TECHNICAL PRODUCT OWNER AND TECHNICAL CHIEF OF STAFF

Svitla Systems Inc. is looking for a Technical Product Owner and Technical Chief of Staff for a full-time position (40 hours per week) in Ukraine. Our client is an API-first payments company focused on helping smaller e-commerce businesses offer more flexible payment experiences and better payment processor orchestration. The platform enables buyers to complete a transaction using multiple payment methods while helping merchants manage routing logic across payment processors. The company is focused on serving small and mid-sized merchants and improving both merchant onboarding and payment processor onboarding, while building toward broader product capabilities over time.

You'll work directly with the founder and help accelerate product execution across an existing distributed engineering team. It is not a traditional project management role, nor is it a passive backlog-management function. The perfect candidate will operate as a force multiplier for the founder by bringing structure, urgency, prioritization, product judgment, and technical fluency to the organization. This person will be expected to move quickly, absorb context rapidly, identify high-priority work, challenge assumptions, improve team focus, and help push critical product initiatives across the finish line. The role sits at the intersection of product ownership, technical leadership, delivery acceleration, and operational problem-solving. The right candidate must be able to work independently, self-organize, and drive action without needing extensive direction.

The existing team includes members across Ukraine, Europe, Costa Rica, Houston, and other regions.

Requirements

• Strong experience as a Technical Product Owner, Technical Program Lead, Product Delivery Lead, Startup Product Leader, or similar role in a fast-moving software environment.
• At least 5 years of experience in software development as a Product Owner.
• Minimum of a bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field.
• Ability to operate in a founder-led startup where priorities shift quickly and speed matters.
• Strong product instincts combined with enough technical depth to work credibly with engineers, architects, APIs, and platform integrations.
• Experience driving execution in environments with an existing technical team, but with stronger coordination, prioritization, and velocity needed.
• Expertise in identifying, organizing, and pushing through high-priority work without waiting for detailed instructions.
• Strong understanding of product delivery in software companies serving external customers.
• Ability to connect product decisions to customer impact, onboarding friction, business growth, and revenue outcomes.
• Strong written and spoken English, with the ability to work directly with the founder and a geographically distributed team.
• High level of self-organization, self-starting behavior, urgency, and ownership.
• Ability to work well with engineers while also holding them accountable for speed and execution quality.
• Be comfortable operating without heavy processes, large support structures, or enterprise-style bureaucracy.
• Fast-moving and highly proactive individual.
• Technically credible professional, but not narrowly attached to one engineering specialty.
• Be comfortable working directly with a founder.
• The ability to quickly absorb complex product context.
• Strong judgment around priorities, trade-offs, and what actually matters now.
• Be comfortable with ambiguity and startup pressure.
• The ability to create momentum without creating unnecessary process overhead.
• Willingness to push, question, organize, and accelerate.
• A person who can "run circles around the team" in terms of technical capability, urgency, structure, follow-through, and execution discipline, while still working well with others.
• Not a traditional project manager who only tracks tasks and schedules.
• Not a passive product owner who waits for work to be assigned.
• Not a pure architect who requires detailed direction before contributing.
• Not a standard full-stack engineer who needs work handed down ticket by ticket.
• Not an operations-heavy people manager buried in bureaucracy.
• Not someone who simply says yes without challenging assumptions, priorities, or execution patterns.
  
  

Preferred Technical Background

• Solid experience in developing with PHP-based platforms.
• Strong knowledge of WooCommerce.
• Familiarity with Magento.
• Strong understanding of the development of API-first products.
• Experience in developing JavaScript-based front-end or integration layers.
• Understanding of payment flows, payment processor orchestration, merchant onboarding, e-commerce platforms, or checkout systems is highly valuable.
• Familiarity with AWS-based architectures, messaging patterns, or platform integrations is helpful, though this role is not intended to replace infrastructure leadership.
• Ability to quickly evaluate technical feasibility and product impact for integrations such as Shopify or other commerce platforms.
  
  

Responsibilities

• Work directly with the founder to understand product priorities, business constraints, and near-term delivery needs.
• Translate founder goals into clear, actionable work streams for the engineering team.
• Help prioritize product work across urgent items, strategic improvements, and lower-priority backlog items.
• Accelerate decision-making and execution around critical initiatives.
• Review product and engineering priorities with a strong bias toward speed, clarity, and practical delivery.
• Drive progress on high-priority issues that are blocking growth, onboarding, or product adoption.
• Rapidly analyze technical documentation, APIs, platform behavior, and integration paths without requiring lengthy ramp-up time.
• Evaluate opportunities such as platform integrations, onboarding improvements, payment processor enablement, workflow improvements, and other product accelerators.
• Act as an objective outsider who can challenge slow decision cycles, call out weak execution patterns, and create healthy delivery pressure on the team.
• Work collaboratively with current engineers, architects, and advisors without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.
• Support product and execution strategy without becoming a purely administrative project coordinator.
• Ensure the team stays aligned around client impact, product priorities, and business outcomes.
• Help build stronger product ownership discipline inside the company over time.
• Contribute technically where appropriate, particularly in analysis, prioritization, workflow definition, product logic, and execution planning.
  
  

Role Objective

• Increase the speed and quality of product execution.
• Help the founder turn high-priority business and product needs into clear technical action.
• Improve prioritization, pipeline hygiene, and follow-through across the engineering team.
• Push urgent and high-value product items forward more quickly.
• Act as an external, objective, technically credible presence who can challenge the team, identify inefficiencies, and improve execution discipline.
• Bridge product, client impact, engineering delivery, and operational urgency in a startup environment with limited runway and strong growth expectations.
  
  

Success Criteria

• Product bottlenecks are surfaced and addressed earlier;
• Team accountability and urgency improve without adding unnecessary overhead;
• The company gains a stronger bridge between product, technical execution, and customer impact
  
  

WE OFFER

• US and EU projects based on advanced technologies.
• Competitive compensation based on skills and experience.
• Regular performance appraisals to support your growth.
• Flexibility in workspace, either remote or in one of our development offices.
• Comprehensive medical insurance, including dental and massages.
• Personalized learning program tailored to your interests and skill development.
• Sport reimbursement program for onsite and online activities.
• Bonuses for recommendations of new employees.
• Bonuses for article writing, public talks, and other activities.
• 20 vacation days, 10 national holidays and 5 sick leaves.
• Maternity leave policy and family days off.
• Free tech webinars and meetups organized by Svitla.
• Welcome and anniversary presents, gifts for children, and more.
• Regular corporate events and meetups.
• Awesome team, friendly and supportive community!