Associate Product Owner

SimplyBiz PLC; England; Hybrid; GBP 42,000 - 62,000; Full time

Job summary

Defaqto is seeking an Associate Product Owner to join our Product team in Haddenham. You will translate customer insight and data into clear product requirements and help shape backlogs and delivery with UX and Engineering colleagues.

You'll create user stories, support backlog refinement, and work across teams to ensure solutions meet real customer needs. This role offers a hybrid work pattern and opportunity to grow into Product Ownership in a fast-paced fintech environment.

Qualifications

• 3–5 years' experience in BA, Product or delivery-focused roles in software.
• Experience writing high-quality user stories and acceptance criteria.
• Strong knowledge of Agile delivery (Scrum or Kanban) and Jira.
• Excellent analytical skills to break down complex processes.
• Strong stakeholder engagement and cross-functional collaboration.
• Practical experience using AI tools to support analysis or delivery.

Responsibilities

• Maintain and prioritise product backlogs to maximize value.
• Write user stories and acceptance criteria from business needs.
• Support backlog refinement, roadmap planning and sprint delivery.
• Collaborate with UX and Engineering to shape solutions.

Skills

Backlog ownership

User stories

Agile delivery

Jira

Stakeholder engagement

AI-assisted analysis

Tools

Jira

Job description

Associate Product Owner

Department: Product

Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time

Location: Haddenham

Reporting To: BA & UX Manager

Description

Help shape the future of financial technology at Defaqto, one of the UK's most trusted financial information brands. Join our Product team and turn customer insight, data and ideas into innovative digital products that make a real impact across the financial services industry.

Role Overview:

As an Associate Product Owner, you'll work closely with Product, UX and Engineering teams to transform business needs and customer feedback into clear, actionable product requirements. You'll help shape product backlogs, support the delivery of digital solutions, and ensure products solve genuine customer problems. This is an ideal opportunity for an experienced Business Analyst or delivery professional looking to grow into a Product Ownership career within a fast-paced, technology-driven environment.

What you'll do

Support Backlog Ownership

• Help maintain and prioritise product backlogs, ensuring work is focused on delivering the greatest value.
• Write clear user stories and acceptance criteria based on customer, stakeholder and business needs.
• Support backlog refinement, roadmap planning and sprint delivery activities.
• Build confidence in making day-to-day scope and prioritisation decisions.

Deliver Analytical Rigour

• Analyse business processes, customer needs and system behaviours to identify requirements and opportunities for improvement.
• Translate complex problems into clear, actionable requirements and delivery outcomes.
• Create requirements documentation, process flows and other artefacts that support successful delivery.
• Work with UX and Engineering teams to shape solutions and improve ways of working, including the use of AI tools.

Work Closely with Engineering Teams

• Collaborate with developers, testers and Product colleagues to ensure a shared understanding of requirements and priorities.
• Support planning, refinement, testing and review activities throughout the delivery lifecycle.
• Help validate delivered solutions, ensuring they meet agreed requirements and quality standards.
• Contribute to agile best practices and continuous improvement initiatives.

Represent Customer and Business Needs

• Develop a strong understanding of the products, customers and markets you support.
• Gather customer, market and competitor insights to inform product decisions and priorities.
• Advocate for customer needs and ensure solutions solve genuine user problems.
• Help measure product success and evaluate outcomes after release.

Support Effective Collaboration

• Build effective relationships across Product, Technology and the wider business.
• Communicate progress, risks and dependencies clearly to stakeholders.
• Contribute to a collaborative, high-performing team culture.
• Participate in retrospectives and continuous improvement activities.

What you'll need to succeed:

Essential

• 3–5 years' experience in a Business Analysis, Product, or similar delivery-focused role within a software development environment.
• Experience writing high-quality user stories and acceptance criteria.
• Strong understanding of Agile delivery methodologies, including Scrum or Kanban, and experience with tools such as Jira.
• Excellent analytical skills, with the ability to break down complex business processes, systems and requirements into clear, actionable outcomes.
• Strong stakeholder engagement and communication skills, with the ability to work effectively across technical and non-technical teams.
• Practical experience using AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude or similar to support analysis, requirements gathering or delivery activities.

Desirable

• Experience working within fintech, financial services, or another regulated industry.
• Exposure to product ownership responsibilities, such as backlog management, prioritisation or roadmap planning.
• Experience creating process flows, wireframes or other requirements artefacts.
• Experience working with SaaS or data-driven digital products.
• Interest in market trends, competitor analysis and customer behaviour.

Your Approach

• Curious, proactive and eager to learn, with a passion for solving problems and improving products.
• Outcome-focused, balancing attention to detail with a practical approach to delivery.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced environment, managing ambiguity and changing priorities.
• Collaborative and confident, able to challenge constructively while building strong working relationships.
• Motivated to take ownership, develop Product Management skills and make a meaningful contribution to product success.

Important to know:

Location:

This is a hybrid working role where you base is our Haddenham, Buckinghamshire office. You'll work from there 3 days each week.

Right to Work:

Applicants must already hold a legal right to work in the UK without time restrictions and without the need for future sponsorship. We are unable to provide Skilled Worker visa sponsorship.