Senior Product Manager; Remote from

Department Information

Together, we innovate for a stronger Colorado. The work of employees at the Governor's Office of Information Technology (OIT) is challenging and diverse because the needs of agencies, customers and Coloradans constantly evolve. But our focus never changes: improve the lives of all Coloradans through innovation and collaboration. We're building one of the nation's leading government IT organizations by reimagining how we support agencies, building first‑of‑their‑kind applications, and creating an inclusive, collaborative culture together.

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The Colorado Governor's Office of Information Technology is in the middle of a transformation worth joining. We’re building cross‑functional pod teams that partner directly with agencies to design, deliver, and continuously improve services that work for Coloradans. Good government depends on technology that works. And OIT exists to make that true for every Coloradan. The State of Colorado is seeking a Senior Product Manager to help build the next generation of public services.

We’re looking for people who want to do the best work of their careers in service of the public.

The Senior Product Manager serves as the interface between the agency’s mission and the delivery pod’s work. This position is responsible for deciding what gets built and why, ensuring the pod is always working on the highest‑priority items. Unlike a traditional business analyst or project coordinator, this is a prioritization role and not a requirements‑gathering role. The Senior Product Manager owns the product backlog, runs planning cycles, and grounds every decision in user research and outcome‑based metrics rather than simple activity tracking.

• Write and maintain a well‑groomed backlog using user stories that are outcome‑oriented, appropriately sized, and grounded in real constituent needs;
  Draft initial product backlogs for RFPs, translating problem spaces into indicative user stories that structure procurement without locking the pod into fixed, rigid scope.
• Apply frameworks such as Value vs. Effort or “Now/Next/Later” to make and defend prioritization decisions.
• Proactively manage scope by saying “no” clearly and constructively to work that does not serve the current priority, ensuring agency stakeholders are informed and aligned.
• Run essential agile planning cycles, including sprint planning, refinement, reviews, and retrospectives.
• Conduct quarterly roadmap conversations with agency leadership to align long‑term goals with delivery capacity.
• Regularly update IT Director and agency program staff about status in terms of outcomes (mission impact) rather than just progress (activity).
• Partner with Service Designers to interpret journey maps, blueprints, and problem frames, translating these artifacts into actionable backlog inputs.
• Define and track objectives and key results (OKRs) and success metrics; evaluate and communicate when shipped features fail to deliver expected outcomes.
• Build the product ownership capacity of agency staff over time, ensuring the agency becomes a stronger partner rather than a dependent.
• Manage the product’s lifecycle from discovery through to ongoing continuous improvement.
• Collaborate deeply with engineering to validate technical architecture decisions.
• Collaborate with the Delivery Engineer on build/buy/SaaS evaluations, contributing backlog context, mission‑impact perspective, and constituent needs to inform the technical decision.

• Knowledge of product management fundamentals, including backlog ownership, user story writing, prioritization frameworks such as value vs. effort or now/next/later, and what it means to govern a product rather than a project.
• Knowledge of agile…