Product Director / Product Owner

About Opian

Opian is an Ethiopian health-technology and innovation company building decision infrastructure for stronger health systems. We combine deep knowledge of how care and supply chains operate, human-centred product design, data engineering and responsible artificial intelligence. Our work helps health workers, managers and public institutions turn fragmented data into timely decisions—so essential medicines, vaccines and services are available where and when people need them.

Our philosophy

We believe useful innovation is not novelty for its own sake. It is the disciplined work of understanding a real problem, challenging assumptions, building and testing a better response, measuring what changes, and strengthening the institutions that must sustain the result. Technology is valuable only when it improves a decision, a workflow or an outcome in the real operating environment.

· Start with reality: design around the health workers, workloads, incentives, infrastructure and constraints that actually exist—not an imported ideal workflow.

· Build with people, not for them: government counterparts and frontline users are co-designers, decision-makers and eventual owners, not passive recipients.

· Strengthen the system, not a standalone application: connect workflows, data, institutions and incentives so information can lead to action across every level.

· Push boundaries responsibly: make ambitious but testable bets, protect safety and privacy, and change direction quickly when evidence contradicts the original idea.

· Make capability local and durable: transfer knowledge, product ownership and operational responsibility so progress continues without permanent dependence on an external project team.

· Be honest about impact: distinguish deployment from adoption and activity from results; make claims specific, measurable and open to verification.

What this means for candidates

Opian is looking for accomplished specialists who are also builders. Candidates should bring exceptional depth in their discipline, intellectual courage, practical judgment and the humility to learn from users and evidence. We value people who can move from ambiguity to a testable approach, from a workshop to an operating routine, and from a promising pilot to an institutionally owned system. The standard is simple: show not only what you know, but what you personally built, changed, tested, learned and left stronger.

· Work across public health, supply chain, policy, product, technology and field implementation boundaries.

· Turn expertise into usable products, processes, decisions and measurable improvements—not reports alone.

· Operate with urgency while preserving quality, public trust, data protection, service continuity and government ownership.

Government Partnership and Institutionalization Lead

Role purpose

Own the end-to-end product strategy and translate real supply-chain and service-delivery problems into prioritized, testable and sustainable digital capabilities. The Product Director will ensure that ForLab+ strengthens existing transactional and national systems rather than becoming a parallel reporting platform.

Key responsibilities

· Define the product vision, operating model, outcomes, roadmap and release priorities in partnership with government and users.

· Lead discovery with health facilities, woreda teams, regional managers, supply hubs and national programs to document actual decisions, workflows and constraints.

· Convert workflows into clear user stories, acceptance criteria, data requirements and measurable product outcomes.

· Prioritize capabilities that improve source transaction capture, inventory accuracy, traceability, replenishment and closed-loop issue resolution.

· Maintain alignment between ForLab+, authoritative registries, existing logistics systems, service-delivery systems and national analytics platforms.

· Balance user value, policy requirements, interoperability dependencies, technical feasibility, cost and transition readiness.

· Lead usability testing, pilot feedback loops, backlog refinement, release acceptance and product performance reviews.

· Define adoption and usage measures, including active use, workflow completion, data quality, latency and action closure.

· Build government product-management capacity and transfer the roadmap, backlog and release-governance processes.

Expected results

· A stakeholder-approved product strategy and phased roadmap tied to operational outcomes.

· Validated workflows and requirements covering vaccines and RMNCH commodities at relevant supply-chain levels.

· Usable, offline-capable product releases accepted by representative end users.

· A government-owned product backlog, release process and performance-monitoring approach.

Job Requirements

· Bachelor’s degree required; master’s degree preferred in information systems, public health, engineering, design, business or a related field.

· At least 8 years of product-management, digital transformation or business-analysis experience, including 4 years in a lead product role.

· Demonstrated experience developing and scaling digital products in low-resource or public-sector environments.

· Strong experience with human-centred design, agile delivery, requirements management and product analytics.

· Ability to work fluently with health-program experts, government leaders, designers and engineers.

· Excellent written and spoken English; Amharic is strongly preferred.

· Demonstrated record of questioning accepted approaches, designing or testing better alternatives, and using evidence to refine or stop ideas without compromising safety, reliability, ethics or government ownership.

Preferred experience

· Experience with digital health, logistics management, offline-first applications or interoperability platforms.

· Experience productizing an existing prototype or platform for government use.

· Evidence of improving adoption or operational outcomes through product decisions.

Evidence that must be visible in the CV

· Products personally owned, with user scale, deployment setting and duration.

· Specific product decisions and measurable changes in adoption or operational performance.

· Examples of workflow research, roadmap ownership and release acceptance.

· Experience transferring product ownership or administration to a client institution.

How To Apply

Interested applicants should submit their CV/application to recruitment@opiantech.com

Subject: Application for Product Director / Product Owner