Sr Product Owner - Microsoft Dynamics

The work we do has an impact on millions of lives, and you can be a part of it.

We help protect our customers against life’s uncertainties. Regardless of where you work within the company, you’ll be helping provide protection and peace of mind when our customers need it most.

The Senior Product Owner (SPO) serves as a member of the Agile Team(s) and is responsible for many facets of the teams’ workload including collaboration, intake, elaboration of multiple features (3+), business value and prioritization.  The SPO is accountable for creating and grooming the backlog, working with business stakeholders to define acceptance criteria and ensuring the criteria is met once the story is completed.  The Senior Product Owner works with Leadership, Business and Agile teams to maximize the value of the work being performed in any given sprint.  This integral position is also responsible for aiding in the development and growth of strong partner relationships with key business stakeholders and driving adoption of capabilities to increase business unit satisfaction.

The Senior Product Owner function understands and represents the “voice of the customer” internally by communicating and overseeing the prioritization of work across the multiple Agile Development teams within its purview.  In maintaining the backlog, the Senior Product Owner will ensure that the teams are working on stories that deliver against the product vision, maximize business value, and deliver necessary functionality to customers.

This role represents a key Agile function as the Senior Product Owner is responsible for guiding the Development teams in understanding the business need, value, and success criteria for each prioritized initiative, managing the backlog, and serving as point of contact coordination of testing and Sprint Reviews.

The SPO is also responsible for driving the adoption of Agile internally and externally within the organization.  This includes being a champion of Agile to cultivate continuous improvement, as well as being a thought leader and looking for opportunities to grow in Agile maturity.

This role also must possess leadership qualities that will be utilized to mentor junior team members.  The role influences others in IT by driving the delivery of features forward and is sought out for their expertise. This role is expected to support and expand a culture of operational excellence.  

• Manage the Sprint Backlog
• Define the product backlog and work with business stakeholders to create and clarify actionable user stories for the development team as needed
• Groom the work in the backlog in collaboration with the Planning Manager and the Agile Development Team
• Understand and maintain relative prioritization and guide the Development team when priorities change
• In partnership with the Release Train Engineer, ensure all sprint backlog stories have defined business need, value, MVP, acceptance criteria, story points and tasks to support the Development team
• Work with assigned team(s) to hold sprint planning, define sprint goals, direct focus and prepare for sprint review
• Manage intake of sprint interruptions, including understanding of need, value, item priority and relative priority of committed work

• Coordinate with business owners and Dev team to set expectations, commit and deliver

• Value Delivery in each Sprint
• Drive to completion multiple features (3+) during any one quarter
• Interact with customers and stakeholders to elaborate and understand needs in current user stories
• Respond to teams’ questions about requirements or assist in the facilitation of requirement feedback
• Clarify user stories, product vision and specification
• Collaborate with teams daily to ensure the goals of the sprint are met
• Evaluate completed user stories to ensure the acceptance criteria is met prior to delivering to business stakeholders
• Accept or reject iteration results

• Testing
• Serve as a point of contact for testing requests for the development team
• Work to anticipate testing needs during a given sprint
• Coordinate testing completion based on priority and team capacity

• PI Planning, Sprint Planning, and Sprint Review
• Assist in quarterly planning activities, support the assigned development team in preparing for and engaging in quarterly planning, and facilitate communication and tracking of assigned features
• Facilitate agile team ceremonies
• Prepare sprint backlog ahead of sprint planning and lead the Development team in creation of and focus on sprint goals
• Coordinate sprint review with other agile development teams to ensure involvement and alignment across all EDS agile teams
• Assist team with the presentation of value delivered in the sprint.  Anticipate the appropriate level of detail needed and likely questions

• IT Influence/Leadership:
• Be a champion of Agile in growing the maturity of Agile across the organization
• Provide leadership by modeling excellence in high productivity, strong work ethic, and positive interaction with others 
• Act as a thought leader and look for opportunities to grow in Agile maturity
• Represent the team in interdepartmental projects and corporate initiatives; consult with the business area on the most complex system-related issues and make recommendations for better utilizing the available technology
• Collaborate with peers and business partners as a subject matter expert in their assigned area(s) and share business and systems knowledge with others

• Agile Service Delivery
• Participate as part of a team to mature Agile in an ITIL-based service organization to increase the frequency, predictability, and quality of services delivered to our customers
• Promote IT and Agile best practices with organization POs and business stakeholders’ interactions to ensure alignment with IT and Agile standards and effective use of investments
• Analyze business systems and processes; identify improvement opportunities to increase efficiency and productivity

• Reporting
• Maintain detailed knowledge and communicate the status of specific features assigned that affect business partner groups 
• At regular intervals, meet with business partners, discuss status updates, gather information on upcoming initiatives and relative priorities of each
• Create and provide relevant customer reports to key internal stakeholders as needed
• Coordinate the involvement of key stakeholders in Agile ceremonies across the assigned agile team(s) and in project meetings through the PMO

• Relationship Management
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with business units and team members to understand and identify tactical/strategic business needs and optimize solutions based on MVP
• Interact with clients to mitigate risks and to resolve problems
• Provide transparency to business partners on scope, schedule and resource constraints to a plan
• Coordinate with the business in analyzing and recommending technology solution alternatives. Provide coordination in the effective use of existing IT resources
• Work with the IT organization and other stakeholders to support development of, prioritize and execute the IT project portfolio in alignment with corporate strategic priorities
• Retain expertise and remain current on key business and technical issues facing the client’s organization

• Mentorship/Continuous Improvement
• Utilize leadership abilities and vast business/technical knowledge to mentor fellow team members
• Participate in training junior resources to get up to speed
• Continuously improve team process and procedures by frequently providing feedback and ideas

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience required. Master’s degree, PMP, CSPO, and CSM certifications preferred
• Demonstrated professional level abilities in driving culture change, process management, effective tool usage, evangelizing product technologies and related application capabilities
• Demonstrated ability to communicate clearly, negotiate, listen, mitigate conflict, build alliances and achieve results
• Minimum 3+ years demonstrated experience in project management or support roles for IT solutions in customer facing environments requiring complex relationship management and diagnosing complex support and service issues
• Minimum 3+ years working with integrated project teams using varied delivery methodologies
• Minimum 3+ years’ experience using the ITIL framework for IT service management
• Certifications in industry-related or discipline-related organizations are desirable and may substitute for some work and/or technical experience. (Organization could include Scrum Alliance, LOMA, SILA, American College, PMI, IIBA, IIST)
• Microsoft Dynamics and CRM experience highly preferred

• Ability to build relationships and establish credibility quickly with key stakeholders internally and externally
• Sound understanding of software development life cycle and successful management of multiple full lifecycle projects is required, Agile experience is highly preferred.
• Meaningful experience and expertise working with front and back-office processes and technologies, integrating business and technology, and managing demand and prioritization is required
• Experience/in-depth knowledge of business requirements analysis and IT processes required
• Demonstrate broad knowledge of multiple business areas, and industry to identify and communicate how IT solutions can support the achievement of short-and long-term business goals
• Leadership and negotiation skills, with driving desire and high propensity to learn quickly and develop oneself
• Ability to work with stakeholders to proactively identify and evaluate risks associated with business decisions
• Ability to communicate clearly, negotiate, listen, mitigate conflict, build alliances and achieve desired results using strong interpersonal and diplomacy skills
• Self-Starter and autonomous within a team environment
• Able to work productively under high levels of ambiguity
• Skilled at asking questions and professionally challenging to uncover important facts and information
• Has the courage to make decisions, but also has the wisdom to know when a decision needs to be escalated
• Builds consensus among diverse groups of stakeholders; highly skilled at facilitating resolution across functions and departments
• Has the confidence to engage and work productively with business leaders
• Strong team orientation and willingness to work to earn the trust of the team
• Other related skills and/or abilities may be required to perform this job.

Employee Benefits:  

We aim to protect the wellbeing of our employees and their families with a broad benefits offering. In addition to offering comprehensive health, dental and vision insurance, we support emotional wellbeing through mental health benefits and an employee assistance program. Work/life balance is important and Protective offers a variety of paid time away benefits (e.g., paid time off, paid parental leave, short-term disability, and a cultural observance day). The financial health of our employees is just as important as physical and emotional health.  Some of the financial wellbeing benefits include contributions to healthcare accounts, a pension plan, and a 401(k) plan with Company matching. All employees are encouraged to protect their overall wellbeing by engaging in ProHealth Rewards, Protective’s platform to improve wellbeing while earning cash rewards.   

Eligibility for certain benefits may vary by position in accordance with the terms of the Company’s benefit plans.

Accommodations for Applicants with a Disability:

If you require an accommodation to complete the application and recruitment process due to a disability, please email [email protected]. This information will be held in confidence and used only to determine an appropriate accommodation for the application and recruitment process.

Please note that the above email is solely for individuals with disabilities requesting an accommodation.  General employment questions should not be sent through this process.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer committed to being inclusive and attracting, retaining, and growing an inclusive workforce.