Associate Product Manager

Big Happy • Chicago, IL

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

Big Happy is hiring an Associate Product Manager to help deliver its product roadmap across in-house platforms, including an order management system and a creative production tool maintained by the company’s Engineering and Design teams. Reporting to the Sr. Product Manager, the role turns business needs and discovery insights into clear, build-ready requirements. The Associate Product Manager leads structured discovery with internal stakeholders, translates findings into detailed product requirements and delivery artifacts, and independently owns assigned workstreams with limited oversight. The role requires keeping initiatives moving through agile delivery, surfacing risks and trade-offs early, and ensuring solutions are practical, well-scoped, and aligned with platform capabilities and business goals. The position is hybrid and works from either the New York City or Chicago office three days per week.

Requirements

• 1–3 years of professional experience, including at least 1 year in a product or product-adjacent role involving writing requirements and shipping work with an engineering team.
• Experience in an agile software or SaaS environment, including backlog refinement, sprint planning, or related delivery activities.
• Ability to elicit stakeholder needs and translate them into clear requirements, user stories, and acceptance criteria, including mapping and documenting workflows.
• Working experience developing user stories, refining backlogs, and mapping and documenting processes.
• Technical fluency sufficient to follow high-level discussions about APIs, integrations, and data flow.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to write clearly for technical and non-technical audiences and build strong working relationships across Sales, Operations, Client Services, Design, and Engineering.
• Strong analytical thinking and judgment, including the ability to weigh trade-offs and prioritize effectively.
• Proactive, ownership-driven mindset and comfort taking initiative and driving work forward independently.
• Bachelor's degree in business, marketing, communications, computer science, information systems, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.

Nice To Haves

• Background in ad tech or digital media, including ad operations, trafficking, agency, publisher, or ad server experience.
• Experience with SaaS product operations or systems integration documentation.
• Comfort using AI tools in day-to-day product work, such as research synthesis, drafting, and analysis.

Responsibilities

• Translate discovery findings and roadmap priorities into detailed PRDs for the in-house order management and creative production platforms, covering problem statements, user needs, scope, workflows, dependencies, acceptance criteria, and open questions.
• Lead structured discovery conversations with Sales, Operations, Client Services, and other internal stakeholders to uncover pain points, validate business needs, and clarify edge cases.
• Drive day-to-day execution of assigned product workstreams by organizing tasks, tracking decisions, and moving initiatives forward with limited oversight.
• Synthesize requests, process details, and technical context into specific, unambiguous documentation for UX and Engineering, aligned with product documentation standards.
• Identify scope, timeline, dependency, and technical trade-offs; evaluate their impact on delivery and user outcomes; and escalate decisions promptly.
• Partner with Engineering during backlog refinement, sprint planning, and delivery follow-through by clarifying requirements and keeping tickets aligned with intended product behavior.
• Develop working knowledge of platform functionality, user workflows, system interactions, operational realities, and integration constraints.
• Keep PRDs current, document revisions, and communicate requirement changes to stakeholders as decisions evolve, ensuring agreed outcomes are reflected through delivery.

Benefits

• Competitive base salary.
• Healthcare, dental, and vision benefits.
• Unlimited PTO.
• HSA/FSA match program.
• Big Happy-provided laptop.
• Participation in Big Happy's stock program.
• Paid parental leave.
• Half Day Fridays, except in Q4.
• Team camaraderie, celebration of wins, learning from challenges, and support for continuous career growth.
• Workplace culture that encourages employees to be themselves, contribute meaningfully, and be valued for their impact.
• 10% semi-annual bonus.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level