Digital Product Specialist

The Ontario Cannabis Store provides safe, responsible access to recreational cannabis for adults 19 and older. We operate the sole legal online store for recreational cannabis in Ontario and are the provincial wholesaler of cannabis for private retail stores.

Working at the OCS is a unique opportunity to be part of an agile start-up in a ground-breaking new industry. We’re a diverse team passionate about delivering a great customer experience, working together with mutual respect and building value out of our differences. We’re an inclusive organization that understands that delivering great results comes out of ensuring every voice is heard.

About the Role

We’re seeking a Digital Product Specialist to join our team! In this role, you’ll be responsible for organizing product deliverables for various projects and enhancements across OCS wholesale and retail platforms. You’ll play a key role throughout the product lifecycle, supporting both B2B and B2C platforms.

Using strong project coordination and relationship-building skills, you’ll act as a bridge between the User Experience team, Customer Experience team, business units, and technology. You’ll translate requirements into user stories that drive the delivery of new capabilities and optimized digital experiences.

About Your Day

• In partnership with the Senior Manager & UX, gather requirements and feedback from various stakeholders and cross-functional teams to inform roadmap prioritization.
• In partnership with IT, maintain development backlog and advise on prioritization during grooming sessions.
• Act as a key point of contact for IT during sprint planning process and during development phases.
• Facilitate product retros and run collaboration sessions as needed to inform continuous process improvement.
• Proactively seek to understand back-end architecture, the interdependencies of various systems + APIs, etc. to assess complexity and be able to communicate challenges back to the business, in a way that is easy to understand.
• Obtain feedback and gather high-level requirements from business partners such as merchandising, supply chain, customer care, customer experience and other teams to inform the approach to development and make recommendations that balance user needs with business objectives.
• In partnership with IT, advise and guide cross-functional teams on how to build solutions that will scale.
• Oversee product delivery phases in close collaboration with the Senior Manager, the delivery team and project manager, working to meet established timelines.
• Interpret user & business needs and translate them into application and operational requirements.
• Understand potential implications & dependencies and coordinate accordingly with various departments.
• Manage JIRA tickets and translate requirements into user stories.
• Write concise and effective test cases.
• Define precise and accurate user story acceptance criteria to be used by developers and testers.
• Perform UAT against acceptance criteria and provide clear, concise, and timely test results.
• Gather UAT requirements throughout product lifecycle through business analysis, task and workflow analysis, stakeholder sessions, etc.
• When applicable, coordinate UAT activities with various teams.

About You

• Completion of post-secondary education in related field OR equivalent experience.
• 1-2 years of professional experience in a digital environment, including requirements gathering for a web-based platform, and strong knowledge of product lifecycle management.
• 1-2 years of professional experience in project coordination is required.
• Digital sprint scheduling experience is a strong asset.
• Experience with the following technologies is a strong asset: JIRA, Confluence, Google Analytics, Shopify, ServiceNow &/or FIGMA.
• Knowledge and/or experience of Kanban, Waterfall and Agile is an asset.
• Certifications as a CSPO or CSM is an asset.
• A proactive, customer-centric attitude combined with excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Meticulous attention to detail and highly organized.
• Sound communicator with ability to present to different audiences with varying technical knowledge.
• Ability to work independently on projects, with tight deadlines, under minimal supervision.

About the Job

• This position currently offers a hybrid work schedule. The current in-office requirement is a minimum of 3 days/week (may be more depending on business needs). The OCS office is located near York Mills and Yonge Street. However, OCS reserves the right to change this policy and its office location at any time.
• City: Toronto, ON
• Employment Type: Permanent, Full-Time (Bargaining Unit Role; Represented by OPSEU).
• Required Travel: Rare, usually within the GTA.
• Application Deadline: March 26, 2025.

Compensation

The target hiring range for this position is $79,973- $88,000. This is a pay grade 8 BU role, with a salary range of $79,973- $97,745. Placement in the salary range will be based on factors such as market conditions, internal equity, and candidate experience, skills, and qualifications relevant to the role.

We are committed to providing an accessible, equitable and inclusive candidate and employee experience. We provide reasonable accommodation throughout the recruitment process and in employment. If you require an accommodation please let us know, we will work with you to meet your needs.