IT Product Owner - Global SAP Platform FICO

About the role

The IT department at Costco Wholesale is responsible for the technical future of the company, which operates in fourteen countries and is the third-largest retailer globally. The department maintains a family-friendly and employee-centric culture, emphasizing the importance of its employees and members. This role involves managing the end-to-end intake process for Global SAP platform requests, collaborating with various teams, and leading the delivery of features and projects within the Global SAP FICO ecosystem.

Responsibilities

• Manages the end-to-end intake process for Global SAP platform requests, including properly classifying requests (Project, Epic, or User Story) and coordinating dependency tasks with external teams.
• Owns the full delivery lifecycle of features and projects, partnering with the delivery team to remove impediments and ensure timely completion.
• Authors formal Business Requirement Documents (BRDs) for waterfall projects and detailed user stories with acceptance criteria for agile feature delivery.
• Serves as a technical product leader, bridging the gap between business strategy and execution, driving value through both Agile and Waterfall methodologies.
• Manages intake across all Global SAP Finance platforms, collaborating with diverse business areas to define requirements and project scope.
• Collaborates directly with external IT teams, including SAP Basis and Platform teams, to confirm scope, technical dependencies, and timelines for intake requests.
• Leads Design Thinking sessions with business and IT stakeholders to define complex requirements, problem statements, and project scope.
• Articulates requirements for each user story with detailed acceptance criteria.
• Collaborates with the team to prepare user stories within the product backlog.
• Supports business strategy by forming a prioritized backlog of features and user stories for use by the delivery team.
• Works collaboratively and uses best practices with the delivery team to support backlog refinement, planning, and long-term release planning.
• Maintains product health by monitoring and improving the product.
• Ensures completed stories meet acceptance criteria by reviewing test plans, the output of automated testing, or where necessary, contributing to manual testing efforts.
• Prioritizes and collaborates in resolution of issues and defects.
• Seeks and improves processes across the entire product team.
• Seeks and improves processes across the delivery team by using retrospectives to inspect and adapt.
• Communicates effectively with team members, stakeholders, and all levels of management.
• Works with stakeholders to identify solutions that support their business requirements.
• Conducts the formal review and acceptance of user stories implemented by the team.
• Drives the execution of user acceptance testing (UAT) activities with support from business and technology team members.
• Ensures all documentation is complete and accurate after implementation of features.
• Performs functional reviews of completed features.
• Collaborates and assists with release management tasks as needed (Outage Communications, RFC Creation, Planning, etc).
• Works with multiple in-house and external teams’ enterprise-wide to remove impediments and manage dependencies.
• Escalates and assists in the resolution of impediments to support the timely completion of features/stories.

Requirements

• 5+ years’ experience as a Product Owner or equivalent leadership experience in complex delivery.
• Deep subject matter expertise in SAP FICO modules with a proven track record of managing end-to-end delivery of complex enterprise solutions.
• Demonstrated leadership capabilities, with the ability to drive strategic delivery in both Agile and Waterfall environments.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate with technical teams, to align on technical feasibility, project scope, and dependencies.
• Proven experience working on an Agile and/or waterfall team.
• Proven experience with creating documentation for communication with varied audiences.
• Proven experience working within a complex software development environment.
• Proven experience working on complex development projects.
• Deep understanding of business requirements elicitation pursuant to specific programs/projects involved.
• Certified Product Owner (within the first 180 days).
• Proficient in User Story creation.
• Expertise in utilizing standard documentation tools/utilities.
• Strong communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills.
• Proven strong leadership qualities combined with excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Recommended Prior experience successfully managing delivery of a technology solution.
• Demonstrated technical and/or data related acumen, as a project management leader.
• Proficient in Google Workspace applications, including Sheets, Docs, Slides, and Gmail.

Qualifications

• Required 5+ years’ experience as a Product Owner or equivalent leadership experience in complex delivery.
• Deep subject matter expertise in SAP FICO modules with a proven track record of managing end-to-end delivery of complex enterprise solutions.
• Demonstrated leadership capabilities, with the ability to drive strategic delivery in both Agile and Waterfall environments.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate with technical teams, to align on technical feasibility, project scope, and dependencies.
• Proven experience working on an Agile and/or waterfall team.
• Proven experience with creating documentation for communication with varied audiences.
• Proven experience working within a complex software development environment.
• Proven experience working on complex development projects.
• Deep understanding of business requirements elicitation pursuant to specific programs/projects involved.
• Certified Product Owner (within the first 180 days).
• Proficient in User Story creation.
• Expertise in utilizing standard documentation tools/utilities.
• Strong communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills.
• Proven strong leadership qualities combined with excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Recommended Prior experience successfully managing delivery of a technology solution.
• Demonstrated technical and/or data related acumen, as a project management leader.
• Proficient in Google Workspace applications, including Sheets, Docs, Slides, and Gmail.

Skills

• Deep subject matter expertise in SAP FICO modules.
• Leadership capabilities in Agile and Waterfall environments.
• Collaboration with technical teams.
• Experience with creating documentation.
• Experience within complex software development environments.
• Experience with complex development projects.
• Business requirements elicitation.
• User Story creation.
• Standard documentation tools/utilities.
• Communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills.
• Leadership qualities combined with excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Google Workspace proficiency (Sheets, Docs, Slides, Gmail).

Benefits

• Paid time off
• Health benefits - medical/dental/vision/hearing aid/pharmacy/behavioral health/employee assistance
• Health care reimbursement account
• Dependent care assistance plan
• Short-term disability and long-term disability insurance
• AD&D insurance
• Life insurance
• 401(k)
• Stock purchase plan to eligible employees

Pay

• Level 1 - $90,000 - $115,000
• Level 2 - $105,000 - $135,000
• Level 3 - $130,000 - $160,000
• Level 4 - $140,000 - $200,000

Schedule

• Full-time

Benefits

• Paid time off
• Health benefits - medical/dental/vision/hearing aid/pharmacy/behavioral health/employee assistance
• Health care reimbursement account
• Dependent care assistance plan
• Short-term disability and long-term disability insurance
• AD&D insurance
• Life insurance
• 401(k)
• Stock purchase plan to eligible employees

Equal Opportunity Employer

Costco is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. Costco is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or any other legally protected status.