Product Owner

Description

Join Purple Wave as a Product Owner and help us build the software that powers the nation’s leading online equipment auction. Working hand-in-hand with a cross-functional agile team, you’ll turn the needs of our business and customers into a clear, well-ordered backlog and a steady stream of shipped improvements. AI is part of how we build at Purple Wave—you’ll use modern AI tools daily work and help bring AI-powered features to our customers. If you love breaking big ideas into buildable pieces, making sharp prioritization calls, and seeing your decisions go live iteration after iteration, this role is for you. Enjoy a competitive salary, a monthly bonus program, comprehensive benefits, and a collaborative, fully remote work culture.

The Product Owner (PO) is the voice of the business and the customer within a Purple Wave agile team. The PO owns and prioritizes the team’s product backlog, translating business goals, subject matter expert (SME) and user feedback into clear, buildable work that the development team can deliver each iteration. This is a hands-on delivery role: the PO refines the backlog, writes outcomes with well-defined acceptance criteria, makes day-to-day prioritization decisions, and partners closely with the Scrum Master and engineers to keep work flowing. As AI reshapes how products are built and used, the PO is expected to work fluently with AI tools in their own workflow, help prioritize and deliver AI-powered capabilities on the team’s roadmap, and use AI, data, and analytics to sharpen prioritization and measure outcomes. Success in this role means the team is focused on building the right increment, releases deliver real value, and learnings from each release feed back into a continuously improving product.

Responsibilities:

• Own, order, and maintain a clear, transparent product backlog that reflects business priorities and delivers the most value first.
• Refine the backlog on an ongoing basis with clear, testable acceptance criteria that are ready for the team to pick up.
• Translate business needs, SME input, and sometimes ambiguous ideas into well-defined, actionable backlog items.
• Set and communicate priorities, making the trade-off and prioritization calls needed to keep the team focused on the highest-value work.
• Prioritize and help deliver AI- and data-powered features on the team’s roadmap, partnering with engineering and data teams to turn them into shippable customer value.
• Use AI, data, and analytics to inform prioritization decisions, measure release outcomes, and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Use AI tools in day-to-day product work—drafting and refining stories, summarizing user and stakeholder feedback, researching solutions, and accelerating analysis—while applying sound judgment to the results.
• Participate actively in team events—backlog refinement, sprint planning, daily standups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives—in partnership with the Scrum Master and development team.
• Be readily available to the team throughout the sprint to answer questions, clarify requirements, and resolve ambiguity so work keeps moving.
• Review completed work against acceptance criteria and the Definition of Done, accepting or returning stories as appropriate.
• Maintain a forward-looking view of upcoming work so the team always has a healthy, prioritized backlog ready.
• Keep stakeholders informed with transparent, timely communication about priorities, progress, scope changes, and release timing.
• Gather feedback from releases and end users, measure outcomes, and feed learnings back into the backlog to drive continuous improvement.
• Navigate and resolve competing priorities and conflicting ideas among stakeholders and the development team, keeping decisions anchored to business objectives and desired outcomes.
• Collaborate across departments and with other Product Owners to align on shared goals, dependencies, and company strategy.
• Maintain customer personas and possess a deep understanding of customer needs.
• Maintain product scorecard revealing product health and performance to the organization.
• Undertake additional assigned duties as requested.
  
  

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• None.
  
  

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or relevant experience preferred. High school diploma or GED required.
• At least 2 years of experience as a Product Owner, Business Analyst, or in a similar agile product delivery role.
• Working knowledge of agile software development and the Scrumban framework, including backlog management, user stories, and sprint execution.
• Experience writing clear user stories and acceptance criteria and managing a backlog in a tool such as Jira.
• Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) or Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO) is a plus, or a willingness to earn certification.
• Comfort using AI tools (such as AI assistants and copilots) to improve productivity and quality, with the judgment to evaluate their output and the curiosity to adopt new tools as they emerge.
• Interest in, or exposure to, AI/ML-powered product features and how they create customer value is a plus.
• Strong prioritization and decision-making skills, with the ability to balance competing needs and stay focused on outcomes in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to work effectively with both business stakeholders and technical teams.
• Highly organized and self-directed, comfortable managing multiple priorities at once.
• Proficiency with common productivity and collaboration tools, including spreadsheet applications (Excel, Google Sheets), word processing (Word, Google Docs), presentation tools (PowerPoint, Google Slides), and reporting/analytics tools such as Tableau; familiarity with Jira and agile tooling.
• Understanding of, or strong interest in, online auction, marketplace, or e-commerce services and processes is a plus.
• Spanish fluency is a plus, given our growing Spanish speaking customer base.
• Candidates may be requested to complete position specific skills assessments.
• Applicants must be either a U.S. Citizen or eligible to work in the U.S.
• Requires the ability to satisfactorily complete a background check.
  
  

Working Settings:

• Full-time Salaried Exempt, not eligible for overtime.
• Office hours are 8am-5pm, Monday through Friday, Central Time zone; additional hours may be required depending on priorities.
• This position is remote work eligible with the United States. Please note: one week of employment training is required to be in Manhattan, KS headquarters. There will also be quarterly in-person meeting requirements.
• Upon hire, in person training will be required at the Purple Wave headquarters.
• Prolonged periods sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Must be able to lift up to 15 pounds at times.
• Must be able to access various departments of a given location.
  
  

Compensation:

• The salary varies based on experience and qualifications, but typically ranges from $75,000 to $120,000 per year.
• Monthly Bonus Program - determined by the Company’s monthly revenue result and are paid on a “percent to plan” payout formula (90% = $300, 100% = $600, 110% = $900, 120% = $1,200).
• Monthly phone stipend in accordance with the Company’s cell phone policy, currently $120/month.
• Health insurance, Dental insurance, and Vision insurance.
• 401(k) plan with an employer match up to 4% starting the first day of employment.
• Company-paid Life Insurance with options for supplemental coverage. 
• Fully paid Short-Term Disability provided by the Company.
• 3 Weeks of PTO annually (details shared during onboarding).
• Employee Stock Purchase Program (ESPP) - Eligible to purchase company stock at a discount after 90 days of employment, with enrollment opportunities each May and November.

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Summary

About Purple Wave

Visit us at: PurpleWave.com

Purple Wave Auction is a leader in the equipment auction industry focusing on construction, ag, fleet, and government equipment.  We are a data-driven, quickly changing and evolving, growing organization.  Our focus is on marketing the assets we sell for our customers to find the highest quality bidders for the best recoveries for our sellers.  We strive to make this transaction Straight, Simple, and Sold.  We live daily by our core values of trust, team, care, and passion to be the place people want to work and our customers want to return to for their equipment buying and selling needs for their businesses.

Purple Wave Auction is the largest no-reserve Internet auction company in the Midwest.

• We have over 300 employees, nearly doubling in size in the last three years.
• We have a robust tech team and continue to invest in progressive techniques to enhance our services.
• While working at Purple Wave, you will have the opportunity to help our mission of being the easiest, most straightforward place to buy and sell used equipment. 
• Purple Wave empowers its employees to solve problems effectively in a family-run business culture.
• We provide opportunities for continued education as you grow your career with tuition reimbursement. We have a generous benefits package in one of the fastest-growing companies in the area.

Purple Wave is looking for an enthusiastic person to join our growing team to support our customers as we bring our values of Trust, Team, Care and Passion to them. 

Purple Wave Auction Core Values:

• TRUST:  We are trustworthy…Our business depends upon our integrity and our customer’s ability to trust Purple Wave and its people:  to enforce a fair, transparent unreserved auction marketplace; to safeguard their bidding information; to give a full effort on behalf of their asset(s); We are transparent, accountable and fair.
• TEAM:  WE ARE A TEAM…We respect, support, appreciate and inspire each other; We communicate and follow-through; We need each other. We do our best work when we work together.
• CARE:  WE CARE…We care for our customers. We look out for their best interests. We work hard for them. We “go the extra mile”.
• PASSION:  WE ARE PASSIONATE…We are positive, we are enthusiastic, we take pride in our work, we own our responsibilities and we deliver; When we see problems, we fix them. We learn from our mistakes. We improve ourselves and Purple Wave every day; We believe Purple Wave can be the best marketplace for used equipment and we are committed to make it happen. 

Equal Opportunity Employer

Equal Opportunity is a Purple Wave, Inc. policy. It is our practice to select the best-qualified candidate for each position in the organization. No employee of the Company will discriminate against an applicant for employment or a fellow employee because of race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, or other physical or mental disability, military or veteran status. 

Notice of Background Check

As a condition of your employment, you will be required to sign the Company’s Authorization for Background Check, and to provide the Company with documents establishing your identity and right to work in the United States.