Product Analyst / Associate Product Owner

Innova Solutions•Piscataway, NJ

12h

About The Position

Innova Solutions is hiring a Product Analyst / Associate Product Owner on a contract basis for 12+ months in New Jersey. The role supports product strategy, requirements gathering, backlog management, release planning, and cross-functional coordination. The successful candidate will work with business stakeholders, engineering teams, QA, and leadership to translate business needs into actionable product requirements and help deliver product initiatives. Strong analytical, communication, and Agile project coordination skills are required. The position supports discovery and roadmap planning; creation and refinement of product requirements and delivery artifacts; Jira backlog management and sprint coordination; release, testing, and production-readiness activities; performance measurement and reporting; documentation; incident coordination; and continuous improvement. Pay is between $55 and $60 per hour. Benefits are offered based on eligibility.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Information Systems, or a related IT field.
Minimum 3 years of experience as a Product Analyst, Business Analyst, Product Owner, Technical Business Analyst, or similar role supporting software development and product delivery initiatives.
Experience working in Agile/Scrum environments.
Strong experience with Jira for backlog management, sprint planning, and reporting.
Experience creating PRDs, user stories, use cases, acceptance criteria, process flows, and functional requirements.
Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.
Experience coordinating across business, product, engineering, QA, and leadership teams.
Knowledge of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).
Experience with release planning, UAT coordination, and defect management.
Strong analytical, problem-solving, and organizational skills.
Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
Experience creating executive dashboards, status reports, and KPI tracking metrics.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite, including Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and Teams.

Nice To Haves

Experience working with Product Management or Product Ownership functions.
Knowledge of Agile tools such as Jira, Confluence, Azure DevOps, or similar platforms.
Experience supporting digital transformation, automation, or enterprise application initiatives.
Familiarity with business process modeling and workflow documentation.
Scrum certifications such as CSPO, PSPO, CSM, SAFe, or equivalent.

Responsibilities

Partner with business stakeholders to understand business challenges, user journeys, and desired outcomes.
Assist in defining product roadmaps, milestones, dependencies, and success metrics.
Facilitate workshops and discovery sessions to gather requirements.
Create product artifacts, including problem statements, personas, journey maps, and high-level epics.
Identify project risks, assumptions, and potential mitigation strategies.
Create and refine Product Requirement Documents (PRDs), user stories, use cases, and acceptance criteria.
Translate business requirements into detailed functional and non-functional requirements.
Break down large initiatives into manageable stories and tasks.
Ensure alignment between business objectives and delivered solutions.
Collaborate with business, engineering, and QA teams to validate requirements.
Create, manage, and maintain Jira epics, stories, tasks, and workflows.
Lead backlog refinement and prioritization sessions.
Track sprint progress, dependencies, risks, and blockers.
Ensure accurate and up-to-date reporting for project stakeholders and leadership.
Coordinate activities between Product, Engineering, QA, Architecture, and Business teams.
Communicate project updates, decisions, risks, and action items.
Facilitate sprint ceremonies, demos, review meetings, and stakeholder sessions.
Ensure feedback is documented and incorporated into product planning.
Participate in release planning and deployment activities.
Coordinate QA testing, defect management, and User Acceptance Testing (UAT).
Track production readiness activities, including risk assessments, security reviews, and rollback plans.
Support post-release validation and issue resolution.
Define and monitor product performance metrics and KPIs.
Analyze adoption, operational efficiency, defect trends, and business outcomes.
Prepare executive-level status reports highlighting accomplishments, risks, and opportunities.
Support data-driven prioritization and decision making.
Maintain product documentation, process flows, release notes, and knowledge repositories.
Identify opportunities for process optimization and workflow improvements.
Assist during production incidents by coordinating communications and tracking resolution activities.
Drive continuous improvement initiatives across product delivery processes.

Benefits

Medical and pharmacy coverage (based on eligibility).
Dental and vision insurance (based on eligibility).
401(k) (based on eligibility).
Health savings account (HSA) and flexible spending account (FSA) (based on eligibility).
Life insurance (based on eligibility).
Pet insurance (based on eligibility).
Short-term and long-term disability coverage (based on eligibility).
Accident and critical illness coverage (based on eligibility).
Pre-paid legal and ID theft protection (based on eligibility).
Sick time and other types of paid leave as required by law.
Employee Assistance Program (EAP).