Product Owner - Subscription

IE Media, Inc. is a leading global digital media publisher reaching millions of readers and over 25 million social media followers with the most important and exciting developments in technology, engineering, and science. From the ground-level engineering of global conflict to the mind-expanding science at the edge of the cosmos, we write for a global audience that geeks out about how things work — the inventors, the engineers, the curious.

We are a leading, global digital media publisher covering technology, engineering, and science news. We bring the most futuristic and cutting-edge developments in these fields to tens of millions of readers and followers across articles, newsletters, and a fast-growing mobile app.

We're building the next chapter of our publishing business: a premium, subscription-led media company anchored by our Premium Tier and the forthcoming PRO Tier, supported by our flagship newsletter and our native mobile app. We're looking for a Product Owner in India to help us get there — but not the kind who just writes tickets.

This is a hybrid Product Owner + hands-on full-stack developer role. You will own the backlog for our subscription, acquisition, and conversion surfaces — and you'll be comfortable opening a pull request when it speeds things up.

Our stack is Next.js (TypeScript) on the frontend and WordPress VIP on the backend, with a REST API layer in between. You don't need to be our senior engineer, but you do need to read the code, debug it, make small-to-medium changes yourself, and have credible technical conversations with our engineering team. We're a lean organization moving fast with AI-assisted development; the right person here is someone who closes the loop instead of throwing work over the wall. You will be the owner of a clearly defined product area, translating business goals (subscriber growth, trial-to-paid conversion, organic traffic, LTV) into crisp stories, acceptance criteria, and shipped releases — sometimes shipped by you directly. You'll live in Jira every day, partner closely with our product team and report to Product Manager.

Responsiblities:

• Own the backlog for subscription surfaces: paywalls (hard, soft, metered, and newsletter-gated), sign-up and login flows, plan pages, checkout, and account management.
• Drive the unification of plan-based authentication and entitlement logic across the codebase so monthly and annual subscribers get the right experience everywhere.
• Partner with Growth and Editorial on paywall strategy — when to gate, what to gate, and how newsletter opt-in mechanics feed acquisition.
• Own SEO-critical product surfaces: article pages, category hubs, newsletter landing pages, and integrations like Google Preferred Sources, Apple News, MSN, Yahoo, and NewsBreak.
• Collaborate with Editorial and SEO leads on structured data, site architecture, Core Web Vitals, internal linking, and syndication surfaces.
• Ensure every product change has an SEO impact assessment before it ships.
• Work directly in our Next.js / TypeScript frontend: build and modify pages, components, API routes, SSR/ISR logic, and data-fetching patterns (getStaticProps, getServerSideProps). Own paywall rendering, entitlement checks, and client-side experiment hooks.
• Work directly in our WordPress VIP backend: custom plugins, Gutenberg blocks, theme logic, PHP, MySQL, and the WordPress REST API that feeds the Next.js frontend. Ship plugin updates, security patches, and ad configuration changes without waiting for an external freelancer.
• Design and consume RESTful APIs between WordPress and Next.js, and integrate third-party services (HubSpot, paywall vendors, ad stack, analytics).
• Own the day-to-day technical maintenance previously handled by an external retainer: plugin updates, WP VIP security, ad stack health, minor bug fixes, small feature work.
• Pair effectively with senior engineers on larger architectural work; own the small stuff end-to-end.
• Use AI-assisted development tools (Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot) to move faster — we expect this, not just tolerate it.
• Build and maintain an always-on A/B testing backlog across the funnel — paywall variants, CTA copy, plan ordering, checkout fields, onboarding, and newsletter prompts.
• Own hypotheses, acceptance criteria, QA, implementation (often yourself), and the post-ship read-out. Document what worked, what didn't, and what ships next.
• Improve trial → paid conversion, reduce early churn, and raise registration-to-subscriber rates.
• Run the Product Owner rituals in Jira: well-formed epics and stories, clear acceptance criteria, sprint planning, grooming, and release notes.
• Keep the roadmap and backlog in sync and visible across Product, Editorial, Growth, and Engineering.
• Unblock engineering fast; make decisions with incomplete information when speed matters.
• Work daily with our international Product, Tech, Editorial, Growth, and Data teams across multiple time zones.
• Translate messy business problems from leadership into shippable scope, and push back when scope doesn't match value.
• Partner with Data/Analytics to make sure every surface you ship is instrumented (GA4, event tracking, conversion attribution, Parse.ly) before it goes live.

Requirements:

• 3–6+ years as a Product Owner / Product Manager, ideally with a stretch at a digital publisher, media, or subscription business (news, B2B media, SaaS media, or consumer subscription).
• Demonstrable experience with subscription products: paywalls, plan design, trial mechanics, churn and retention levers, billing edge cases.
• Strong grasp of conversion optimization: funnel analysis, A/B testing frameworks, CRO hypotheses, and reading experiment results honestly.
• Daily, fluent use of Jira for backlog management, sprint ceremonies, and release planning. Comfort writing clear user stories with acceptance criteria.
• Working fluency in SEO fundamentals — how product decisions affect crawlability, indexation, Core Web Vitals, and organic performance. You don't need to be an SEO specialist, but you should never ship a change that breaks SEO by accident.
• Next.js + TypeScript: production experience building SSR/ISR applications. Deep working knowledge of Next.js routing, data-fetching methods (getStaticProps, getServerSideProps), API routes, and deployment strategies. Comfortable with static typing, interfaces, generics, and end-to-end type safety.
• WordPress / WordPress VIP: production experience building custom plugins, Gutenberg blocks, and themes. Comfortable with PHP, MySQL, WP-CLI, the WordPress REST API, and VIP's code review process.
• Modern frontend fundamentals: HTML5, CSS3, responsive design, ES6/ES7, asynchronous patterns, performance optimization (code splitting, caching, Core Web Vitals).
• RESTful API design and integration between WordPress and Next.js, and with third-party services.
• Git, pull request hygiene, code reviews, and staging/deployment workflows.
• Tooling: ESLint, ts-node, standard Next.js and WordPress developer toolchains.
• Comfort using AI coding tools (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot) as a core part of how you work.
• Comfort with analytics tools — GA4, Parse.ly, Looker / Data Studio, Amplitude or Mixpanel, Excel/Sheets — and the discipline to instrument before you ship.
• Basic SQL for self-serve analysis.
• Excellent written English. Concise, specific, and clear — in tickets, specs, PR descriptions, and async updates.
• Ability to work remotely and effectively with teams across India, Türkiye, Europe, and the Americas.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience with marketing automation / lifecycle tools such as HubSpot, Braze, or Klaviyo.
• Experience with paywall vendors (Piano, Poool, Admiral) or in-house paywall logic.
• Familiarity with experimentation platforms (Optimizely, VWO, GrowthBook).
• Experience shipping newsletter-driven acquisition funnels (single-unlock mechanics, newsletter-gated articles, referral loops).
• Experience with ad stack management (Raptive, GAM, header bidding).
• Exposure to recommendation systems, referral programs, or loyalty / membership mechanics.

IE is dedicated to supporting its diverse and inclusive editorial staff. IE urges women, people of color, armed forces veterans, people with disabilities, and gender-nonconforming people to apply. IE does not discriminate based on sex, age, race, color, creed, national origin, religion, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, affectional choice, or gender identity. We recognize a person's unique experiences as points of strength and welcome them as journalists on our team, working in service of the mission to explore and report on engineering, in whatever form it takes.