Senior Product Owner

Kelly; Toronto; On-site; CAD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Kelly in Toronto is seeking a Senior Business Analyst/Product Owner to lead an Agile pod delivering customer communications for Canadian Personal Banking. The role balances business priorities with sprint delivery, backlog governance, and stakeholder alignment to maximize business value.

The ideal candidate has 5–7 years in BA/PO roles within banking, strong Agile discipline, and experience facilitating ceremonies, storytelling, and demos for senior stakeholders.

Qualifications

• 5-7 years of Business Analyst and/or Product Owner experience.
• 5-7 years of experience within Banking or Financial Services.
• 5-7 years of Agile delivery experience.
• Experience working in Scrum environments.
• Experience with backlog management and refinement.
• Experience writing user stories and acceptance criteria.
• Experience facilitating Agile ceremonies.
• Experience leading stakeholder discussions and demos.

Responsibilities

• Own and maintain the product backlog and guide prioritization.
• Lead sprint planning, backlog refinement, and Scrum ceremonies.
• Define acceptance criteria and raise risks when needed.
• Coordinate with stakeholders and leadership on roadmap execution.
• Support delivery across multiple concurrent workstreams.
• Monitor progress and ensure business value delivery.

Skills

Agile delivery

Story pointing

Sprint planning

Capacity planning

Backlog prioritization

Education

Undergraduate Degree in Business, Technology, or related field

Tools

JIRA

Confluence

Job description

About the Opportunity

Our client, a leading financial institution, is seeking a Senior Business Analyst/Product Owner to join a highly collaborative Agile team supporting enterprise customer-servicing communications across Canadian Personal Banking.

This role leads an Agile pod that delivers critical customer communications via SMS, email, push notifications, and secure messaging. The successful candidate will act as a Product Owner while leveraging strong Business Analysis expertise to drive backlog prioritization, stakeholder engagement, sprint planning, and delivery execution.

This is an excellent opportunity for someone who thrives in a fast-paced Agile environment and enjoys balancing business priorities, delivery timelines, and stakeholder expectations.

Why Apply?

Opportunity to work with a leading financial institution

Long-term contract with extension potential

Permanent conversion opportunity based on performance

Lead an Agile pod delivering customer-facing banking solutions

Collaborative and supportive team culture

Visible initiatives impacting millions of customers

• Team consists of 6 Agile pods
• Collaborative, supportive, and highly engaged culture
• 2-3 weeks of onboarding and training provided
• Work structured around Quarterly Program Increments (PIs) and two-week sprints

Role Overview

As the Product Owner for an Agile pod, you will be responsible for ensuring the team delivers maximum business value through customer-focused product increments. You will work closely with business stakeholders, technical teams, and leadership to manage priorities, remove blockers, and drive successful delivery outcomes.

The team supports customer servicing communications such as:

• Security Notifications
• Balance Updates
• Secure Messages
• Digital Banking Communications

This is primarily a Business-As-Usual (BAU) environment focused on onboarding, configuration, deployment, and enhancement of communication capabilities rather than new feature development.

Key Responsibilities

Product Ownership & Agile Delivery

• Own and maintain the product backlog.
• Prioritize user stories based on business and customer value.
• Lead sprint planning, backlog refinement, story pointing, retrospectives, and other Scrum ceremonies.
• Define and maintain acceptance criteria.
• Make delivery decisions and elevate risks when required.
• Manage development team priorities and delivery timelines.

Stakeholder Management

• Partner with business stakeholders and leadership to support product vision and roadmap execution.
• Communicate with stakeholders at all levels of the organization.
• Facilitate demos and delivery reviews.
• Balance competing stakeholder priorities and negotiate trade-offs.
• Provide regular status reporting and progress updates.

Delivery & Planning

• Manage multiple concurrent workstreams and timelines.
• Monitor capacity and sprint commitments.
• Support release planning and deployment activities.Manage delivery dependencies, defects, and blockers.
• Coordinate testing, quality assurance, and business readiness activities.
• Participate in Scrum and Kanban ceremonies.
• Review performance metrics and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Support a culture of collaboration, innovation, transparency, and accountability.

Required Qualifications

Experience

• 5-7 years of Business Analyst and/or Product Owner experience.
• 5-7 years of experience within Banking or Financial Services.
• 5-7 years of Agile delivery experience.
• Experience working in Scrum environments.
• Experience with backlog management and refinement.
• Experience writing user stories and acceptance criteria.
• Experience facilitating Agile ceremonies.
• Experience leading stakeholder discussions and demos.

Technical Skills

• JIRA (5-7 years)
• Confluence (5-7 years)
• Agile Delivery Methodologies
• Story Pointing
• Sprint Planning
• Capacity Planning
• Backlog Prioritization

Soft Skills

• Strong stakeholder management capabilities.
• Exceptional organizational skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously.
• Leadership mindset with the ability to lead an Agile pod.
• Strong presentation and facilitation skills.
• Ability to adapt quickly in a fast-paced environment.

Education

• Undergraduate Degree in Business, Technology, or a related field.

Nice-to-Have Qualifications

• Understanding of Architectural Design concepts.
• SAFe Certification or experience working within Scaled Agile environments.
• Knowledge of APIs, endpoints, payloads, data mapping, variables, and integrations.

What Makes a Successful Candidate?

The ideal candidate is a strong Agile practitioner who can effectively manage approximately 30 concurrent initiatives, prioritize competing demands, communicate confidently with senior stakeholders, and keep delivery teams focused on achieving business outcomes.

You are highly organized, comfortable working in a meeting-heavy environment (approximately 3 hours per day), and enjoy driving progress across multiple stakeholders and delivery teams.

Interview Process

• 1-2 rounds of virtual interviews
• Panel interview possible
• Camera-on interviews
• Approximately 30-45 minutes per round

Use AI for Hiring

Our recruitment process for this role includes the use of AI-based tools to help evaluate candidate qualifications and screen applications.