Product Owner

Product Owner
About Anvil
Anvil is a trusted partner in the defence industry, delivering cutting-edge solutions that enhance military capabilities and operational effectiveness. We extend our expertise to public safety, law enforcement, and national security organizations, accelerating mission-critical decision-making through analytical tools, automations, and game-changing machine learning capabilities. ANVIL helps organizations discover, manage, enrich, fuse, and exploit the information available to them in support of Information Dominance and Decision Advantage.
Job Type: Full Time Remote (Hybrid option available for those in the Ottawa area - 55 Murray Street Office)
Total Compensation: CAD $110,000 - $135,000 base salary - Placement within range based on experience and qualifications
Vacancy Status: This posting is for an existing vacancy at ANVIL. We are actively hiring for this role
Role (Description)
We're looking for a Product Owner to drive the delivery of exceptional products for our defence and public safety technology platform. As the owner of the product backlog, you'll work closely with stakeholders to understand requirements and with engineering teams to translate those requirements into well-defined user stories that move efficiently through to completion.
You'll be the critical link between customer needs and development execution - prioritizing work, clarifying requirements, and ensuring the team always understands what they're building and why. You'll participate actively in sprint ceremonies, refine the backlog continuously, and make the day-to-day prioritization decisions that keep delivery on track. You'll collaborate with product management to understand strategic direction and ensure that tactical execution aligns with broader product goals.
Our learning-oriented culture is transparent, fun, and strongly encourages work-life balance.
Prerequisites
Eligible for Government of Canada Secret or Top Secret security clearance.
Required Qualifications
Experience
3+ years of experience in product ownership, business analysis, or related roles, with demonstrated success owning and managing product backlogs
Proven experience working in agile/scrum environments, participating in sprint planning, daily standups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives
Experience translating business requirements and user needs into clear, actionable user stories with well-defined acceptance criteria
Track record of effective collaboration with engineering teams throughout the development lifecycle
Experience with backlog management and prioritization in tools such as Jira or similar platforms
Demonstrated ability to balance competing priorities and make sound trade-off decisions under time pressure
Skills & Competencies
Strong understanding of agile and scrum principles, with the ability to apply them pragmatically in real-world delivery contexts
Excellent ability to decompose complex requirements into appropriately sized user stories that can be completed within a sprint
Strong analytical skills with the ability to understand technical constraints and their implications for product decisions
Exceptional communication skills—able to articulate requirements clearly to engineers and explain technical trade-offs to stakeholders
Collaborative mindset with the ability to build strong working relationships across disciplines
Detail-oriented approach to defining acceptance criteria and validating delivered functionality
Bachelor's degree in Business, Computer Science, Engineering, International Relations, War Studies, or related field (or equivalent practical experience)
Preferred Qualifications
Experience with defence, public safety, intelligence, or other mission-critical applications
Understanding of data-intensive applications, analytical workflows, or geospatial systems
Background working with government customers or understanding compliance requirements
Experience working with distributed or cross-functional development teams
Familiarity with user research methods and incorporating user feedback into product decisions
Key Responsibilities
Own and maintain the product backlog, ensuring it is visible, transparent, and clearly understood by the development team, including continuously refining the product backlog by breaking down epics into features and ensuring upcoming work is ready for sprint planning
Write clear, well-structured user stories with detailed acceptance criteria that enable efficient development and testing
Prioritize backlog items based on business value, technical dependencies, and stakeholder input, making trade-off decisions as needed
Participate actively in all scrum ceremonies—sprint planning, daily standups, backlog refinement, sprint reviews, and retrospectives
Serve as the primary point of contact for the development team on questions of scope, requirements, removing blockers, and acceptance criteria
Collaborate with product management to understand strategic priorities and translate them into tactical delivery plans
Work closely with stakeholders and customers to gather requirements, clarify needs, and validate that delivered functionality meets expectations
Partner with UX/UI designers to ensure user experience considerations are reflected in story requirements
Review completed work based on acceptance criteria and definition of done in order to inform User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
Communicate sprint progress, risks, and impediments to stakeholders and product management
Support release planning and coordinate with engineering on delivery timelines
Why Join Us?
Our Mission
This is more than just a job; you'll be part of a team of dedicated professionals who share a common goal: to increase the safety and security of western democracies through the effective use of data. Our workplace is not just a job, it's a community of like-minded people working together to make a positive impact on the world we live in.
Compensation & Benefits
Competitive salaries
Flexible health benefits package through Equitable
Industry-leading employer retirement contributions match
Work Environment
Remote and Hybrid (Ottawa market) work model combining remote flexibility with meaningful in-person collaboration

Employment type
Full-Time

Work arrangement
Yes