Product Owner

Be essential at Cars Commerce

At Cars Commerce, we’re fanatical about simplifying everything about car buying and selling. We do right by our customers and consumers to better connect the industry with simplified and tierless technology to enhance, measure and drive local automotive retail. Whether through our No.1 most recognized marketplace, Cars.com, our industry-leading digital experience, Dealer Inspire, our trade and appraisal technology, AccuTrade, or our new Cars Commerce Media Network, Cars Commerce is essential for success in the automotive industry.  

No one ever travels alone here: at its core, Cars Commerce is collaboration. In fact, it’s built into the very fabric of our shared values. We like to say we Rise Together – putting people at the center of what we do, from consumer to customer to community. Life at Cars Commerce makes it easy when we share the ethos to be Open to All, encouraging open-minded communication because we know diverse thinking yields better outcomes. But critical to our success is Caring to Challenge and Taking Ownership, fueling a competitive spirit in a respectful environment where we think about tomorrow but act today. At our foundation, we have integrity, Doing the Right Thing, even when it’s hard. It’s our shared commitment to these values that makes Cars Commerce a place where growth becomes not only possible, but downright unavoidable.

But don’t take our word for it. As a U.S. News & World Report Best Company to Work For in 2024, we're obsessive about the employee experience. We are among the top 20% being declared “Best” of our industry based on six critical factors that are important to employee wellbeing, like quality of pay, benefits, work life balance and more.

ABOUT THIS ROLE:

• Market & Competitive Intelligence: Surveying and analyzing the competition and the market trend to identify potential risks & opportunities for Cars Commerce

• New Features: Developing new ideas. Qualifying and scoping them using the Lean Product Management approach. Building a backlog of high potential features. Prioritizing them according to the company’s objectives and organizational constraints to produce a robust product roadmap

• Improvements: Triaging, qualifying, scoping and prioritizing incremental customer requests or feature expansion

• Bug triaging and prioritization: Understanding, qualifying and triaging all upcoming bugs to feed the developers backlog

• Dev assignment: Assigning Bugs, Improvements & New Features to individual devs based on the dev’s expertise under a Kanban approach.

• Product Expertise: Remaining the SME of their respective products and supporting any questions that cannot be readily answered by the Support team.

• Training: Providing training material to the Customer Support Manager (who will ensure proper training). This is in essence a ‘train-the-trainer’ approach. Hence, responsible for revamping and maintaining the training tools used (i.e. wiki, presentations, etc)

• Interviews: Ensuring the expertise vetting of Support agent candidates.

ABOUT YOU:

• Education: Undergraduate degree in Engineering, Marketing or a technical field (Comp-sci, BTM, etc) OR equivalent work experience

• Professional Experience: Eight (8) years of professional experience of which three (3) years of work experience acting as a Product Owner for a technology firm

• Product management expertise: Ability to define product vision, roadmap, and strategy aligned with business goals, customer requirements and organizational constraints.

• Familiarity with digital products: Proficiency in digital technologies used in automotive dealerships, including websites, CRM systems, digital marketing campaigns, virtual business development centers (VBDC), etc.

• Stakeholder management skills: Experience in collaborating with internal teams, stakeholders, and clients to gather feedback, prioritize features, and ensure product success.

• User-centric mindset: Dedication to understanding user needs through research, feedback, and data analysis, and translating them into product features and improvements.

• Agile methodologies: Familiarity with Agile principles and practices, particularly Kanban, to manage product development processes, prioritize tasks, and adapt to changing requirements.

• Communication skills: Excellent verbal and written communication skills to convey product vision, updates, and priorities effectively to cross-functional teams and stakeholders.

• Analytical mindset: Capability to analyze data, metrics, and market insights to make informed decisions, drive product innovation, and optimize product performance.

• Problem-solving skills: Ability to identify and address product issues, challenges, and opportunities through creative problem-solving and collaboration with the development team.

• Continuous learning: Commitment to staying updated on industry trends, emerging technologies, and best practices in product management to drive continuous improvement and innovation in automotive digital products.

• Autonomy: Ability to operate with limited supervision and demonstrate initiative and resourcefulness

• Personality: Passionate, curious and driven about technology and product management

• Language Skills: English/French bilingual

Preferred:

• In-depth knowledge of the automotive industry: Understanding of dealership operations, market trends, and customer needs in the automotive sector.

Our Comprehensive Benefits Package includes:

• Medical, Paramedical & Dental Healthcare Plans

• New Hire Stipend for Home Office Set-Up

• Generous PTO

• Paid holidays

#LI-HD1 #LI-Remote

Our Comprehensive Benefits Package includes:

• Medical, Dental & Vision Healthcare Plans
• New Hire Stipend for Home Office Set-Up
• Generous PTO
• Refuel - a service based recognition program where employees receive additional paid time away to learn grow and reset
• Paid Holidays, Floating Holiday, Volunteer Day, Recharge Day

Learn more about our Benefits, Perks, & Culture on our LinkedIn Life Pages!

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. California Applicants: Click here to review our California Privacy Policy for Applicants. For current employees, please click here to review our California Privacy Policy for Employees.