Product Owner – Payroll SaaS | $2B HR Tech Scaleup in Columbus
Career & Market Insight
Career Growth Signal: Employment Hero is a $2 billion valuation scale-up operating across 6 markets — this is a late-stage growth company with real product complexity, not an early-stage experiment. A Product Owner focused on Canadian payroll sits at the intersection of fintech, compliance, and SaaS — a high-value niche with strong market demand.
Skills You'll Develop:
- Deep expertise in Canadian payroll compliance and tax remittance — a rare, specialized skillset
- AI-augmented product management (explicitly part of their operating model)
- Cross-functional leadership across distributed global teams
- Data-driven product strategy and agile delivery at scale
Compensation Context: No salary is listed, which is a minor red flag for transparency. Market rates for a mid-senior Canadian SaaS Product Owner/Manager typically range from CAD $100,000–$135,000+. Candidates should negotiate based on payroll domain expertise.
Work-Life Balance Signals: Remote-first with async-preferred culture is a strong positive. However, the phrase "we expect high performance" and "not satisfied with being average" signals a demanding environment — likely suits driven, self-managing professionals rather than those seeking low-pressure roles.
Green Flags: Clear mission, established product with real scale (2M+ employees), AI-forward culture, and generous parental leave. Watch out for: startup-speed pivoting expectations and the absence of disclosed compensation — probe these in interviews.
Who We Are
Employment Hero is on a mission to make employment easier and more valuable for everyone. Our Employment Operating System brings hiring, HR, payroll and benefits into an all-in-one solution.
Since our inception in 2014, we've scaled to a $2 billion valuation and gained a presence in 6 countries globally — Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, the UK and Canada. We now service over 300,000 businesses and more than 2 million employees.
The EH Way
At Employment Hero, we're proud of our unique DNA, which we call The EH Way:
- Mission First — everything we do (from what we work on, to how we allocate capital and where we focus) is driven by our Mission
- Remote First — we champion a remote environment with a preference for asynchronous communication and a high degree of autonomy
- AI First — we are committed to using AI to accelerate our mission; AI is not just a tool, it's a fundamental part of how we operate, innovate, and scale
- Apolitical — we do not take a position on political or social topics, unless it relates to our Mission
- We Live by Our Values — we role model our values 100% of the time
- We Expect High Performance — we set a high standard and we're not satisfied with being average
This Role
This role will be hyper-focused on the payroll aspect of our product, specifically building the infrastructure and feature set to support small and medium-sized businesses. We offer an all-in-one solution with a hub-and-spoke modular product. One of the key spokes of our product offering is payroll, which includes facilitating payments, keeping records, and calculating and remitting taxes.
Supporting decision-makers with critical data and analytics is also key for further unlocking areas of innovation across all pillars (HR, Payroll, Benefits, and Scheduling).
Your key responsibilities will include:
- Being responsible for product delivery, including backlog grooming, sprint planning, and cross-functional coordination
- Defining the scope of development for new product features and ongoing feature enhancements
- Writing and prioritizing epics, user stories, and defining acceptance criteria
- Establishing and maintaining a high level of credibility with internal and external stakeholders
- Leveraging your analytical ability to back decisions with data
- Effectively using data and analytics layered against high-quality user research to inform the direction of the product line
- Tracking progress, assessing risks, coordinating delivery, and actively communicating contingency and mitigation plans for the team
- Running various ad-hoc research and business analyses to assess opportunities and risks
What We're Looking For
- 3+ years of Product Management experience with a SaaS product, ideally related to Canadian payroll offerings
- Experience working in fintech, payment, payroll, reporting, or analytics
- Ability to create wireframes, prototypes, and user flows to articulate ideas to cross-functional teams
- Detail-oriented with a high bar for quality when writing PRDs, user stories, reviewing designs, brainstorming technical approaches, and testing features before release
- Experience using agile development methodologies with globally distributed teams
- World-class individual contributor and team player
- Ability to influence others through leadership and strong communication skills
- Ability to keep up and pivot in a fast-paced, dynamic environment
Bonus Points If You Have:
- Workplace experience leveraging AI in Product Management to boost productivity as an individual contributor
- A passion for the HR tech space
- Experience in a cross-functional team where you and your squad took ownership of the success of an area of focus
You'll Love Working With Us If:
- Revolutionizing employment gets your heart racing
- You thrive on the flexibility (and responsibility) of a remote-first business
- Our values align and shape how you show up every day
- You love the dynamic pace of a startup, are driven by innovation, and enjoy working with other smart people
What We Can Offer
At Employment Hero, we don't just talk about a better way to work — we live it. Joining Employment Hero means:
- Working remotely, with the flexibility to own your time and impact
- Access to cutting-edge tools to amplify your work, knowledge and outputs
- Surrounding yourself with ambitious, outcome-driven colleagues who challenge you to do the best work of your life
- Remote & flexible working — work from wherever you do your best
- Access to a wide range of benefits, including: a very generous parental & carers leave policy, a WFH office allowance, De Minimis Allowance (per month), private health & life insurance cover, and outstanding learning & development opportunities
At Employment Hero, we are committed to safeguarding the privacy of your application data. To understand how we do so, you can read our Applicant Privacy Policy.
Employment Hero celebrates diverse perspectives and experiences. We invite people of all backgrounds and identities to apply for this position.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this Product Owner role fully remote?
Does this role require Canadian payroll experience specifically?
What salary can I expect for this role?
What kind of benefits does Employment Hero offer?
Does this role involve working with AI tools?
