Product Owner

Position Description

We are seeking an experienced Product Owner with strong functional expertise in shipping operations, specifically in the Vessel Scheduling / Voyage Scheduling / Network Planning modules of shipping applications. This role will play a critical part in defining requirements, guiding development teams, and ensuring successful delivery of features that enhance schedule planning, vessel operations, and downstream operational workflows.

The Product Owner will collaborate with business stakeholders, architects, and IT delivery teams to translate operational scheduling needs into clear, actionable product requirements. The ideal candidate will bridge the gap between scheduling planners and technology teams, driving end-to-end delivery of a robust and efficient scheduling product.

Job Role/ Your future duties and responsibilities

• Acting as the Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the Scheduling module including vessel voyage planning, port rotation, transit times, and service schedules.
• Collaborating with business stakeholders in Network Planning, Marine Operations, Operations Control, and Booking teams to gather, analyze, and document functional and non-functional requirements.
• Owning and managing the product backlog, including writing highly detailed user stories, acceptance criteria, and business rules.
• Driving sprint ceremonies, including backlog refinement, sprint planning, user story walkthroughs, and sprint review sessions.
• Partnering with architects and technical teams to ensure correct interpretation of scheduling logic, operational rules, and integration touchpoints.
• Supporting solution design, reviewing wireframes, validating mock-ups, and ensuring alignment with business workflows.
• Performing functional validation of the scheduling module during development and supporting UAT cycles.
• Analyzing gaps and identifying opportunities to optimize scheduling workflows, improve schedule reliability, and automate manual steps.
• Ensuring smooth integration of scheduling functionality with dependent modules such as Booking, Allocation, Equipment Management, Marine Ops, and Operations Control.
• Staying up to date with scheduling best practices, shipping industry trends, and operational constraints to continuously enhance the product.
• Acting as the key advisor for requirement clarification, business process mapping, and stakeholder communication for all scheduling-related features.

The ideal candidate should possess:

Strong domain knowledge in container shipping with specific exposure to vessel/voyage scheduling, service creation, network planning, or berth and port rotation planning.

The ability to articulate scheduling processes, such as:

• ETA/ETD planning
• Port cut-offs
• Transit time calculation
• Schedule versioning
• Disruption handling
• Schedule publication workflows
• Experience translating operational planning needs into product requirements for IT teams.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to collaborate with global teams.
• Hands-on experience with Agile methodologies, user story creation, backlog prioritization, and sprint delivery.
• A strong customer-centric mindset with an ability to balance business needs and technical constraints.

Required qualifications to be successful in this role

• Professional experience in Shipping, Maritime, or Logistics with a strong understanding of container operations.
• Demonstrated experience as a Product Owner, Business Analyst, or Functional Consultant in shipping products.
• Experience working in agile delivery environments and participating in all SCRUM ceremonies.
• Ability to work closely with business users to translate complex scheduling workflows into clear IT requirements.
• Strong documentation skills including process flows, functional requirement documents, and feature definitions.
• Willingness to work in client-aligned shifts (including German Shift if required).
• Involvement in product development/enhancement including:
• Requirements analysis
• Documentation
• Validation & UAT support

Technologies required: Selected Skills

Primary Skill :

• Strong knowledge of shipping domain specifically Vessel Scheduling, Network Planning, Voyage Planning.
• Agile delivery experience.
• Requirement grooming, user story creation, and acceptance criteria definition.
• JIRA, Confluence.
• MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint.
• SQL and database understanding for validating data.

Understanding of integrations between Scheduling and:

• Booking
• Allocation
• Equipment
• Marine Ops
• Port handling
• Knowledge of shipping documentation and operational processes.Freight forwarding
• Vessel operations
• Port handling
• Intermodal transport
• Final delivery to customers
• Hands on Knowledge of shipping documentation, customs regulations, and cargo handling.

Secondary Skill:

Wireframes/Axure prototyping tools/FIGMA

PowerDesigner + PowerDesigner Viewer) / LDM