Senior Product Owner- Agile

Regular, full-time position requiring English fluency. 1st shift (United States of America).

About the role

This role is a Senior Product Owner in the Scaled Agile Framework who partners with product managers to balance business, technology, and design priorities to deliver brand-defining product and service experiences. The position requires the ability to understand strategic impacts but concentrates on the day-to-day details to ensure tactical execution.

In some Agile teams, there may be Product Owners from both the Business and the Tech side, with joint accountability for the Agile team’s results. In rare instances where the business cannot provide a PO, a Tech PO could step in to fulfill the responsibilities.

The Senior Product Owner executes the strategy for their area of responsibility based on client and company needs, which can include client experience, back office processes, or systemic processes outside the client journey. They are a key resource in backlog management for the teams and work hand-in-hand with Product Managers to translate the product vision into epics and features actionable by delivery teams.

The work spans the entire delivery process; from assisting with identification of areas for improvement, to authoring user stories, collaborating with technical leads/scrum teams, and overseeing tactical execution. The Senior Product Owner is expected to be a thought leader in delivering complex technology projects to market, taking a holistic perspective to deliver experiences across all relevant components within their assigned area.

Responsibilities

• Assume broad responsibility for components of complex initiatives, provide direction or vision for a group of scrum teams related to their business solution, and solve highly complex or technical problems.
• Lead delivery team priorities in PI planning, sprint planning, and other Agile ceremonies, aligned to larger experience platform priorities and vision defined by product management.
• Align with product managers to clearly articulate product strategy to the delivery team.
• Deliver new experiences by working directly with delivery, experience design, business, and operations partners to design new products and improvements to existing capabilities.
• Author and maintain the team’s backlog of user stories and serve as a subject matter expert on features, user stories, and product capabilities.
• Perform triage on critical issues, escalate as necessary, and communicate consistently and clearly with all concerned parties.
• Serve as a key resource to the development team to answer questions, provide clarifications, and conduct and coordinate business validation, focusing on fitness for use.
• Update leadership on the epic and feature delivery schedule, including dependencies impacting deliverables, along with recommended solutions.
• Partner with solution architects and other technical leads to ensure solutions effectively address program priorities while balancing client experience and technical integrity.
• Facilitate sprint planning with stakeholder groups to drive alignment and visibility for feature development timelines, ensuring adherence to the product roadmap and enterprise strategic themes.
• Facilitate sprint demos and provide final acceptance for completed user stories, ensuring they meet acceptance criteria and definition of done.
• Coordinate the creation of release-specific business documents, such as support model definitions, go/no-go approvals, internal release notes, and release-related living documents.
• Ensure all Product Management Lifecycle (PML) processes and procedures are followed, supporting security, risk, audit, and compliance requirements, and ensure action items and deadlines are met.
• Partner with product managers to provide evidence supporting recommendations.
• Mentor other Product Owners on product delivery practices.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in business, engineering, design, or technology field; or related field or equivalent combination of education and professional experience.
• Ten or more years of banking, financial services, or other relevant work experience.
• Five or more years of product, analysis, technology, and/or design experience.
• Five or more years of leading cross-functional teams.
• Previous experience working as a Product Owner for Agile team(s).
• Experience defining and delivering large-scale business initiatives to execute on a product roadmap, including stakeholder management, requirements elicitation, test planning/support, and business-level product validation.
• Demonstrated technical acumen and an ability to work with the technology organization to align product and technology roadmaps.
• Proven ability to translate strategic plans into tactical daily actions for execution.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams without formal authority.
• Comfortable managing concurrent projects in a fast-paced, results-driven environment.
• Comfortable with ambiguity, leading while working autonomously, and making independent decisions.
• Strong analytical skills, ability to interpret data and trends, diagnose problems, and recommend action plans to resolve issues.
• Excellent skills in presentation, facilitation, communication, and negotiation.
• Experience in roles requiring strong communication, interpersonal skills, and the creation and delivery of succinct executive-level presentations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in business, engineering, design, or technology field; banking or financial management education.
• Experience working with distributed teams (onshore/offshore).
• Certified SAFe® Product Owner/Product Manager (or equivalent).
• Payment industry knowledge with experience in Wire payments.
• Strong working knowledge of Domestic and International Wire Payments.
• Deep understanding of Fedwire, CHIPS, SWIFT, ISO 20022 Standards, and Correspondent Banking.

Other Job Requirements

• Sitting: Constantly (More than 50% of the time).
• Standing: Frequently (25% - 50% of the time).
• Walking: Frequently (25% - 50% of the time).
• Visual/Audio/Speaking: Able to access and interpret client information received from the computer and able to hear and speak with individuals in person and on the phone.
• Manual Dexterity/Keyboarding: Able to work standard office equipment, including PC keyboard and mouse, copy/fax machines, and printers.
• Availability: Able to work all hours scheduled, including overtime as directed by manager/supervisor and required by business need.
• Travel: Minimal and up to 10%.

Benefits

All regular teammates (not temporary or contingent workers) working 20 hours or more per week are eligible for benefits. Eligibility for specific benefits may vary by division.

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• Life insurance, disability, and accidental death and dismemberment coverage.
• Tax-preferred savings accounts and a 401k plan.
• No less than 10 days of vacation (prorated based on date of hire and full-time/part-time status) during the first year of employment, along with 10 sick days and paid holidays.
• Depending on the position and division, may also be eligible for a defined benefit pension plan, restricted stock units, and/or a deferred compensation plan.