Product Owner/Product Manager

Product Owner Platform & Roadmap

Position Title

Product Owner – Platform & Roadmap

Reports To

Associate VP of Product

Location

Pune, India (Hinjawadi)

Employment

Full-Time

Experience

12–15 years total; 8+ years in product management; B2B SaaS experience mandatory

Delivery Model

Scrum

Company Overview

Culinary Digital, part of Fulcrum Worldwide, is a B2B SaaS company building the Operating System for Institutional Foodservice. Our platform serves 2.5M+ meals daily across seven verticals, including healthcare, senior living, K–12, higher education, corrections, and food service management companies.

Our products — CulinarySuite, CD MealPlanner, and CD Signage — connect procurement, inventory, recipes, production, compliance, and diner experience in one integrated system. We operate in regulated environments (HIPAA, HL7, USDA/NSLP, audit-ready corrections records) and are actively building AI and intelligence capabilities on an enterprise-scale platform.

Position Overview

The Product Owner – Platform & Roadmap owns delivery of the committed product roadmap and the platform foundation that powers all Culinary Digital products. The role is accountable for outcomes, not activity: roadmap scope delivered, platform stability strengthened, and commitments met on schedule.

The role spans two layers:

• Roadmap delivery — new modules and capabilities on the CulinarySuite roadmap, including AI-driven insights, operational modules (e.g., commissary and catering workflows), and enterprise client programme commitments.
• Platform foundation — architecture-level improvements, data integrity, concurrency and infrastructure reliability, observability, and AI/data enablement.

This is a senior, technically strong PO role. You will make informed trade-offs with Engineering and Architecture, then explain those decisions in business terms to leadership, Client Delivery, and Sales.

Key Responsibilities

Committed Roadmap Delivery

• Own the Platform & Roadmap backlog end to end — prioritised, groomed, and sprint-ready at all times
• Drive delivery against agreed roadmap scope sprint over sprint, measured as items delivered vs. items committed into sprint
• Conduct structured discovery before development; write user stories with clear, testable acceptance criteria (Gherkin preferred)
• Translate roadmap and client programme commitments into sequenced, deliverable increments

Platform Technical Delivery & Stability

• Partner with Engineering and Architecture to own the platform roadmap — scalability, reliability, and performance
• Define requirements for architecture-level work, data integrity improvements, and concurrency/race-condition fixes that close defect classes at the root
• Own data platform requirements — data models, data quality standards, pipeline reliability, and cloud DB/BI access for clients
• Define requirements for AI and analytics capabilities, including governance and benchmarking
• Drive observability, CI/CD, and environment readiness for compliance, load testing, and scaling
• Lead root-cause analysis for critical incidents in owned areas; distinguish requirement gaps from engineering failures

Delivery Predictability

• Deliver committed sprint scope on schedule; flag risk at least one sprint ahead, never at sprint close
• Sequence concurrent platform priorities with explicit trade-offs
• Own Definition of Done enforcement for both feature releases and platform capability delivery

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Visibility

• Maintain a live dependency and risk tracker across Engineering, Product, QA, UX, and Client Delivery
• Run a recurring sync cadence with teams affected by platform sequencing decisions
• Communicate platform investment rationale to non-technical stakeholders in terms of business value
• Support Client Delivery and Sales with release readiness artifacts — demo flows, release summaries, and CS briefs

Process & Documentation

• Document major decisions in real time — scope changes, architecture trade-offs, and reprioritisation rationale
• Close the loop on deprioritised or rejected requests with documented reasoning
• Present delivery outcomes and platform progress clearly in leadership forums

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field
• 12–15 years of total experience, with a minimum of 8 years in product management (Product Owner / Product Manager roles)
• Mandatory: hands-on product experience in a B2B SaaS company
• Hands-on ownership of platform, infrastructure, or technical backlogs alongside customer-facing features
• Strong understanding of web application architecture, APIs, databases, and integrations — enough to make informed trade-offs with Engineering
• Proven delivery against committed sprint scope, with a track record of surfacing risk early
• Proficiency with Jira or equivalent agile tooling
• Excellent written and verbal communication; able to explain technical decisions to non-technical audiences
• Based in Pune or willing to relocate

Preferred

• Exposure to data platforms — data pipelines, data quality, BI/reporting, or cloud database access
• Experience defining requirements for AI/ML features, including benchmarking and governance
• Familiarity with observability, CI/CD, and performance/load testing concepts
• SAFe or LeSS exposure
• Enterprise SaaS experience in regulated domains (healthcare/HIPAA, public sector, education)
• Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) or equivalent certification

What Success Looks Like

• Committed roadmap delivery rises sprint over sprint against an agreed target
• Platform work measurably strengthens stability — root-cause fixes close defect classes rather than patching symptoms
• Sprints have few surprises; risks are visible at least one sprint ahead
• Leadership and dependent teams have a current, trusted view of platform dependencies and sequencing
• Key decisions are documented as they happen, making the track's choices defensible and repeatable
• Platform investments are articulated in business value, not just technical outcomes

Why Join Us

• Work on an enterprise-scale SaaS platform serving 2.5M+ meals daily across the US
• Direct exposure to AI, data, and platform modernisation initiatives
• Flat structure with direct access to product leadership
• High-ownership culture with clear accountability and visible impact
• Close collaboration with US-based client and leadership teams