Product Owner
Bernard Nickels & Associates · Port Washington, NY
Tailor my CV for this job — freeThis role will own the full product lifecycle, from identifying business problems and defining product strategy to prioritizing investments, guiding technical decisions, and measuring business outcomes.The Product Owner will serve as the primary owner of the organization's software product portfolio, partnering with Engineering, Business Systems, Commercial, Supply Chain, Finance, Quality, and Regulatory teams to ensure technology investments deliver measurable business value. The ideal candidate combines deep product management experience, strong technical fluency, and sound judgment in regulated environments, with the ability to make strategic trade-offs, communicate clearly with executive leadership, and drive accountability for product performance. This is a strategic position focused on product ownership and outcomes rather than project coordination or delivery management.
Responsibilities
Own and communicate the software product strategy, vision, and roadmap across internally developed products and enterprise platforms, establishing clear priorities and sequencing investments based on business value.Define measurable success metrics for product initiatives, monitor performance against established targets, and adjust, discontinue, or reprioritize work that does not deliver expected outcomes.Lead build, buy, and configure decisions across custom software, NetSuite, Salesforce, EDI, and Microsoft Power Platform, evaluating total cost of ownership, scalability, and long-term maintenance requirements.Manage portfolio-level prioritization and resource allocation across multiple product initiatives, clearly communicating trade-offs and investment decisions.Guide product strategy for shared services, APIs, data models, and internal tools that support multiple teams and business functions.Collaborate with Staff and Senior Engineers on system design, architectural trade-offs, technical debt prioritization, and platform investment decisions.Establish and maintain product development standards for discovery, requirements documentation, acceptance criteria, launch readiness, and post-launch performance measurement.Define product requirements for regulated business workflows, ensuring validation, auditability, traceability, data integrity, and change-control requirements are incorporated from the outset.Establish the operating cadence for the product function, including roadmap reviews, quarterly planning, backlog management, and outcome-based retrospectives.Develop guidelines for AI-assisted product development across discovery, specification, prototyping, and delivery, including appropriate human review and quality controls for regulated workflows.Present product strategy, investment priorities, risks, trade-offs, and measurable results to executive leadership in clear business terms.Partner with Engineering, Quality Engineering, Infrastructure, and Business Systems leaders to align product roadmaps with technical capabilities, staffing, and platform investments.Serve as the primary product liaison for Commercial, Supply Chain, Finance, Quality, and Regulatory stakeholders, balancing competing priorities and aligning product decisions with organizational objectives.Prepare decision memos, strategy narratives, product specifications, and other written communications that establish alignment and document the rationale behind key decisions.Lead product discovery and design reviews, promoting user research, evidence-based prioritization, and rigorous evaluation of proposed solutions.Foster a culture of accountability, high-quality documentation, and candid post-launch assessment, including transparent evaluation of initiatives that do not achieve their intended outcomes.Mentor Business Systems Analysts and Project Managers in product management principles, clarifying the distinction between strategic product ownership and delivery execution.Required Qualifications:Bachelor's degree required; a degree in a technical, quantitative, or related discipline is preferred.9+ years of professional experience, including at least 6 years of end-to-end software product ownership, from problem definition through measurable business outcomes. Project, program, or delivery management experience alone does not satisfy this requirement.Demonstrated experience owning a multi-team product portfolio or shared platform used by multiple teams, rather than managing only an individual feature or isolated product area.Proven experience delivering software products in a regulated environment, such as pharmaceuticals, life sciences, medical devices, or financial services.Strong technical fluency, including the ability to evaluate APIs, data models, integration patterns, and cloud architecture and engage substantively in technical design discussions with senior engineering teams.Demonstrated ability to make build, buy, and configure decisions across custom software and enterprise platforms, including accountability for long-term maintenance and operational implications.Hands-on experience managing product development within an AI-assisted engineering environment, including a clear understanding of where AI can accelerate development and where human oversight is essential.Experience defining product strategy, prioritizing competing investments, establishing success metrics, and measuring business outcomes.Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to produce clear strategy documents, decision memos, and product specifications.Proven ability to influence executive stakeholders and align cross-functional teams around product priorities, technical investments, and business objectives.
Preferred Qualifications
Direct experience with GxP requirements, 21 CFR Part 11, the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA), or SOX-controlled systems.Experience managing products and integrations across NetSuite, Salesforce, EDI, Microsoft Power Platform, or comparable enterprise systems.Experience developing platform, API, or internal developer products, with an emphasis on usability, adoption, documentation, and integration standards.Familiarity with pharmaceutical distribution, supply chain operations, warehouse and distribution workflows, quality systems, regulatory processes, or pharmacy and trade customers.Experience evaluating software investments through commercial and financial considerations, including unit economics, cost-to-serve, working capital, and P&L impact.Experience leading product functions in organizations that emphasize small, high-performing teams, strong product quality, rigorous discovery, and written decision-making.Core Competencies:Product Strategy and Portfolio Leadership: Sets a clear vision, establishes priorities, and makes defensible investment decisions across multiple product areas.Outcome-Based Product Management: Defines success metrics before development, measures results, and holds product initiatives accountable for business impact.Technical and Platform Fluency: Understands APIs, integrations, data models, architecture, and platform dependencies well enough to evaluate trade-offs and challenge assumptions constructively.Regulated-Environment Judgment: Incorporates validation, audit trails, data integrity, traceability, and change control into product decisions.Product Discovery and User Empathy: Understands the needs of diverse users, including operations, warehouse and distribution teams, finance, quality, regulatory, and commercial stakeholders.Executive and Stakeholder Management: Builds alignment across business and technical teams and communicates complex decisions in terms of business value, risk, and outcomes.Written Communication: Produces clear strategy narratives, decision memos, and specifications that support alignment and informed decision-making.Commercial Acumen: Evaluates product decisions in the context of operating costs, business performance, working capital, and profitability.AI-Assisted Product Development: Applies AI-enabled workflows thoughtfully while maintaining appropriate standards for quality, validation, and human review.