Product Owner (Fleet Operations) - BusPatrol

Overview

Location: Remote US or Canada (must be willing to work Eastern or Central Time Zone hours)

Travel:  5-10%

Manages Others: No

Education:  N/A

Experience:  4+ Years of software product development, experience leading Scrum ceremonies, experience using data to make decisions, IoT device experience preferred

The Opportunity:   

As an IT Product Owner at BusPatrol, you will lead the development and enhancement of software products that contribute to school bus transportation safety and efficiency. The person we’re seeking is collaborative, adaptable, and driven to ensure success for the development team that they are working with. This includes leading brainstorming sessions, ensuring the team has a clear understanding of the work in the pipeline and the impact that it is looking to drive, the ability to clear blockers, and a strong ability to tailor a message to the audience.

The Product Owner would pair closely with the Product Manager. The Product Owner is focused on the work that is happening within the current and upcoming sprints, ensuring any open questions or blockers are cleared, building a healthy backlog for upcoming work, and making sure all team members have a clear understanding of the work. The work the Product Manager does in advance should set the Product Owner and team up for success when it is time to add initiatives to the backlog. Building a relationship based on trust and communication (in both directions) between the Product Manager and Product Owner will be key to achieving success.

BusPatrol is committed to being a product-driven company that uses data and user research to better understand our customers’ needs. Our product department is focused on ensuring we are solving for the root cause of an issue rather than the symptoms so that we build products that truly serve our users.

The Team:

You will work to expand and enhance one of our main applications, and drive work against company aligned KPIs which the application affects both directly and indirectly. You will need to work closely with not only software development teams but IOT, Hardware, and AI to manage, curate, and provide clarity into our fleet and associated data. The Fleet Operations team provides insights into the fleet health, GPS data, routing, vehicle and systems information, as well as quick retrieval of images and videos off buses.

Responsibilities

• You avoid recommending a solution right away and instead seek to understand the root of the issue. You can guide discussions ensuring focus remains on the root problem.
• Communicate across various departments in a targeted and concise way. You understand technical discussion as well as you do strategic objectives and can connect how they tie together. You can take a technical problem and explain it to a business stakeholder to get what is needed to proceed.
• You are comfortable identifying success metrics and how they roll up to our KPIs. You know how to obtain baseline data, can work with the data team to identify when new data is needed, and can track success metrics to understand the outcome of an experiment.
• Prioritize features and releases based on business value, technical feasibility, and customer impact.
• Visit clients' sites and internal user groups for a deeper understanding of their processes, challenges, and requirements. 
• Create the vision for the technical product and user experience, conduct design thinking workshops to analyze use cases, conduct experiments to understand the drivers of our user experience and company KPIs, and deliver capabilities from prototype to scale, then iterate and enhance.
• Partner closely with your Product Manager to ensure alignment on upcoming priorities and communicate any issues or potential issues right away.
• Be self-directed – you understand the expectations of you in your day-to-day and can execute and provide the team with direction.
• Work with internal user groups for a deeper understanding of their processes, challenges, and problem sets. 
• Work closely with development teams, product designers, and other cross-functional teams to ensure product roadmap execution.
• Facilitate communication between stakeholders and development teams to address questions, provide clarifications, and resolve issues.
• Own the creation of user stories in collaboration with the team and ensuring that there is a healthy backlog.
• Perform User Acceptance Testing as voice of the stakeholder.
• Leads Agile/Scrum ceremonies, including sprint planning, backlog grooming, and sprint reviews.
• Monitor project timelines and ensure on-time delivery of high-quality products.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, information technology, a related field, or equivalent work experience.
• 4+ years' experience in software product development.
• Growth mindset: you are eager to run experiments and learn, and do not assume that you have all the answers.
• Comfortable with ambiguity, and drive for clarity; e.g. developing clear and concise roadmaps that outline specific, measurable steps towards achieving the desired outcome.
• Experience using data to make decisions.
• Familiarity and experience leading Agile practices and Scrum ceremonies.

Some preferred experience:

• Experience in the transportation or education technology industry is a plus.
• Experience working in a product-driven software company.
• Software development experience is a plus.
• Experience with IoT development strongly preferred.
• Experience with Fleet Management Software is a plus.

BusPatrol Value Proposition

BusPatrol is a technology company with a public safety mission. Through relentless innovation and discovery, we are strengthening trust, safety, and transparency across the student transportation space and making the trip to and from school safer for students.  As a leader in smart transportation, BusPatrol brings cutting-edge AI, machine learning and IoT safety tech solutions to school buses across North America. BusPatrol’s technology has been deployed onto more buses and has been used to issue more school bus stop arm citations than any other company in the world.

WHAT WE OFFER

BusPatrol employees get:

• A competitive salary and benefits package
• Comprehensive personal time off, including volunteering and birthday days off
• An opportunity to help build a company dedicated to children’s safety
• The chance to join an innovative and dedicated team, focused on leading edge technology
• The occasion to participate in BusPatrol’s culture of safety, learning, and teamwork

BusPatrol’s school bus safety programs are violator-funded, meaning that those who break the law pay for the technology that protects children. We build solid partnerships in the communities in which we operate which, coupled with our innovative business model, leads to sustainable efforts to change driver behaviors.

HOW WE WORK

On our mission to make the journey to and from school safer for children, the way we work together and with our partners is built on foundational cultural pillars.

• SAFETY Safety is our focus, for the children we protect and for each other. We follow the letter and spirit of occupational safety law, relentlessly employ safety best practices, and foster learning and development on our worksites. We are safe to be ourselves and to make mistakes, and we create safe environments for our teams.
• CONNECTION We build strong relationships and teams in support of our mission. We promote and provide opportunities for employees to grow together.
• EXCELLENCE We commit to innovation and quality work in support of our mission and each other. The children we safeguard are at the forefront of our decisions and actions and we excel on their behalf.
• IMPACT We measure success by fulfilling our mission and keeping the company strong. We invest our time and energy in the actions that deliver results for students and for their communities.

We are looking for a valued member of the BusPatrol team to assist us in our quest to improve children’s safety. This is an important role for us and a great opportunity for the right candidate. Our environment is inclusive, diverse, ignited, built on integrity, and deeply committed.

The US salary range for this position is provided in this posting. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for salaries for the position across all US locations. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your Talent Partner can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location and skill level during the hiring process.

Please note that the compensation details listed in US role postings reflect the base salary only, and do not include bonus, and/or commission (if applicable) or benefits.