Product Manager / Product Owner [SK-14699]

About the role

Aquent is partnering with a leading utility provider dedicated to powering communities and shaping the future of energy through advanced technologies. This role involves leading product and feature development for a transformative AI initiative focused on customer engagement. You will own the entire lifecycle of use cases from conception to adoption, define governance and responsible-AI practices, and drive innovation in customer operations.

Responsibilities

• Lead product and feature development for customer operations AI initiatives, owning the end-to-end backlog from intake through delivery and adoption.
• Prioritize and sequence use cases based on business value, feasibility, and risk, ensuring strategic alignment.
• Translate complex business problems within customer operations into clear problem statements, epics, user stories, and acceptance criteria for the build team.
• Serve as the bridge between business stakeholders and the technical build team, facilitating discovery, validating requirements, and managing expectations.
• Define and champion measurable success criteria for each use case (e.g., deflection, handle time, accuracy, adoption), holding the team accountable for outcomes.
• Lead and facilitate all Agile ceremonies, including stand-ups, reviews, retrospectives, backlog grooming, and sprint/release planning.
• Track and communicate team velocity and sprint/release progress to affected teams and management using Agile estimating techniques.
• Ensure daily task status and hours are maintained in Agile tracking systems for complete backlog transparency.
• Own responsible-AI and governance touchpoints, including human-in-the-loop design, evaluation criteria, and guardrail requirements.
• Drive comprehensive change management and rollout strategies, including training, adoption initiatives, and feedback loops with end users.
• Conduct continuous research and benchmarking on AI trends and comparable enterprise deployments to inform and evolve the product roadmap.
• Support and foster a customer-centric culture, addressing the needs of both external and internal stakeholders.
• Initiate and implement program improvements across governance and intake processes.

Requirements

• Proven experience managing an agile product development team as a Product Owner or Product Manager.
• Demonstrated experience with Generative AI, conversational AI, or intelligent automation products, including defining evaluation criteria and “good enough to ship” for probabilistic systems.
• Proficiency in SAFe/Agile program management and utilizing Agile tracking tools.
• Exceptional ability to manage multiple assignments and changing priorities across a complex stakeholder ecosystem.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, including proficiency with standard office productivity suites.
• Experience producing formal presentations and documentation for executive and regulatory share-outs.
• Previous management experience (employees or contractors).
• Bachelor’s Degree (required).

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience with responsible-AI or AI governance frameworks.
• Vendor management experience.
• SAFe, Product Owner, or Scrum certification.

Benefits

• Health benefit contributions.
• Retirement plans with match.
• Flexible spending accounts.