Product Owner

Description

Purple Wave has grown from a regional online equipment auction company into a national platform, now operating as a subsidiary of Copart, the global leader in online vehicle auctions. As a Product Owner, you'll help shape how thousands of bidders, buyers and sellers experience our marketplace - from listing and bidding to payment and logistics.

This is a hands-on role. You'll work with stakeholders to set roadmap priorities and deliver value through iterative releases that directly impact our business. Product serves as the bridge between stakeholders and our technology department—translating business objectives into well-defined product initiatives and ensuring those objectives are met. We build together — product, tech, and the business as one team, not handoffs between silos.

What To Expect

Reporting to the Director of Product, you'll help guide our tech initiatives to ensure they align with business needs and stated objectives. This will include responsibilities such as:

• You'll own a meaningful slice of a complex marketplace — with real autonomy and real accountability for outcomes.
• You'll be hands-on from day one — writing requirements, talking to users, digging into data, and delivering work that moves the business forward.
• You'll need to build relationships quickly; this role only works if your stakeholders trust your judgment and your team understands your decisions.
• You'll collaborate regularly with the rest of the Product team — sharing best practices, working through dependencies, and contributing to a product org that's still maturing.
• You'll be expected to immerse yourself in the Purple Wave business — not just your product area, but how the whole operation works. The best POs here won't just know their backlog; they'll understand why their team exists, how their work connects to the broader marketplace, and what it means for the people on both sides of every transaction.
• Expect ambiguity. We're evolving our platform and you'll help shape what your area becomes.
  
  

Discovery & Strategy

• Develop a deep understanding of Purple Wave's business, your product area's role within it, and the upstream and downstream implications of your team's work — including how decisions impact our bidders, buyers, sellers, and internal teams.
• Lead product discovery initiatives using data-driven methodologies including AI-assisted tools for research, synthesis, and validation.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to identify opportunities, define problems, and validate solutions.
• Create and maintain product roadmaps for your product area that are understood across the organization and are aligned with stakeholder input and company strategic intents.
• Develop clear, measurable metrics for your product area.
  
  

Product Development

• Own the product backlog, ensuring items are well-defined, prioritized, and aligned with business goals.
• Work closely with designers and engineers to deliver high-quality solutions.
• Partner with the Scrum Master and team in Scrum ceremonies, owning backlog refinement and contributing to daily standups, sprint planning, reviews/demos, and retrospectives.
• Make stakeholder and data-informed decisions about feature development and prioritization and be able to communicate the reasoning behind them.
• Validate ideas quickly using modern prototypes and direct user feedback.
  
  

Stakeholder Management

• Build strong relationships with leadership, technology teams, and business stakeholders — communicating effectively and maintaining a clear understanding of their needs and pain points.
• Participate in periodic business reviews.
• Actively collaborate with fellow Product Owners to share best practices, strengthen shared processes, and work through cross-team dependencies — contributing to a product org that's stronger than the sum of its parts.
  
  

Technical Partnership

• Partner with the technology team to ensure technical feasibility, constraints, and architectural alignment.
• Understand and leverage data analytics to drive product decisions.
• Balance technical debt with new feature development.
  
  

Supervisory Responsibilities

• No direct reports.
  
  

Qualifications

• 4 years of product management experience, with experience in marketplaces, e-commerce or B2B software being preferred.
• Strong analytical skills; comfortable using data to inform decisions.
• Understanding of Agile and Scrum methodologies.
• Interest in Artificial Intelligence and learning how to harness its power to improve product development.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• A genuine drive to learn, grow, and push for better.
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Computer Science, or related field.
• Spanish fluency is a plus, given our growing Spanish speaking customer base.
• Candidates may be requested to complete position specific skills assessments.
• Applicants must be either a U.S. Citizen or eligible to work in the U.S.
• Requires the ability to satisfactorily complete a background check.
  
  

Working Settings

• Office hours are 8am-5pm, Monday through Friday, additional hours may be required depending on priorities.
• Remote eligible with preference given to someone based near our Manhattan, Kansas, headquarters.
• Upon hire, in person training will be required at the Purple Wave headquarters, and periodic in-person attendance will be required.
• Prolonged periods sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
  
  

Compensation

• The salary varies based on experience and qualifications, but typically ranges from $75,000 to $120,000 per year.
• Monthly Bonus Program - determined by the Company’s monthly revenue result and are paid on a “percent to plan” payout formula (90% = $300, 100% = $600, 110% = $900, 120% = $1,200).
• Monthly phone stipend in accordance with the Company’s cell phone policy, currently $120/month.
• Health, Dental, and Vision insurance.
• 401(k) plan with an employer match up to 4% starting the first day of employment.
• Company-paid Life Insurance with options for supplemental coverage.
• Fully paid Short-Term Disability provided by the Company.
• 3 Weeks of PTO annually (details shared during onboarding).
• Employee Stock Purchase Program (ESPP) - Eligible to purchase company stock at a discount after 90 days of employment, with enrollment opportunities each May and November.
  
  
  
  

About Purple Wave

Visit us at: PurpleWave.com

Purple Wave Auction is a leader in the equipment auction industry focusing on construction, ag, fleet, and government equipment. We are a data-driven, quickly changing and evolving, growing organization. Our focus is on marketing the assets we sell for our customers to find the highest quality bidders for the best recoveries for our sellers. We strive to make this transaction Straight, Simple, and Sold. We live daily by our core values of trust, team, care, and passion to be the place people want to work and our customers want to return to for their equipment buying and selling needs for their businesses.

Purple Wave Auction is the largest no-reserve Internet auction company in the Midwest.

• We have over 300 employees, nearly doubling in size in the last three years.
• We have a robust tech team and continue to invest in progressive techniques to enhance our services.
• While working at Purple Wave, you will have the opportunity to help our mission of being the easiest, most straightforward place to buy and sell used equipment.
• Purple Wave empowers its employees to solve problems effectively in a family-run business culture.
• We provide opportunities for continued education as you grow your career with tuition reimbursement. We have a generous benefits package in one of the fastest-growing companies in the area.
  
  

Purple Wave is looking for an enthusiastic person to join our growing team to support our customers as we bring our values of Trust, Team, Care and Passion to them.

Purple Wave Auction Core Values

• TRUST: We are trustworthy…Our business depends upon our integrity and our customer’s ability to trust Purple Wave and its people: to enforce a fair, transparent unreserved auction marketplace; to safeguard their bidding information; to give a full effort on behalf of their asset(s); We are transparent, accountable and fair.
• TEAM: WE ARE A TEAM…We respect, support, appreciate and inspire each other; We communicate and follow-through; We need each other. We do our best work when we work together.
• CARE: WE CARE…We care for our customers. We look out for their best interests. We work hard for them. We “go the extra mile”.
• PASSION: WE ARE PASSIONATE…We are positive, we are enthusiastic, we take pride in our work, we own our responsibilities and we deliver; When we see problems, we fix them. We learn from our mistakes. We improve ourselves and Purple Wave every day; We believe Purple Wave can be the best marketplace for used equipment and we are committed to make it happen.
  
  

Equal Opportunity Employer

Equal Opportunity is a Purple Wave, Inc. policy. It is our practice to select the best-qualified candidate for each position in the organization. No employee of the Company will discriminate against an applicant for employment or a fellow employee because of race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, or other physical or mental disability, military or veteran status.

Notice of Background Check

As a condition of your employment, you will be required to sign the Company’s Authorization for Background Check, and to provide the Company with documents establishing your identity and right to work in the United States.

Additional Information

• Seniority LevelAssociate
• Promotion Tag