Details
Department: Product
Reports to: Product Manager
FLSA Status: Exempt or Independent Contractor
Job Status: Full Time
Compensation: $40k-55k annually dependent on experience and location (Paid in USD)
Position Summary
As a Product Owner at Open Earth Foundation, help drive the development of open-source climate data platforms like our main product CityCatalyst. You will work at the intersection of product, data, and program delivery: translating climate goals into engineering tasks, engaging directly with city governments and partners, and shipping with the team.
This role is for a builder who thrives in ambiguity, learns fast, and is comfortable wearing many hats.
You will be part of the product team and work directly with the other technical and product team members and a variety of team members in the organization.
Essential Functions and Specific Duties:
- Own your initiative. Take end-to-end ownership of your initiative within the broader product roadmap — you steer its direction, priorities, and trade-offs, and you keep its backlog groomed and ready for the team.
- Run delivery. Ensure ticket refining, write user stories, manage backlog, and keep everyone unblocked. Comfortable in Jira, Notion, or equivalent tools.
- Get hands-on with code. Use AI-assisted tools (vibe coding, Claude Code, Cursor) to prototype, explore, and eventually contribute PRs when needed. You don't need to be an engineer, but you need to be able to dig in.
- Face the client. Run demos, workshops, and feedback sessions with city governments and institutional partners. Communicate complex data concepts clearly to non-technical audiences.
- Work with data. Understand and shape data pipelines, visualizations, and platform architectures. Collaborate with data engineers and scientists on meaningful outputs.
- Keep learning. Bring intellectual curiosity to every sprint. Explore new tools, frameworks, and approaches, then share what you find with the team.
- Sweat the details. Hold a high bar for quality and polish. Obsess over the details, catch the rough edges before users do, and care deeply about shipping things that are done right.
Other:
- Actively participate in team building and culture development activities at Open Earth Foundation
Qualifications:
- Proven experience in a product, technical, or delivery role — ideally at a startup or mission-driven tech organization.
- Ability to translate high-level goals into concrete engineering tasks and track them to completion.
- Confidence running presentations, client workshops, and stakeholder demos independently.
- Hands-on experience using AI tools in day-to-day work — whether for writing, prototyping, automation, or research. Curiosity about what's next.
- Comfort using AI to understand code; willingness to eventually contribute code to the team's codebase.
- Fluent English (written and spoken) — mandatory.
- Available to join meetings in US Eastern time zone when needed, even if based in a different time zone.
Interpersonal Skills:
- Ability to work in an agile software development environment with a mix of data engineers, full-stack developers, product designers and product managers
- Ability to estimate and track time worked on tasks
- Communications skills necessary to document and present work
Other Qualities
- Dedication to fighting climate change
- Focus on impact over process
- Interest in non-profit work
- Bias for speed and iteration - you'd rather ship and improve than plan forever
The Organization has reviewed this job description to ensure that essential functions and basic duties have been included. It is intended to provide guidelines for job expectations and the employee's ability to perform the position described. It is not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all functions, responsibilities, skills and abilities. Additional functions and requirements may be assigned by supervisors as deemed appropriate. This document does not represent a contract of employment, and the Company reserves the right to change this position description and/or assign tasks for the employee to perform, as the Company may deem appropriate.
OEF is an Equal Opportunity Employer. OEF does not discriminate because of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, national or ethnic origin, or other legally protected status.
OEF is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and do not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, age, religion, national origin, or any other protected characteristic. We celebrate diversity, equity, and inclusion in our teams and believe people should align their work with their purpose. Join us if you love Earth.
We use AI-assisted tools to help organize and summarize application materials. All hiring decisions are reviewed and made by people.
