Product Owner

About the role

The Product Owner at Ruby Labs is a pivotal role focused on the end-to-end success of our direct-to-consumer subscription products. This position demands a detail-oriented professional who takes full ownership of the delivery pipeline, ensuring that every technical task meets our stringent quality standards. You will act as the primary driver for process excellence, defining and implementing the workflows that guarantee efficient and high-quality output. Success in this role requires close collaboration with multiple departments to align on priorities and overcome any obstacle that threatens project momentum. You will lead critical ceremonies such as sprint planning and retrospectives to foster continuous improvement and prevent stagnation. A key part of this position involves stepping in to own initiatives that lack a dedicated lead, seeing them through to successful completion from conception to launch. You will leverage artificial intelligence on a daily basis to enhance every stage of your work, from drafting precise specifications to analyzing data and performing rigorous quality assurance. Finally, you will be responsible for providing clear, honest, and concise status updates to the Managing Director and other key stakeholders, ensuring transparency and alignment across the organization.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Orchestrate the end-to-end management of the delivery pipeline, supervising the flow of work from initial concept through to final release verification and validation.
• Establish, document, and enforce rigorous quality standards, process workflows, and precise definitions of done to maintain operational excellence.
• Convert ambiguous business goals into actionable technical tasks, crafting detailed acceptance criteria and identifying complex edge cases before work begins.
• Serve as the central point of coordination across engineering, design, data analytics, and marketing teams to systematically remove blockers and ensure seamless priority alignment.
• Facilitate and lead sprint planning sessions and retrospectives to analyze team performance, iterate on workflows, and implement changes that prevent project delays and stalls.
• Step in to take direct ownership of critical initiatives that lack a dedicated lead, driving these projects forward independently to ensure they reach completion on schedule and to standard.
• Integrate artificial intelligence tools into your daily routine to optimize spec writing, accelerate data analysis, and strengthen the quality assurance process for all deliverables.
• Synthesize complex project data into concise narratives and provide honest, data-driven status reporting to the Managing Director and other stakeholders to support informed decision-making.
• Maintain the integrity of the product backlog through continuous refinement, ensuring items are well-groomed, prioritized, and ready for development based on strategic objectives.
• Monitor the health of the development lifecycle, identifying bottlenecks in the pipeline and implementing corrective actions to improve throughput and efficiency.
• Act as the definitive authority on product requirements and timelines, communicating impacts of changes clearly to all cross-functional partners and stakeholders.
• Champion a culture of accountability and quality by setting expectations for deliverables and holding contributors responsible for meeting deadlines and standards.
• Utilize advanced technical fluency to engage in productive discussions with engineering teams regarding implementation trade-offs, risks, and feasibility.
• Evaluate, test, and provide feedback on new technologies and methodologies, such as AI-assisted workflows, to continuously improve team productivity and outcomes.

Requirements

• Possess a minimum of 3 years of professional experience as a Product Owner, Product Manager, or Delivery Lead managing live software products in a production environment.
• Demonstrate a proven ability to author technical specifications and documentation so detailed that engineers can execute work without requiring constant clarification or follow-up questions.
• Bring extensive experience in managing agile delivery cycles from start to finish, including proficient backlog grooming, sprint execution, and velocity tracking.
• Show a demonstrated history of successfully building, implementing, and enforcing internal processes, standards, and quality checklists to drive consistency and reliability.
• Exhibit strong technical fluency that allows for effective communication with engineering teams, enabling meaningful discussions on implementation trade-offs, technical debt, and system constraints.
• Achieve advanced proficiency in utilizing AI tools to accelerate routine workflows and maintain competence with standard task management platforms such as Jira, Linear, or Notion.
• Display a strong capacity to provide direct, constructive feedback and hold team members fully accountable for their assigned deadlines and deliverable quality.
• Maintain a meticulous attention to detail to ensure that all product requirements, acceptance criteria, and release notes are accurate and complete.
• Thrive in a remote-first environment, requiring self-discipline, strong written communication skills, and the ability to collaborate effectively without constant supervision.
• Commit to working within the specified geographical and temporal constraints, being located within a 4-hour window of the Central European Time zone to facilitate synchronous collaboration.

Nice to have

• Preferred experience with subscription-based business models and managing recurring revenue products.
• Familiarity with health, education, or entertainment industry-specific product regulations and best practices.
• Background in managing products that involve sensitive personal data, requiring a strong focus on privacy and security.
• Experience contributing to open-source projects or a portfolio that demonstrates a history of high-quality software craftsmanship.

Practical notes

• This role is structured as a flexible independent contractor agreement, requiring the individual to manage their own tax and legal obligations.
• The compensation package includes unlimited paid time off, recognized public holidays observed in the European Union, and the provision of a company MacBook to facilitate remote work.
• All applicants must reside within a viable commuting distance, defined as being located within a strict 4-hour time difference from the Central European Time zone.
• The interview process is multi-stage and rigorous, consisting of a 40-minute initial recruiter screen, followed by a 90-minute technical interview, and concluding with a 60-minute final interview with the leadership team.
• Due to the volume of applications, interested candidates can expect their submissions to be reviewed and responded to within a window of 3 to 5 business days.