Data Product Owner (12-month contract)

Do you know how to treat data as a true product - translating complex stakeholder needs into clear, scalable data capabilities that drive measurable business impact?

About Tiko

Tiko is a high-growth, award-winning African nonprofit on a mission to radically transform healthcare access. Recognized as an Audacious Project awardee and one of the fastest-growing NGOs in the sector, we are committed to strengthening the potential and resilience of adolescent girls across Africa. We address the “Triple Threat” of unintended pregnancy, HIV infection, and sexual and gender-based violence by building local health ecosystems that provide stigma-free, no-cost, quality-assured services.

Our model brings together key local actors: community-based organizations (CBO) with peer mobilisers who act as health companions to girls; public and private health clinics that deliver care; and retail partners that redeem Tiko Miles -our behavior-change incentive programme that rewards service uptake and feedback.

We invest in partners by strengthening CBO capacity, training frontline workers and providers, supporting clinic quality improvement, and compensating partners based on performance. Our technology platform connects all actors by enabling referrals, verifying service delivery, facilitating payments, and generating real-time data.

Tiko operates in six countries: Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Burkina Faso, South Africa, and Nigeria, with additional offices in Portugal, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. For a clear overview of our work, we recommend watching this short video.

Globally, our team consists of +250 enthusiastic, international colleagues. Whether you are working from our biggest office in Nairobi, the fast-growing office in South Africa, or from home, our people are young, and our culture is global and dynamic. Our work environment is fast-paced, informal, and friendly.

For this position, we are happily looking for candidates currently based in Portugal, Kenya and South Africa.

The Job

Data at Tiko isn't a passive reporting function; it is a core operational asset that directly powers our mission to empower girls and young women across our operating markets. You will manage the end-to-end lifecycle of our data deliverables - from scoping requirements and prioritizing backlogs to driving user adoption and ensuring our data tools solve high-value operational problems.

We are looking for a pragmatic, outcome-driven Data Product Owner to join us on a 12-month fixed-term contract. In this role, you will take ownership of our data product roadmap, bridging the gap between non-technical business units and our Data Engineering, Analytics, and Architecture squads.

Key Responsibility:

• Roadmap Ownership: Define, maintain, and execute the 12-month data product roadmap, aligning feature delivery across data pipelines, semantic layers, and BI tools with Tiko ’s strategic priorities.

• Backlog Delivery: Translate complex cross-functional requirements into clear user stories, technical acceptance criteria, and data contracts for data engineers and analysts, managing sprint refinement and delivery pacing.

• Value & Enablement: Serve as the primary liaison between business stakeholders and technical data squads, driving tool adoption, enforcing metric consistency, and ensuring data products solve real-world user needs.

About You

You are an assertive, context-aware product thinker who views data through an outcome-driven lens. You don't just take orders from business teams; you ask the probing "why" questions to uncover the root operational problem before writing a single user story. You are comfortable balancing technical debt against fast-moving business requests, communicating trade-offs clearly, and saying "no" constructively when a request doesn't align with core data product goals.

Requirements:

• 4+ years of experience operating as a Product Owner or Product Manager, specifically focused on Data Products, Analytics, or Data Infrastructure.

• Practical understanding of modern data stack concepts, including SQL, data pipelines, dbt semantic layers, and BI platforms (e.g., Tableau, Lightdash).

• Proven experience leading backlog grooming, sprint planning, and user story definition for technical or data-centric squads.

• Exceptional ability to translate business requirements into technical specs and communicate technical constraints back to executive stakeholders.

• Fully available for a dedicated 12-month fixed-term engagement.

• Fluent written and verbal English skills.

Recruitment Process

Introductory call with recruiter | First Interview with Product Team | Technical Challenge | Final interview with the Product Team

The Rewards

The gross monthly salary brackets for this position are:

Kenya: Ksh354,096 - Ksh480,00 (x12)

South Africa: R72,734 - R96,979 (x12)

Portugal: €3,025 - €4,030 (x14)

Your final salary will be determined based on your experience and alignment with your future colleagues.

In addition to your monthly salary, we offer you:

• Benefits and allowances tailored to your location

• Flexible work arrangements, including remote or hybrid options

• A personal development budget to invest in your professional growth

• Unlimited holiday days to use as you see fit - just coordinate with your team and take the time you need to recharge

• The opportunity to shape a growing, impactful product and leave your mark on how we work

• A culture built on trust - we believe you’ll do your best without the need for unnecessary rules or micromanagement

The Details

Interested? Click Apply for This Job! Want more information? Check out our website tiko.org or contact our Global Recruiter. We only accept applications through the apply links, not by email.

Important Recruitment Fraud Alert

Please be aware that Tiko maintains a professional and ethical recruitment process.

• Zero Fees: We do not charge candidates any fees for applications, interviews, or processing at any stage of the hiring journey.

• Fraud Prevention: If you receive a request for money, bank details, or "onboarding equipment" payments from someone claiming to represent us, this is not a legitimate request.

• Official Channels: We only communicate through our verified company email domain (@tiko.org).

If you are approached by anyone asking for payment in our name, please ignore the request.

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Tiko prioritizes integrity in our workplace and respects your privacy.

Tiko is committed to preventing any type of unwanted behaviour by its employees at work, including sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, lack of integrity and financial misconduct. This is why we will do reference and background screening checks on successful candidates before hiring. Tiko also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme . As part of this scheme, we will request information from your previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during your employment, or incidents under investigation when you left employment. By applying for this position, you confirm you have read and understood these recruitment procedures. We value your privacy and understand the importance of safeguarding your personal data. We invite you to review our privacy notice for the recruitment process to understand how we collect, use, and protect your personal data during the recruitment process. Click here to view the document. By applying for this position, you acknowledge that you have read and understood our privacy notice.

Originally posted on Himalayas