Manager, Product Owner

Millennium Systems International is an exciting and dynamic software company based in Parsippany, NJ, providing powerful management software for the beauty and wellness industry. The Manager, Product Owner will lead the Product Owner function, ensuring high-quality execution across scrum teams and overseeing the day-to-day work of BAU teams while coaching Product Owners to translate product strategy into clear, sprint-ready backlogs.

Responsibilities:

• Hire, onboard, coach, and conduct performance reviews for Product Owners; build and run a coaching and skills development program that raises quality, clarity, and consistency of delivery artifacts across teams
• Lead the Product Owner “practice” for Meevo: define, clarify, and enforce standards for requirements, refinement, sprint planning, and UAT to ensure predictable delivery and high-quality releases
• Ensure Product Owners consistently translate approved product strategy and roadmap initiatives from Product Managers into sprint-ready backlogs with strong acceptance criteria, clear dependencies, and well-understood scope
• Establish and maintain backlog hygiene expectations (definition of ready, story quality, estimation practices, dependency management) and ensure adherence across teams
• Set operating rhythms across POs and delivery teams (cadences, ceremonies, cross-team dependency reviews) to align sprint goals, capacity, and sequencing so releases are achievable and risks are surfaced early
• Own prioritization of PO capacity and allocation across teams in partnership with Product and Technology leadership to ensure the highest-value work is staffed appropriately
• Own and continuously improve UAT readiness and execution practices: ensure testability, stakeholder alignment, and timely sign-off without derailing sprint commitments
• Drive productivity improvements by evaluating and piloting AI tools and workflows that help Product Owners produce higher quality requirements, faster refinement, better consistency, and improved traceability
• Track progress and delivery health in Azure DevOps and Aha to surface risks, blockers, scope changes, and release status to leadership with clear corrective actions
• Operate as an IC leader for BAU: manage the day-to-day intake, prioritization, and throughput of defect and maintenance teams; enforce SLAs where applicable; and ensure defects are triaged promptly and resolved with appropriate root cause focus
• Champion execution-first culture: maintain realistic commitments, protect teams from churn, and ensure stakeholders get accurate status and tradeoffs early

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in business, computer science, or a related field (or equivalent experience)
• 7+ years in a Product Owner role (or comparable agile delivery role) with 3+ years of direct people management experience
• Demonstrated success leading multiple scrum teams and coordinating cross-team dependencies to deliver on a recurring release cadence in a SaaS environment
• Deep expertise in PO craft: writing high-quality user stories, managing backlogs, refinement practices, sprint planning, acceptance criteria, and UAT coordination
• Strong operational leadership: able to run BAU workstreams (defects/maintenance), establish intake and prioritization discipline, and improve reliability over time
• Expert user of Azure DevOps for sprint execution and Aha for roadmap visibility and intake coordination
• Strong communication and conflict-resolution skills; can balance stakeholder demands with team capacity and maintain clear decision-making and escalation paths
• Availability for working hour overlap with the Eastern Time Zone
• Willingness to travel to our Parsippany, NJ office up to two times per year