Technical Product Owner

Location: Louisville, KY.

Hybrid: onsite Tuesday and Thursday; must be local Duration: 6 months with possible extension

Overview: The Technical Product Owner III maximizes the value of internal platform products by translating engineering needs into well-defined, prioritized backlog items. This role supports KFC US Solutions Architecture and platform capabilities across restaurant ordering systems, cloud infrastructure, developer tooling, and systems integration.

Key Responsibilities: Support the product roadmap for internal developer platforms including CI/CD, infrastructure, observability, and automation tools. Own and manage the product backlog, including epics, user stories, and acceptance criteria. Track product metrics such as adoption, user satisfaction, operational efficiency, and productivity. Communicate product updates, prioritization, and progress to stakeholders. Gather feedback from engineering teams through interviews, surveys, office hours, and ongoing engagement. Partner with SRE, DevOps, Solutions Architecture, KFC brand teams, Byte platform engineering, cloud, and security teams. Support platform adoption, self-service, and automation initiatives. Required Qualifications1–2+ years of product management or technical product ownership experience.~3 years working on technical products for engineers, developers, or IT teams. Experience managing a product backlog in an Agile environment. Experience with user research, requirements gathering, and translating needs into product deliverables. Familiarity with product metrics and measuring adoption or outcomes. Strong engineering and cross-functional collaboration skills. Bachelor's degree in any field; technical degree preferred.

Preferred Qualifications: Experience with developer tools, internal platforms, or infrastructure products. Familiarity with CI/CD, cloud infrastructure, DevOps, or SRE.Exposure to automation, self-service platforms, or workflow tooling. Technical background or experience working closely with engineers. Developer experience or productivity initiatives. Product management certification or formal product training. Consumer-scale digital platform experience such as QSR, retail, or high-transaction systems. Familiarity with restaurant technology or POS systems.

Key Competencies: People Grower: Share knowledge and create learning opportunities. Influencer: Build credibility through delivery, communication, and trusted relationships. Results-Focused: Own outcomes, define success, execute with urgency, and follow through. Service Orientation: Treat engineering teams as platform customers. Clear Prioritization Communication: Ensure stakeholders understand what is being built, what is not, and why.

Success Measures: Platform features are clearly defined, prioritized, and delivered with high quality. Engineering teams adopt platform capabilities and provide positive feedback. Backlog items are development-ready with clear acceptance criteria. Stakeholders understand prioritization decisions and remain aligned. Self-service and automation reduce manual support effort. Product metrics are tracked and used for improvements. Viewed as a reliable, collaborative partner by engineering teams and stakeholders.