Product Owner III

The Specialist III, Product Owner plays a pivotal role at the National Student Clearinghouse, a trusted 501(c)(3) nonprofit and leading provider of transcript and data exchange services, automated enrollment and degree verifications, learner insights, research, and compliance solutions for education and workforce sectors nationwide. This role helps shape the future of education by translating customer and business objectives into actionable technology requirements, ensuring security and privacy while leveraging data, analytics, and software to drive our mission.

About the Role

In this position, you will research, communicate, negotiate, and document both business and technical requirements. You’ll work independently and collaborate with subject matter experts to gather and analyze data, document findings, define requirements, and provide support throughout the product lifecycle—including development, testing, training, implementation, and ongoing system maintenance. As a standing leader within agile scrum and Kanban teams, you will manage and support multiple initiatives simultaneously, employing creative and innovative approaches to inform product decisions.

This is a remote-first position, though periodic on-site work at our Herndon, VA office may be required based on departmental needs. Candidates must reside within a reasonable commuting distance to Herndon, VA or be willing to travel as needed.

Responsibilities

• Demonstrate the Clearinghouse's core competencies: Customer Focus, Optimizes Work Processes, Collaborates, Communicates Effectively, and Be Open and Authentic, with a focus on data literacy to build customer-centric solutions.
• Understand the business purpose of data, including its use across services and the enterprise, and leverage this knowledge to write business requirements, process flows, and user stories.
• Work closely with the Business Owner/Product Manager to define the scope of initiatives based on market and industry needs.
• Solicit, review, document, and refine requirements through interviews, workshops, meetings, and existing system documentation.
• Prioritize the backlog, including refinement and preparation of all stories (business, enablers, and technical), ensuring a minimum of 2-3 sprints of groomed work.
• Contribute to the on-time, within-budget, and in-scope delivery of business initiatives.
• Define and develop user stories, wireframes, sequence diagrams, and data flow diagrams.
• Produce “As Is” and “To Be” process flow diagrams and derive business requirements from use cases in an Agile environment.
• Create, revise, validate, and maintain business flow maps, business requirements, business rules, user stories, and user flows.
• Analyze the impact of new business requirements/user stories on current applications from both business and technical perspectives.
• Collaborate with the Scrum Master and Scrum Team to determine delivery dates, dependencies, team velocity, challenges, quality assurance, user acceptance, and overall performance.
• Identify all cross-system interfaces and build out requirements in collaboration with Product Managers and other business owners.
• Accurately represent the needs of business owners to scrum teams and vice versa.
• Participate in Agile ceremonies and effectively communicate data elements utilized by the service to scrum teams and business owners.
• Create and foster positive communication channels between external and internal stakeholders.
• Promote a culture of collaboration, teamwork, innovation, and service excellence while resolving product or project issues.
• Perform other duties as required, with reasonable accommodations made for individuals with disabilities.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in technology, business, or a related field. A combination of education and experience, including military service, will also be considered.
• 5 years of related experience in soliciting and defining requirements for mission-critical business applications.
• Experience with Agile Methodology as a Product Owner or Business Analyst.
• Experience embedding quality controls in work processes to ensure uninterrupted operation.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze data for composing targeted and concise requirements and translating strategic and tactical goals.
• Strong collaboration skills and experience soliciting, defining, and writing business requirements from research, customer feedback, and market insights.
• Product knowledge and understanding of its impact on other products.
• Ability to identify tradeoffs in decisions and drive resolution of challenges across the organization.
• Experience modeling solutions for business processes.
• Proficiency in Agile principles, processes, and driving decision-making to align teams on goals and objectives.
• Excellent communication and negotiation skills with internal and external stakeholders at all levels.
• Ability to manage and prioritize multiple initiatives to ensure timely completion and issue resolution.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite and/or other collaboration tools.
• Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication, and effective presentation skills.
• Must live within a commutable distance to Herndon, VA (preferred) or reside in one of the Clearinghouse's approved states for hiring purposes.
• Must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis without sponsorship.
• Must be at least 18 years old.

Skills

• Experience with software development management tools (e.g., Rally, JIRA, Confluence).
• Knowledge of CRM and enterprise tools.
• Experience performing complex data analysis using analytic tools and database queries.
• Knowledge of education-related data standards, such as IMS Comprehensive Learner Record, Common Education Data Standards (CEDS), or other industry/government-based data exchange standards.
• Master’s degree or PhD in technology, business, or a related field, or additional advanced education and experience (including military service).
• Project Management skills to manage projects from ideation through delivery, including timelines, wireframes, and documentation.
• Critical thinking skills to distill complex processes and data.
• Strategic, interpersonal, and operational competencies to lead and champion projects with a clear vision.
• Task tracking and management with minimal supervision, ensuring successful day-to-day project execution.
• Project Planning & Scoping: Ability to independently create and support project plans, timelines, milestones, and deliverables aligned with business objectives.
• Task Tracking & Execution: Manages day-to-day project activities, tracks progress, and escalates risks or delays early.
• Self-Direction & Accountability: Operates with a high degree of ownership, proactively identifying issues and opportunities.
• Resilience & Follow-Through: Maintains focus in dynamic environments and ensures task completion despite obstacles.
• Prioritization & Task Management: Independently assesses competing priorities, sequences work effectively, and meets deadlines.
• Acts with urgency: Begins work promptly, meets deadlines, and proactively updates managers on progress and risks.
• Documents and communicates meeting summaries, decisions, actions, and schedules in writing, utilizing AI tools such as Co-pilot and Gemini.

Physical Demands

• Use of a computer for 8 or more hours a day.
• Use of a telephone and/or copy machine.
• Frequently required to sit for 7 or more hours per day.
• Occasionally required to use hands and fingers to operate, handle, and reach.
• Vision abilities include close vision and the ability to adjust focus.
• Travel via car, train, and airplane, when needed.

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees and qualified dependents.
• Life and disability insurance benefits.
• Health care, dependent care, and limited purpose flexible spending accounts.
• Health savings account with annual employer contributions of $300 for employees and $600 for employees enrolled with a spouse and/or dependents.
• Voluntary supplemental health plans for Accident and Hospital Indemnity coverage, and infertility coverage.
• Generous 401k matching contribution program with pre-tax and Roth contribution options, including catch-up contributions.