Technical Product Owner Job Listing at SAIC in Fort Belvoir, VA (Job ID 2512179)

Description

Description

SAIC is seeking an experienced Technical Product Owner to serve as the primary on-site technical liaison between DTRA stakeholders and our remote engineering team. You will own the product vision, translate customer needs into actionable technical requirements, and ensure alignment between what the customer needs and what the engineering team delivers. This role requires someone who can whiteboard architectural solutions with government stakeholders in the morning and drive sprint priorities with distributed engineers in the afternoon.

You will be the technical "face" of the project, building trust with the customer through demonstrated technical competence while ensuring the remote team has the clarity and context they need to build the right thing, the right way, for eventual deployment in the DTRA environment. You can expect to be on site at DTRC in Fort Belvoir approximately 80% of the time.

We are looking for someone who is:

· Technically credible: Able to whiteboard solutions, evaluate architectural trade-offs, and speak fluently with both customers and engineers about system design, data flows, and integration patterns.

· Customer-facing: Comfortable working directly with government stakeholders to elicit requirements, demonstrate progress, and iterate on the product vision based on feedback.

· Bridge-builder: Skilled at translating ambiguous customer needs into clear, prioritized engineering work—and translating engineering constraints back to stakeholders in terms they understand.

· Mission-oriented: Understands the realities of government modernization, security requirements, and delivering production-grade solutions rather than throwaway prototypes.

· Agile mindset: Experienced in backlog management, sprint planning, and iterative delivery in environments with evolving requirements and high stakeholder visibility.

· Self-directed: Capable of operating independently on-site, making judgment calls about priorities, and proactively identifying risks or opportunities.

Key Responsibilities:

· Serve as the primary on-site technical point of contact for DTRA stakeholders, building relationships and establishing trust through consistent, competent engagement.

· Own and communicate the product vision, ensuring alignment between customer expectations and engineering delivery.

· Elicit, refine, and prioritize requirements through direct customer interaction; translate business needs into well-defined user stories and technical specifications.

· Architect and whiteboard solutions collaboratively with stakeholders and engineers, ensuring proposed approaches are feasible for the target environment.

· Maintain and prioritize the product backlog, ensuring the remote engineering team always has clear, actionable work aligned with customer priorities.

· Facilitate communication between the customer and engineering team—providing context upstream and clarifying constraints downstream.

· Participate in sprint planning, reviews, and retrospectives; represent the customer perspective while advocating for sustainable engineering practices.

· Lead or support demo preparation and delivery, ensuring stakeholders see progress and can provide timely feedback.

· Identify technical risks, integration challenges, and environment-specific constraints (e.g., DTRA infrastructure, security requirements) early and communicate them to the engineering team.

· Implement solutions directly when necessary; whether prototyping, troubleshooting integration issues, or validating approaches in the target environment.

· Ensure delivered capabilities align with DTRA's operational environment, security posture, and deployment constraints.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

· Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or related field (or equivalent experience).

· 7+ years of experience in technical roles with progressive responsibility, including at least 2 years in a customer-facing or product ownership capacity.

· Demonstrated ability to architect and communicate technical solutions; comfortable at the whiteboard discussing system design, APIs, data flows, and integration patterns.

· Hands-on technical background sufficient to prototype solutions, review code, and evaluate engineering trade-offs (Python, modern web stacks, or data platform technologies preferred).

· Experience translating ambiguous stakeholder needs into clear, prioritized requirements and user stories.

· Strong understanding of Agile/Scrum methodologies, backlog management, and iterative delivery.

· Excellent communication skills. Able to explain technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders and business context to engineers.

· Experience working in DoD, IC, or other government environments with an understanding of compliance considerations (CUI, IL4/IL5, ATO processes).

Preferred Qualifications:

· Experience with data platforms, AI/ML systems, or analytics applications in government contexts.

· Familiarity with DTRA's mission, organizational structure, or prior DTRA program experience.

· Technical background in Python, data engineering, or full-stack development.

· Experience with DevSecOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure-as-code concepts.

· Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager, or equivalent certification.

· Active TS/SCI clearance.