Product Manager II (U.S. Air Force)

Skylight is partnering with a U.S. Air Force program office to modernize delivery for a portfolio of civil engineering systems. The Product Manager II will own and prioritize the backlog, coordinate deliverables and documentation, guide the team’s tool transition, and translate user and government needs into product objectives and roadmap items.

Responsibilities:

• Partner with the engagement manager to organize deliverables, documentation, and schedules so the work stays on track and visible to government partners
• Maintain a prioritized backlog: write user stories, keep priorities current, and build release plans with the team
• Lead the team’s move from Jira and Confluence to GitLab and Mattermost, keeping configuration, tracking, and documentation clean through the transition
• Facilitate team ceremonies such as planning meetings, stakeholder syncs, and retrospectives
• Translate needs from users and government partners into product objectives, measures of success, and roadmap items
• Work in close partnership with government teams to transfer digital skills and product knowledge throughout the project

Requirements:

• Understand lean product principles and how to apply them (e.g., minimum viable product) at various stages of the product life cycle in order to mitigate risk, validate assumptions, and amplify learning
• Can develop a product strategy that is informed by an understanding of the problem to be solved, prioritizes outcomes over feature sets, and establishes the direction of the product over time (e.g., product roadmap), including success criteria
• Ability to execute the product strategy by breaking down the product's scope into usable chunks of value that can be realized sooner rather than later, creating and maintaining a prioritized backlog with validated user stories, and facilitating team ceremonies over the course of the product's iterations
• Understand how to engage in the process of human-centered design in order to better inform product direction
• Ability to collaborate with folks outside of your discipline, such as researchers, designers, engineers, and others, in order to get things done
• Ability to manage clients and stakeholders in a way that builds trust, alignment, and healthy environments for individuals and teams
• Understand the merits of different software development methodologies (e.g., agile, lean) and how to put them into practice
• Strong organizational skills, with experience keeping deliverables, documentation, and action items on track for an agile software delivery team
• Experience working on cross-functional teams (product, design, engineering, ops) in iterative delivery
• A mindset and work approach that aligns with our core values
• This contract requires U.S. citizenship to be eligible for employment
• You must be able to obtain a Common Access Card (CAC) and any special access required for this contract
• Project management experience, such as running schedules, risks, and dependencies for a delivery team
• Configuration management experience, or experience migrating a team's tools and workflows (for example, from Jira and Confluence to GitLab)
• Experience with legacy modernization, or launching a new product from zero to one
• Consulting experience, or military or Department of Defense experience
• Experience delivering technology in government, regulated industries, or other public-benefit settings
• A track record of staying aligned and accountable on remote teams