Position Overview: The Product Owner will lead the development and continuous enhancement of business solutions that drive DWS's client's transformation and platform modernization initiatives. This role drives innovation and digital transformation to support efficient and effective business operations. The Product Owner will oversee the full product lifecycle from platform selection, to design, implementation, go-live, and transition to operations.
The role requires close collaboration with business stakeholders and technical teams. They will be responsible for balancing technical solutions with business strategy by actively engaging with their respective business and IT stakeholders to ensure that product features are in sync with business objectives and deliver measurable value. The Product Owner will define and execute a strategic product vision, champion user experience for all internal and external users, and drive continuous improvement through collection of insights and feedback from end users. They will ensure alignment with organizational goals while driving impactful business change.
Responsibilities: Product Strategy - Define and drive product vision and strategy, from identification and planning, through to prioritization, solution design, development, and maintenance, ensuring alignment with organizational goals and user needs
- Conduct market research and competitive analysis to inform product strategy
- Engage with stakeholders to gather insights, identify pain points, and ensure their product meets stakeholder needs
- Lead user research initiatives and incorporate feedback into product development
- Create and maintain product roadmaps, prioritizing capabilities that deliver business value and align with user needs
- Collaborate with finance to develop and manage product funding models and budgets, ensuring efficient allocation of resources to maximize ROI
Product Management - ctively participate in key planning and review sessions, including Program Increment (PI) planning and solution demonstrations / walkthroughs
- Make strategic decisions on the prioritization of features and enhancements
- Balance short-term needs with long-term goals, ensuring the highest value features are delivered to stakeholders in a timely manner
- Develop and refine the Product backlog, ensuring it reflects business priorities
- Manage Feature prioritization and dependencies, working with different product teams as required
- Review and provide input into user stories and acceptance criteria, ensuring alignment with business vision, priorities, and requirements
Functional Leadership and Collaboration - Own the relationship with senior business leaders associated with the product, understanding their vision, objectives, and priorities for the product
- Support innovation and experimentation initiatives, encouraging new ideas and approaches that drive business growth and transformation
- Communicate the value and benefits of the product to business stakeholders, ensuring their buy-in and support
- Track key technical and product metrics in real time to improve the flow of work, and creates insightful feedback for the product team
- Coordinate and resolve issues and dependencies between their own product team and other product teams
Technical Leadership - Oversee architectural planning to ensure sustainable product development that aligns with long-term technology objectives and roadmap
- Limit system customizations, adopting a fit-to-standard approach where possible
- Collaborate with technology teams to define and monitor key non-functional requirements (NFRs) that impact product performance and user satisfaction
- Collaborate with IT and security teams to ensure product quality and security compliance
- Manage technical debt and architectural runway
Documentation and Knowledge Management - Develop and maintain comprehensive product documentation
- Guide creation and maintenance of product-related user guides and training materials
- Document process flows and technical specifications
- Contribute to organizational learning and knowledge sharing
Essential Functions: Essential Job Function % of Time on Function Product Strategy & Roadmap Management 25% Stakeholder Engagement, Prioritization & Requirements Management 30% Planning Ceremonies & Meetings 10% Performance Monitoring and Reporting 15% Technical Collaboration 10% Innovation and Continuous Improvement 5% Documentation & Knowledge Management 5% Total 100% Job Requirements: Education & Experience - Bachelor's degree in computer science, Information Systems, Business, or related field
- 5-7 years of product management or equivalent experience, ideally leading distributed teams in an Agile environment, including leading distributed teams in an Agile environment.
- Product Management certifications (SAFe, POPM, CSPO, CPO) preferred
Technical Skills - Strong understanding of SAFe framework and Lean-Agile principles, with the ability to apply them to a complex, multi-technology environment in order to drive business agility
- Proficiency in Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, Safe)
- Experience with common Agile tools (Jira, Confluence, GitHub)
- Understanding of modern technology architectures and practices
- Knowledge of value stream mapping to identify and optimize processes that enhance customer value and drive operational efficiency
- Familiarity with product cost accounting
Leadership and Soft Skills - Strong stakeholder management skills, with experience working closely with senior executives and influencing strategic product decisions
- Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to work across multiple teams and geographies
- Demonstrated leadership skills in building, mentoring, and motivating high-performing product teams, fostering a collaborative and innovative work culture that promotes high performance, professional growth and employee engagement
- Self-motivated, detail-oriented, and capable of working in a fast-paced, results-oriented environment
- Strong presentation and communication skills with the ability to convey complex ideas succinctly to executive leadership
Success Metrics Product Performance - Feature cycle time
- Product adoption rates
- Break-in (unplanned work) rate
- Customer satisfaction scores
- Revenue/cost metrics
- Technical debt levels
- Fit to standard versus customization ratio
gile Delivery - Program Predictability Measures
- PI objectives achievement rate
- Team velocity and delivery predictability
- Sprint goal completion rate
Process Quality - Requirements quality metrics
- Documentation completeness
- Stakeholder satisfaction
- Team health indicators
- Knowledge sharing effectiveness
Minimum Physical Requirements: The physical demands described represent those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions of the position for which they work. While performing the duties of this position, the employee is regularly required to listen, talk and hear. The employee frequently is required to use hands or fingers, handle or feel objects, tools, or controls while executing tasks like working on a computer or talking on the telephone. The employee is occasionally required to stand; walk; sit; and reach with hands and arms. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 15 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this position include close vision, distance vision, and the ability to adjust focus. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate to low.
This job description is intended to provide guidelines for job expectations and the employee's ability to perform the position described. It is not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all functions, responsibilities, skills and abilities. Additional functions and requirements may be assigned by supervisors as deemed appropriate.