Product Owner

Remote OK - Worldwide
Full-time
December 23, 2023

Overview

Startbahn, the leading art tech company in Asia, has developed Startrail, a sustainable and scalable blockchain infrastructure that assures the reliability, authenticity, and traceability of artworks, including NFTs. We are also developing our own service "Startbahn Cert." and providing API to promote the use of Startrail. Furthermore, we have joint ventures with businesses that have art content and sales channels. We are looking for a Product Owner for these projects to support developments of our services. Since we are dealing with art, which is high in its public nature, we plan to collaborate with businesses outside of Japan as well.

What You’ll Do

Manage epics and user stories of product backlog based on the items on the roadmap.
Do sufficient analysis of epics with engineers to ensure requirements are clear to be worked on.
Manage sprint ceremonies such as backlog refinement, planning, daily scrum and retrospective. Organize sprint demos.
Break user stories into tasks with clear definition of done before the sprint starts.
Involve with ongoing testing efforts to ensure DoD has been met.
Coordinate with engineers to investigate incidents.

Who You Are - Requirements

Experience of Product Owner developing web services and software products
Business level or higher level of English
Basic understanding and strong interest in blockchain and web3

Welcomed Skills and Experience

You are interested in projects aimed to protect artist’s rights.
You have experience in developing service with blockchain.

Contact Us If These Sound Like You!

You are keen to keep up with new technologies and services.
You can talk about why blockchain is in demand at an interview.
You can fix small adjustments in SQL or CSS yourself.
You are very enthusiastic about team building.
You have your own vision of the world you want to achieve.
You love art and artists!

Our Development Environment

Frontend: Nuxt.js (TypeScript), Next.js (TypeScript), CSR/SSR, REST, GraphQL, SCSS

Backend: Node.js (TypeScript), NestJS

Infrastructure: Kubernetes, Google Cloud Platform(GCP)

Blockchain: Ethereum, Polygon

Source control: GitHub

CI/CD: CircleCI

Design: Figma

Communication: Slack, Notion, Zoom, GitHub, JIRA

Although this is our current environment, you are welcome to implement changes to a more appropriate environment.

APPLY NOW ➜

Product

About Startbahn

Startrail maintains and assures the value of artworks by permanently recording important information such as provenance on the blockchain. With its smart contract feature, Startrail allows the automatic execution of rule sets, including royalty rights, protecting the rights of art world stakeholders.

Startbahn also provides Startrail PORT, a service which includes web application, API and NFC tags to make it easier to utilize Startrail. Each NFT can be paired with an NFC tag attached to the physical artwork, strengthening the proof of authenticity. Startrail PORT is currently already in use by major galleries, art fairs, collectors, artists, arts colleges, and foundations.

Japanese Language Policy
Startbahn's official language is English, so for some positions Japanese is not required. For others (such as HR or Product Management), Japanese skills may be required.
Paid Leave
Startbahn offers 10 days of paid leave (please note: this depends on when you join the company) plus public holidays in Japan.

They also have 3 summer vacation days and a year-end holiday of 3 days.
Benefits
💹 Employee stock option plan

💻 New tech gear

🏠 Remote work allowance

💜 Seminar participation support

📕 Book purchases

🍹 Free drinks

👶 Shorter work hours for employees taking care of children

👶 Parental Leave

💚 Translation support (EN<>JP)

💟 Complete health and social insurance

🚃 Commuter allowance
Remote Work
Startbahn is a remote-first company. They allow full remote work from anywhere in the world.

They also have an office in Tokyo, so you're free to come in and work from there if you wish.
Work style
Startbahn uses a "Flex time" schedule.

Currently, they have core time from 11:00AM to 4:00PM and a 1-hour lunch break.
Tech Stack
- **Frontend:** Next.js (TypeScript), Nuxt.js (TypeScript) , CSR/SSR, REST, GraphQL, SCSS - **Backend:** Node.js (TypeScript), NestJS - **Infrastructure:** Kubernetes, Google Cloud Platform(GCP) - **Blockchain:** Ethereum, Polygon - **Source control:** GitHub - **CI/CD:** CircleCI - **Design:** Figma - **Communication:** Slack, Notion, Zoom, GitHub, JIRA
Diversity
[ Choose Your Own Workplace: Our Office and/or Your Home ]

Our office is located in the incubation facility at The University of Tokyo. You can expect inspiring interactions with students and researchers.

We currently encourage remote work, with more than 90% of our employees working from their homes. Since June 2020, we have updated our benefits package which now includes lending monitors and office chairs to upgrade their home offices, and a new remote work allowance.

We have employees working remotely from rural areas of Japan and some from overseas.

[ Creativity and Diversity ]

Our team is consisted of professionals with diverse experiences and interests. Not only do we have gallerists and art school graduates, our staff enjoys various cultures on the daily basis.

Startbahn is an international workplace as well. As we are building an infrastructure for the global art world, we are actively hiring people from all over the world. Many of our Japanese staff speak English, so communication is not a problem.

[ Open-minded Environment ]

There is always constant, two-way communication between employees regardless of position, age, and/or team.

We also strive to create an open environment where all employees are able to propose new businesses and reform our internal systems.

The progress and decisions of each team and project are always shared in a way that is easily accessible to everyone. Therefore, you can share your opinions and participate in discussions about any teams and projects even if you are not a part of them.