Senior Product Manager at Applaudo

Senior Product Manager at Applaudo

Applaudo is seeking a highly skilled Senior Product Manager to drive product outcomes, work autonomously, and make strategic prioritization decisions within fast-paced environments. This role requires bringing clarity to complex situations and communicating effectively with US-based stakeholders, including the ability to challenge assumptions and provide constructive feedback. The ideal candidate will leverage AI tools to streamline product delivery, validate scope, and accelerate the journey from requirements to execution. You will act as a crucial bridge between Product, Engineering, Design, and various stakeholders, fostering team alignment and progress amidst competing priorities.

Please note: This position is offered under a contractor model.

Key Competencies You Bring to Applaudo:

• Educational Background: A Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a closely related field is preferred, or equivalent professional experience.
• Senior Product Ownership: A demonstrated history of leading roadmap direction and making critical prioritization calls.
• Agile/Scrum Fluency: Strong proficiency in Agile and Scrum methodologies, encompassing backlog refinement, sprint ceremonies, user story creation, and defining clear acceptance criteria.
• End-to-End Product Delivery: Proven experience managing the complete product lifecycle, from ideation and design handoff through development, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), release planning, and post-deployment activities.
• Strategic Roadmap Development: Ability to translate overarching strategy into multi-quarter roadmaps and confidently defend prioritization decisions to senior leadership.
• AI-Assisted Workflows: Practical experience with AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, or Claude Code, with the capability to articulate how these tools enhance your delivery process.
• Stakeholder Management: Strong skills in managing stakeholders, including presenting risks and trade-offs to senior leadership.
• Conflict Resolution: Demonstrated ability to mediate effectively between Engineering, Design, and business stakeholders when priorities or interpretations diverge.
• Figma Proficiency: Competence in using Figma for mockup reviews and collaborative design handoffs.
• Background: Experience in consulting environments or data-centric product organizations is a plus.
• Communication Skills: Excellent verbal and written English communication skills are essential for effective collaboration with our US-based team and stakeholders.

Your Core Responsibilities Will Include:

• Roadmap and Prioritization: Own and define the multi-quarter roadmap and the overarching prioritization strategy.
• Decision Making: Make and clearly justify prioritization decisions, especially when stakeholder priorities conflict, providing transparent trade-off reasoning.
• Backlog Management: Maintain a thoroughly groomed backlog, ensuring detailed user stories, precise acceptance criteria, and prioritization aligned with the roadmap and business objectives.
• Release Management: Lead all aspects of release planning, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), crafting release notes, and reporting on usage metrics.
• Leadership Voice: Serve as the primary senior product voice for the development team and senior stakeholders, proactively identifying and communicating risks and strategic direction.
• Discovery and Insights: Drive discovery initiatives, conduct and synthesize user interviews, integrating insights into roadmap and backlog decisions.
• Cross-functional Alignment: Actively bridge gaps and foster alignment between Engineering, Design, and business stakeholders when priorities or interpretations diverge.
• AI Integration: Integrate AI tools into your daily delivery process to enhance documentation, prototyping, and overall workflow efficiency.