Associate Principal Consultant(Product Owner)

Location: Shanghai

China Employment Type: Full-Time

About the Role seeking a Product Owner to own and evolve core hotel business systems (including PMS, POS, CRM, loyalty, and back-office operations) across global properties.

You will act as the critical bridge between hotel operations, regional business stakeholders, and agile engineering teams, translating hospitality business needs into clear, prioritized product requirements. This role drives the roadmap, backlog, and value delivery for systems that power daily hotel operations, guest experiences, and revenue performance.

Key Responsibilities

1. Product Vision & Roadmap

- Define, communicate, and execute the product vision, strategy, and multi-year roadmap for hotel business systems, aligned with global business goals, guest experience priorities, and operational efficiency targets.

- Collaborate with hotel operations leaders, regional directors, finance, revenue management, and IT stakeholders to align on OKRs, resolve conflicts, and ensure roadmap transparency.

- Continuously evaluate market trends, emerging hospitality tech (e.g., cloud PMS, contactless services), and competitor offerings to drive product innovation, working with engineering team.

2. Backlog & Requirements Management

- Own, groom, and prioritize the product backlog (epics, features, user stories, bugs) based on business value, guest impact, technical feasibility, etc.

- Translate complex hotel business needs into clear user stories, acceptance criteria, use cases, and workflow diagrams for engineering teams.

- Maintain backlog hygiene: remove obsolete items, refine estimates, and align sprint priorities with team capacity.

3. Agile Delivery & Cross-Functional Leadership

- Lead core agile ceremonies: sprint planning, backlog refinement, daily standups, sprint review, and retrospective; ensure alignment between business expectations and technical execution.

- Partner closely with engineering, UX/UI, QA, DevOps, and third-party vendors (e.g., Opera, Oracle) to deliver high-quality, scalable system increments on time.

- Validate user acceptance testing (UAT), sign off on production releases, and coordinate post-launch support for critical business systems.

- Manage dependencies across global teams, regional markets, and interconnected systems (e.g., PMS ? CRM ? Loyalty ? Finance).

4. Stakeholder Management & Guest Advocacy

- Serve as the primary business contact for hotel operations, regional leadership, and corporate stakeholders; communicate roadmap progress, risks, and mitigation plans clearly.

- Gather feedback from hotel staff (front desk, management, back office) and guests; analyze system usage data, support tickets, and operational pain points to drive data-driven prioritization.

- Champion guest-centric design and operational efficiency in all product decisions; balance short-term fixes with long-term strategic enhancements.

5. Compliance & Quality Assurance

- Ensure all system changes comply with global security, data privacy (GDPR, CCPA), and brand standards.

- Collaborate with the QA team to define test scenarios, validate system integrations, and resolve defects in a timely manner.

Required Qualifications Education

- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Business Administration, Hospitality Management, or a related field; or equivalent professional experience.

Professional Experience

- 5+ years of progressive experience as a Product Owner/Product Manager delivering enterprise software, preferably in the hospitality, hotel, or travel industry.

- Proven track record managing hotel business systems (PMS, POS, CRM, loyalty, back-office) or similar property management platforms.

- Deep hands-on experience with Agile/Scrum methodologies and tools (Jira, Confluence, Trello).

- Strong understanding of system integrations, APIs, cloud platforms (AWS/AliCloud), and enterprise software delivery lifecycles.

- Excellent stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence and align cross-functional, global teams at all levels. Technical & Soft Skills.

- Exceptional written and verbal English communication skills; fluent Mandarin is required for this role.

- Ability to translate complex business requirements into technical specifications and user stories with precise acceptance criteria.

- Strong analytical, problem-solving, and prioritization skills; comfortable working in ambiguous, fast-paced environments with competing priorities.

- Guest-obsessed mindset with a focus on operational efficiency and user experience.

- Proficient in Microsoft Office, Jira, Confluence, and product analytics/BI tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI). Preferred Qualifications

- CSPO (Certified Scrum Product Owner) or equivalent Agile certification.

- Direct experience with Opera Cloud, Oracle EPM/PPM solutions.

- Experience working in global, matrixed organizations with remote and cross-regional teams.

- Knowledge of hospitality industry standards (e.g., PCI DSS, data privacy regulations, hotel operational workflows).