Job description

Job Title: Principal Product Manager Location: Washington, DC (On-site) Employment Type: Contract (W2 through ZipStaff — No C2C or 1099) About the Opportunity: ZipStaff is seeking a Principal Product Manager to own mission-critical products for a major passenger-rail / transportation organization in Washington, DC. You will lead Rail Incident Management, Service Recovery, and Disruption Operations — strategy, roadmap, and value delivery across operations, technology, and executive stakeholders. This is a senior product seat in a high-stakes operational environment, not a backlog-grooming-only PM role. What You’ll Do: • Define multi-year product strategy, vision, roadmap, and success metrics for incident management and service-disruption capabilities. • Act as the primary liaison among rail operations, customer experience, technology, and executive leadership. • Prioritize investment and backlog by operational risk, customer impact, business value, and regulatory alignment. • Work with Agile / SAFe teams across interdependent workstreams. • Set product decision frameworks, manage dependencies, and stay aligned to safety, regulatory, and operational policy. • Lead discovery with field staff and operational control centers; write requirements, acceptance criteria, and workflows. • Use data, customer feedback, and performance metrics to improve product and operational resilience. • Brief executives on strategy, progress, dependencies, risks, and ROI. Required Qualifications: • 10+ years of product management on complex, mission-critical enterprise solutions. • Experience with incident management, service recovery, and service-continuity platforms. • Proven work in Agile and SAFe , managing cross-team dependencies without direct authority. • Advanced use of Jira Align, Confluence, Visio, Figma, and Microsoft Office. • Strong executive presence, facilitation, and decision-making in ambiguous, high-stakes settings. • Bachelor’s in Business, IT, Engineering, or equivalent experience • Ability to work on-site in Washington, DC. • Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship now or in the future. Preferred Qualifications: • Transportation, logistics, or operational-platform product experience. • SAFe POPM, Pragmatic Institute, AIPMM, or equivalent. • PMP. About ZipStaff: ZipStaff partners with leading organizations to connect skilled product leaders with high-impact contract opportunities. We focus on quality matches and long-term success. To apply , please submit your resume highlighting principal-level product ownership, incident/service-recovery platforms, and SAFe delivery. Pay: $55 - $58 per hour

Requirements

Must-haves

Job Title: Principal Product Manager
Location: Washington, DC (On-site)
Employment Type: Contract (W2 through ZipStaff — No C2C or 1099)
Define multi-year product strategy, vision, roadmap, and success metrics for incident management and service-disruption capabilities.
Act as the primary liaison among rail operations, customer experience, technology, and executive leadership.
Prioritize investment and backlog by operational risk, customer impact, business value, and regulatory alignment.
Work with Agile / SAFe teams across interdependent workstreams.
Set product decision frameworks, manage dependencies, and stay aligned to safety, regulatory, and operational policy.
Lead discovery with field staff and operational control centers; write requirements, acceptance criteria, and workflows.
Use data, customer feedback, and performance metrics to improve product and operational resilience.
Brief executives on strategy, progress, dependencies, risks, and ROI.
10+ years of product management on complex, mission-critical enterprise solutions.
Experience with incident management, service recovery, and service-continuity platforms.
Proven work in Agile and SAFe , managing cross-team dependencies without direct authority.
Advanced use of Jira Align, Confluence, Visio, Figma, and Microsoft Office.
Strong executive presence, facilitation, and decision-making in ambiguous, high-stakes settings.
Bachelor’s in Business, IT, Engineering, or equivalent experience
Ability to work on-site in Washington, DC.
Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship now or in the future.

Nice-to-haves

Transportation, logistics, or operational-platform product experience.
SAFe POPM, Pragmatic Institute, AIPMM, or equivalent.

Application prep

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Keywords to mirror

agilejirafigma

Platform: betterteam
Effort: medium

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