At Axelerant, we believe the traditional handoff model — research to design to product to delivery — is no longer fit for purpose. AI tooling has collapsed the time between concept and working prototype, and the bottleneck has shifted from production to ownership. We are building for that reality. This is a new kind of role: the UX Product Owner, or UXPO. You are the single continuous thread connecting user intent to shipped value. You hold the story, the system, the design, and the sprint together — not as a coordinator, but as the person who owns all of it. You are not a designer who attends standups, and you are not a product owner who appreciates good UX. You are someone who does both, deeply, without losing fidelity in between. The work lives in overlapping loops — plan, prototype, calibrate, validate, ship, measure — and discovery feeds the backlog on a weekly cadence, not once at project kickoff. You will use AI tools to compress the concept-to-tested loop significantly, while knowing precisely where human judgment is irreplaceable. If you read a brief like this and think "that is already how I work," this seat is worth a conversation.
- Run end-to-end user research and translate insights directly into prioritized backlog items — no wall to throw them over
- Own the product narrative from discovery through deployment, maintaining context and continuity across every loop
- Design and iterate on systems thinking artifacts: user journeys, object models, and pattern libraries
- Write clear acceptance criteria and work shoulder-to-shoulder with engineers throughout the sprint
- Build and test coded or high-fidelity prototypes rapidly using AI-assisted tooling
- Manage and groom the product backlog, balancing user needs, business goals, and delivery constraints
- Establish a continuous discovery rhythm so research informs the backlog weekly rather than at project kickoff
- Identify where AI tooling accelerates the work and where human judgment must remain the deciding factor
- Proven experience spanning both UX design and product ownership — not adjacent exposure, but genuine depth in each
- Strong research practice: you can design, conduct, and synthesize user research, then act on it without an intermediary
- Fluency in systems-level thinking, including journey mapping, object modeling, and design system architecture
- Comfortable and credible in agile delivery contexts — backlog management, sprint ceremonies, and direct collaboration with engineering teams
- Hands-on experience with AI-assisted design or prototyping tools to accelerate the concept-to-tested loop
- Ability to write precise acceptance criteria that bridge design intent and development implementation
- Track record of maintaining product coherence across fast-moving, iterative delivery cycles
- Clear communicator who can align stakeholders, advocate for users, and make prioritization trade-offs transparently
- A role that is genuinely new — space to define and shape what great UXPO practice looks like
- Collaborative, supportive team environment at Axelerant
- Work at the frontier of AI-assisted product development with real ownership over outcomes