Product Manager

About Patch

Patch is the leading hyperlocal news platform, serving communities across the United States with trusted journalism and essential local information. We are building the most effective way for local businesses and organizations to connect with their communities—through our network of newsletters, websites, and platform products. We also serve local small business customers with a portfolio of self-serve marketing tools to help them grow their businesses.

We are seeking a Product Manager who can accelerate our product execution and ensure fast, consistent delivery across a lean, high-velocity team.

The Role

We’re looking for a decisive, action-oriented Product Manager who thrives on building, shipping, and improving products in rapid cycles. You will work directly with Patch’s Head of Product and operate as a force multiplier — owning the operational, execution-heavy parts of the product function so strategic initiatives can move forward.

This role is designed for someone who loves the work itself: writing clear JIRA tickets, refining requirements, defining acceptance criteria, coordinating with engineering, QAing releases, managing product operations, and ensuring features move from idea → spec → build → launch → iteration without friction.

You should be energized by business outcomes, not just output. You’ll use data to validate assumptions, spot patterns, and refine features quickly after launch. Familiarity with Jobs To Be Done is a plus; a genuine customer-obsessed mindset is essential.

This is not a senior strategy role. It is a builder role for someone who wants ownership, momentum, constant throughput, and the satisfaction of seeing features ship weekly inside a scrappy, fast-moving environment.

Responsibilities

Product Execution

• Translate concepts, problems, and rough direction into structured product specs and developer-ready JIRA tickets.
• Define clear acceptance criteria, user flows, and edge cases for every feature.
• Run point on end-to-end feature delivery—shepherding work across design, engineering, QA, and launch.
• Validate work in staging, perform QA test plans, and ensure production releases are clean and complete.
• Break large initiatives into small, shippable increments that maintain velocity.

Product Operations & Delivery

• Own the day-to-day operations of the product development cycle.
• Maintain JIRA hygiene, sprint readiness, backlog organization, ticket prioritization, and documentation.
• Track progress, resolve blockers, and proactively ensure features keep moving.
• Facilitate handoff and communication between engineering and cross-functional partners.
• Monitor post-launch behavior and initiate immediate refinements when needed.

Quality, Analysis & Rapid Iteration

• Define lightweight success metrics for launches and gather early signals using available data.
• Conduct basic analysis using internal tools to validate functionality and identify next steps.
• Quickly propose improvements and follow up with fast, iterative updates.
• Flag issues, bugs, or UX friction with structured recommendations.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with Engineering to maintain predictable workflows and resolve ambiguity.
• Support Editorial, Sales, Support, and Marketing with product questions, use cases, and rollout plans.
• Share updates and timelines clearly across the organization.
• Manage small cross-functional initiatives that require coordination outside Engineering.

Qualifications

• 2–4 years of experience in Product Management or Product Operations roles.
• Experience writing JIRA tickets, defining requirements, and collaborating closely with engineering teams in an agile environment.
• Strong ability to turn loose direction into structured plans and shipped product.
• Comfortable operating with speed, autonomy, and minimal oversight.
• Excellent organization and communication skills; consistently keeps work unblocked.
• Action-biased, detail-oriented, and energized by building and shipping frequently.
• Experience in lean, startup-style environments a plus.
• Familiarity with analytics tools (GA, Looker internal dashboards) helpful but not required.



Compensation and Benefits

• Competitive compensation and benefits   
• Salary range $70,000 - $85,000 USD performance-based bonus 

Patch Media is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, citizenship, age, disability, sex, marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Our commitment to equality extends to all aspects of employment, including recruitment, hiring, placement, promotion, training, compensation, benefits, and general treatment.