Factory Operating System (FOS) Product Owner

Job DescriptionJob Description

We are seeking an exceptional Factory Operating System (FOS) Product Owner to join our growing Engineering team.

About the job

Are you passionate about turning ideas into reality, embracing ownership, and working at the forefront of connectivity? Join viaPhoton and be part of a culture that thrives on fearless innovation, teamwork, and continuous growth, where learning, unlearning, and relearning are part of the journey.

This dynamic role offers significant ownership and responsibility. We’re looking for individuals who excel in environments where their contributions make an impact, are hungry to learn, and are energized by meaningful work that drives company growth while accelerating their career. If this sounds like you, we’d love to hear from you!

Who We Are

We are changing the norm by being customer focused, technology led.

viaPhoton is on an ambitious mission to revolutionize how critical digital infrastructure is manufactured and deployed. Best-in-class data centers and telecom providers need fiber optic solutions delivered in weeks, not months—whether that’s for AI infrastructure, 5G networks, or next- broadband. We’re reimagining fiber optic manufacturing for the AI era. Manufacturing is no longer just an operations challenge, but an automation and speed-to-market problem that customers urgently need solved. In less than 5 years, we’ve grown to a team of over 150, and have added top cloud service providers to our growing customer base. We have only just gotten started -- our ambition is to become the market leader of the $40+ BN connectivity industry.

We seek candidates who will be culture contributors and who align with our core values:

• Fearless Innovation we are pioneers unafraid to change the norm in relentless pursuit of better

• Forward Together we believe that when we work together toward a collective goal, we all succeed

• Integrity Over Everything we believe in long term relationships and doing what is right, always

• Nimble, Always we are solutions obsessed, move fast, and stay nimble

• Be the Bar we set our own standard of excellence and hold ourselves to it

What You Will Do

We are seeking a dynamic Agile Product Owner for our FOS factory supervisory and monitoring system. This person will be responsible for driving definition, execution, and deployment of our industry leading FOS system. The ideal candidate will have an engineering or computer science degree, leadership skills, Agile (or equivalent) software management experience, factory automation exposure, and the drive and persistence to see critical work from concept to completion.

As Factory Operating System (FOS) Product Owner, you will:

1. Work closely with our Production, Process Engineering, Automation Engineering, and Quality teams to extend and expand our FOS System features and capabilities.
2. Define Product Features: Collaborating with the Production and Development teams to outline clear and actionable user stories, ensuring that each feature aligns with the overall system vision.
3. Manage the FOS Feature Backlog: The Product Owner is responsible for defining and prioritizing the product backlog, ensuring that the development team is focused on delivering the most valuable features first.
4. Drive Sprint Planning and Review: Participating in sprint planning to set goals and priorities, and review progress to ensure the product is evolving as intended.
5. Create new methodologies and solutions to support company growth and scale
6. Additional duties as required, per below

What You Will Bring

• BS degree in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering

• Ability to lead Scrum Teams as the Product Owner
• Define product vision, roadmap and improvement opportunities for our FOS system
• Assess value, develop cases, and prioritize stories, epics and themes to ensure work focuses on those with maximum value that are aligned with production requirements and product strategy
• Provide backlog management, iteration planning, and elaboration of the user stories
• Work with Product Management to create and maintain a product backlog according to business value
• Lead the product release plans and set expectations for delivery of new functionalities
• Manage and lead development programs from concept through new product introduction and production
• Oversee the planning, execution, and delivery of FOS projects, coordinating cross-functional teams and managing resources.
• Drive team to identify and resolve key project issues and bugs
• Balance the needs of various stakeholders, developing comprehensive project plans, timelines, and budgets. Collaborating with leadership, suppliers and customers
• Contribute to the development and maintenance of product roadmaps, ensuring alignment with the product's vision and trajectory.
• Demonstrate strong understanding of data analysis, including tools and techniques for collecting, processing, and visualizing data.
• Creation and communication of project status to team, management and stakeholders. Reporting includes periodic and consistent project status vs plan, early risk detection and mitigation, etc.
• Sharp analytical and problem-solving skills
• Research and promote engineering methodologies and technologies to improve execution capabilities.
• Keep abreast with Agile/Scrum best practices and new trends
• Supporting lessons learned and continuous improvement initiatives
• Demonstrated experience as a Product Owner
• In-depth knowledge of Agile process and principles
• UI development exposure
• Factory automation or monitoring system exposure
• Mobile Device Management system experience
• 3rd Party SW development experience
• Training or Work Instruction development experience
• Gamification development experience
• AI Prototyping experience
• Network Security experience
• Familiarity with Atlassian suite (Jira, Confluence)
• Intellect and drive
• The ability to learn quickly and continuously and maintain a flexible and adaptive mindset necessary for a fast-paced environment.
• A proactive, self-driven mindset where your growth is dependent on you.
• Creative problem solving; if you don't know the answer, you’ll know how to find a way to it.
• Multi-tasking with the ability to handle multiple inquiries at once and prioritize them accordingly.

Why Join Us

• Cutting-Edge Technology – Opportunities to work on the forefront of fiber optic technology.

• Professional Development – We’re committed to your growth, offering resources, career development, and a culture where your voice is heard.

• Fun Team Environment – Monthly team bonding events, free lunches, and activities to keep us connected.

• Flexible Paid Time Off – Take time when you need it, with PTO that grows over time plus 10 paid holidays, including two floating holidays to use at your discretion.

• 401(k) Match – we offer up to 5% company match to help you plan for your future.

Ready to Build the Future? Apply now