list of priorities to the team and make sure the team is clear on what is expected.
• Ensure that the product backlog in JIRA is regularly checked and updated to reflect an up to date list of priorities.

Prioritise Needs

• Weigh product priorities on the roadmap throughout the development cycle based on time, budget, scope and resources required to ensure that high level product objectives are achieved.
• Manage add‑hoc requirements coming into the team, bugs and issues appropriately by verifying this against other priorities and communicating the updates to the Product Manager.

Monitoring product progress

• Act as a key participant in scrum events such as sprint planning, sprint reviews, sprint retrospectives and backlog refinement.
• Work with the development team to define a sprint goal for each sprint.
• Work with the product development team to decide on items to be added to the sprint during sprint planning.
• Continually review the progress made against sprint goals and backlog items by checking team performance using burndown charts and other information available during the sprint.

Act as liaison between stakeholders and the product team

• Act as the primary communicator and link between product stakeholders and the delivery team.

Communicate changes to priorities to the product director / manager on a daily basis and ensure that the team is clear on what deliverables they need to achieve.

Skills, Knowledge and Experience

• Previous experience in managing ERP products is essential.
• Skilled in creating detailed, actionable user stories that address both functional and technical requirements across multiple product areas.
• Proficient in backlog management and prioritisation techniques, with the ability to balance feature development, technical debt, and security needs across engineering team.
• In-depth understanding of Agile and Scrum frameworks, with experience leading agile ceremonies and managing multiple backlogs in a consistent sprint cadence.
• Able to translate strategic objectives into tactical plans for engineering teams, maintaining agile best practices and team alignment.
• Familiarity with managing technical debt and security requirements, enabling effective prioritisation across engineering teams with different technical focuses.
• Able to engage in technical discussions and translate development requirements into actionable backlog items.
• Strong communicator with the ability to engage both technical and non‑technical stakeholders, building consensus and maintaining transparency across product areas.
• Effective at managing expectations, providing clear updates on progress, and ensuring alignment on priorities across engineering teams and stakeholders.
• Analytical mindset with a structured approach to solving complex challenges across multiple teams and product areas.
• Adaptive to changing needs and priorities, using metrics and stakeholder feedback to refine backlog priorities and processes.

Qualifications

• Educational Background: Bachelor’s degree in Business, Computer Science, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Product Management and Agile Experience: Minimum of 3 years’ experience as a Product Owner or in a similar role, with experience managing multiple agile teams or squads in a cross‑functional environment.
• Technical Understanding: Comfortable working with technical teams across different product areas, able to prioritise based on both business impact and technical requirements.
• Scrum Certification (CSPO or similar): Preferred but not required; experience leading multiple agile teams effectively is essential.

Company Info

You may also have seen from our recent posts that we are excited to begin sharing our new company name – Klipboard. Kerridge Commercial Systems (KCS) is becoming Klipboard and our new brand is designed to bring together our expertise across distribution, automotive, retail, rental, transport management, manufacturing, and field service management. We have offices based across the world and we are looking for talented individuals to join our growing teams. Due to our growth over the last few years it is an exciting time to join us as we enter our next chapter!

Equal Opportunities

As a global company, we value and respect the diversity of our workforce, aiming to empower everyone to embrace each other's differences. We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace where diversity, equity, and inclusion are integral to our company and culture. We recognize the benefits of a diverse workforce, where creativity and valuing differences enable us all to thrive and sparks innovation.

If you require any help, adjustments and/or support during the interview and offer process then please advise our TA or HR team.

Research shows that women and other underrepresented groups are less likely to apply for a role unless they meet every listed requirement. However, we recognise that skills and experience come in many forms, and we encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet every criterion. If you are passionate about this role and believe you have the right mindset and transferrable skills, we would love to hear from you!

To all recruitment agencies: Klipboard does not accept agency speculative resumes. At present we only accept CV’s from Agencies on our PSL who have been assigned specific position/s. Please do not forward resumes to our careers site or direct to Klipboard employee as this does not constitute an introduction and Klipboard retrospectively will not be liable for any candidate ownership or fees related to unsolicited resumes.

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