Product Owner

Job Description

The Opportunity

As a Product Owner at Coursedog, you'll play a critical role in translating product strategy into high-quality execution, serving as the connective tissue between vision and delivery. Reporting directly to the Senior Product Manager, you'll partner closely with engineering, design, and internal stakeholders to own three high-priority domains: our design system and accessibility standards, our AI product roadmap rollout, and platform stability.

This is not a ticket-writing role. You'll write real specs and PRDs, build wireframes and clickable prototypes, own prioritization for your focus areas, and take end-to-end accountability from development through rollout. If you're technically grounded, execution-oriented, and energized by working shoulder-to-shoulder with engineers to ship meaningful product — this role is for you.

This position offers a competitive base salary between $90,000-$120,000, based on experience and qualifications. The role also includes a performance-based variable compensation component, bringing total on-target earnings (OTE) to $100,000-$130,000 when performance objectives are achieved.

What You'll Do

Spec Writing & Backlog Execution

• Write detailed PRDs and specs for epics, translating strategic product goals into clear, well-defined User Stories with testable acceptance criteria
• Own prioritization for your focus areas in close collaboration with the Head of Platform, ensuring alignment with roadmap priorities and our Product Development Lifecycle (PDLC)
• Partner with engineering to refine and sequence the backlog, ensuring the team always has well-prepared, well-understood work ahead of them
• Act as the first line of triage for product issues, validating and integrating bugs into the development backlog as appropriate
• Uphold a strong "Definition of Done" to ensure quality and readiness for release

Design & Prototyping

• Collaborate with design to create wireframes and clickable prototypes to communicate product concepts, validate design direction, and accelerate engineering handoff
• Partner closely with our design team to ensure UX consistency, accessibility, and quality within Coursedog's design system

End-to-End Ownership

• Own your product areas from discovery through development and rollout — you're accountable for the outcome, not just the ticket
• Serve as the primary point of contact for your development team on product-related questions, resolving ambiguities quickly so engineering stays unblocked
• Support the execution of the product roadmap by ensuring User Stories and Epics are consistently delivered against defined timelines and quality standards.
• Monitor post-release performance and iterate based on feedback and product metrics
• Represent the voice of the customer and product in team ceremonies and cross-functional discussions

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Communicate feature updates and release details to internal stakeholders including Customer Success, Sales, and Support
• Gather insights from customers and internal teams to inform backlog refinement and future iterations
• Support implementations for early-stage products by serving as a product expert, gathering feedback, and clarifying functionality for implementation teams.
• Actively lean in where needed to maximize the value delivered by the product, which may include supporting sales enablement with feature details, contributing to user documentation, or providing internal feature demos.
• Step in where needed to support the product team, flexibly responding to evolving priorities.

The Product Owner’s Three Major Focus Areas:

1. Design System & Accessibility: Lead the rollout of Coursedog's design system across the platform, with a focus on achieving accessibility standards. You'll partner with design and engineering to drive consistent, compliant component adoption at scale — ensuring our platform works for every user at every institution.
2. AI Roadmap Rollout: Own the execution of four major AI feature initiatives planned for this cycle. Working closely with the Director of Product and engineering, you'll break complex AI-powered capabilities into shippable increments, maintain delivery momentum, and ensure we're building toward Coursedog's intelligent academic operations vision.
3. Platform Stability: Lead initiatives to reduce bugs and eliminate technical debt, improving reliability and performance for our 400+ university partners. You'll sequence stability work alongside feature delivery, partner with engineering on principled prioritization decisions, and champion a healthy, scalable platform foundation.

Requirements

What You’ll Bring

• 1–3+ years of experience as a Product Owner or Product Manager in an Agile SaaS environment, with a proven track record of managing backlogs and shipping software
• Technical or analytics background — you're comfortable in conversations with engineers, can read data fluently, and understand how software is built
• Direct, hands-on experience collaborating with engineering teams; engineers trust you and you earn that trust through clarity and follow-through
• Experience writing real specs and PRDs — not just user stories, but detailed, reasoned documentation that gives engineering what they need to execute
• Ability to create wireframes or clickable prototypes (Figma or equivalent)
• Exceptional communication skills and a proactive, resourceful working style
• Comfort operating in fast-paced environments with evolving priorities

Nice To Have (but not mandatory!):

• Experience in higher education or education technology; familiarity with university administrative workflows (curriculum management, academic approvals, catalog publishing, etc.) is a meaningful plus
• Client-facing experience — you’ve worked directly with external customers, institutional stakeholders, or implementation teams and are comfortable translating user needs into product improvements
• Exposure to AI/ML product development, including prior experience shipping AI-powered features or collaborating with engineering teams integrating AI capabilities into a product
• Accessibility experience, including familiarity with WCAG standards, accessibility testing practices, or building products used across diverse user populations
• Developer-facing documentation experience, such as creating API documentation, integration guides, SDK documentation, or other technical resources used by developers or partners
• Experience triaging and managing a bug backlog, including coordinating with engineering teams to prioritize defects, balance stability work with feature delivery, and maintain product quality
• Experience working on platform performance and reliability initiatives, such as improving application performance, supporting stability improvements, or prioritizing technical debt and infrastructure work
• Experience leading developer experience initiatives, familiarity with platform products or developer ecosystems

Not sure if you should apply? Research shows that women and people from underrepresented backgrounds are less likely to apply unless they meet every qualification listed. At Coursedog, we’re focused on finding the best person for the role, and that person may come from a non-traditional background. We encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet every requirement — our evaluation focuses on your ability to thrive in this role and make an impact.

Benefits

About Coursedog

At Coursedog, our mission is simple but ambitious: to break down barriers to student success. Founded by former college students who were frustrated by outdated academic systems, Coursedog was built to empower higher ed administrators to deliver exceptional educational experiences and make it easier for students to achieve their goals. Since then, we’ve grown into a platform trusted by institutions across the country.

Coursedog is the Intelligent Academic Operations Platform, empowering 400+ colleges and universities to better serve over 3.3 million students. Our platform brings together academic scheduling, curriculum and catalog management, assessment, and workflow automation — all designed to adapt to each institution’s unique needs and remove administrative roadblocks so educators can focus on helping students succeed.

We’re a remote-first, fast-growing company and a Forbes Top 500 U.S. Startup Employer, with a culture that prioritizes engagement, ownership, and impact. If you’re excited about solving meaningful problems, working with thoughtful teammates, and improving education at scale, you’ll feel right at home at Coursedog.

Working at Coursedog

Healthcare, Dental & Vision

We follow a fixed contribution model to promote equity and transparency. Every employee receives the same annual dollar amount to apply toward medical, dental, and vision coverage. This approach gives you the flexibility to choose the plan that best fits your needs, whether that is a base-level option or more comprehensive coverage.

Depending on the selected coverage level, the company covers:

• Employee-only coverage: 65% to 99% of monthly premiums
• Employee plus dependents: 45% to 75% of monthly premiums

We partner with Aetna and Guardian, and offer access to best-in-class wellness and support programs, including:

• Spring Health (mental health support)
• XP Health (vision benefits)
• Carrot Fertility (family planning support)
• One Medical (primary care)

We also support pre-tax savings through Health Savings Accounts (HSA) and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA).

Retirement Planning

To support long-term financial health, we offer a Safe Harbor 401(k) plan from day one of employment. Coursedog provides a 4% employer match on your total compensation (subject to federal limits) each pay period for employees contributing to a tax-advantaged retirement account.

Paid Time Off

We trust our employees to manage their time responsibly. That’s why we offer an unlimited Paid Time Off policy — because flexibility and balance are critical for sustained excellence and personal well-being.

Remote-First Since Inception

We were built for distributed work. Our culture emphasizes flexibility over rigidity, outcomes over hours, and transparency over gatekeeping. We are committed to being a remote-first organization indefinitely, empowering you to work where and how you thrive best.

Equity

As a valued contributor to our collective success, you’ll participate in the upside. All employees are granted equity in the company aligned to your role and tenure. Equity grants are reviewed and adjusted with promotions to reflect your evolving impact.

Paid Parental Leave

We proudly support working parents with industry-leading benefits. Employees are eligible for up to 12 weeks of fully paid leave. This benefit is available to all eligible employees, regardless of gender or family structure.