Principal Product Owner

Waters Corporation; Wilmslow; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days holiday

Pension contributions

Life assurance

Income protection

Private medical insurance

Job summary

Waters Corporation in Wilmslow, United Kingdom, is seeking a Product Owner to shape the strategy for our Informatics portfolio and own the prioritization of a value-driven backlog. You will articulate product vision across the ecosystem and partner with cross‑functional teams to deliver customer-focused outcomes.

You will lead discovery, define roadmaps, collaborate with Agile teams, and track key metrics to demonstrate impact, with up to 25% international travel.

Qualifications

• Degree in a Life Sciences discipline such as Biochemistry, Chemistry, Biomedical Science, or related field.
• Proven experience working within Agile methodologies in a complex, matrixed organization.
• Significant experience as a Product Owner with a track record translating strategy into outcomes.
• Ability to lead, influence, and motivate cross-functional engineering teams.
• Understanding LC-MS workflows and familiarity with Waters Informatics products is highly desirable.

Responsibilities

• Deliver impactful customer outcomes by working with customers, stakeholders and cross-functional teams.
• Translate portfolio vision and strategy into a clear product roadmap.
• Own backlog definition, prioritization, balancing customer needs and technical considerations.
• Lead product discovery and requirements gathering activities.
• Collaborate with Agile development teams to ensure requirements are understood and delivered.
• Participate in sprint reviews and retrospectives, driving continuous improvement.
• Define, track and communicate meaningful product and business metrics.

Skills

Product Owner

Agile methodologies

Roadmap development

Stakeholder management

Cross-functional leadership

Data-driven decision making

Education

Bachelor's degree in Life Sciences

Job description

Overview

Join the Waters Informatics team and help shape the future of mass spectrometry data acquisition on the journey toward fully autonomous, lights-out laboratories. This is an exciting opportunity to work at the forefront of scientific innovation within a dynamic, highly skilled, and collaborative team. As a Product Owner, you will play a pivotal role in defining and driving product strategy, articulating your product vision across a broader ecosystem, and owning the prioritization of a value-driven product backlog.

Responsibilities

• Deliver impactful customer outcomes by working closely with customers, stakeholders, and cross-functional teams to understand needs and drive value-focused solutions.
• Translate and execute the portfolio product vision and strategy into a clear and actionable product roadmap, ensuring initiatives are aligned to customer outcomes and business objectives.
• Own the definition, refinement, and prioritization of the product backlog, balancing customer needs, business priorities, and technical considerations.
• Lead product discovery and requirements gathering activities, ensuring robust problem analysis is conducted and that genuine user needs are accurately captured.
• Collaborate closely with Agile development teams to ensure requirements are well understood and delivered in line with expected outcomes.
• Participate in regular sprint reviews and retrospectives, championing continuous improvement and ensuring lessons learned are incorporated into future product development.
• Define, track, and communicate meaningful product and business metrics to measure success, inform decision-making, and demonstrate the impact of delivered solutions.

Qualifications

Education:

• Degree in a Life Sciences discipline such as Biochemistry, Chemistry, Biomedical Science, or a related scientific field.

Experience:

• Proven experience working successfully within Agile methodologies in a complex, matrixed organization.
• Significant experience as a Product Owner, with a strong track record of translating strategy into successful product outcomes.
• Demonstrated ability to lead, influence, and motivate cross-functional engineering teams through periods of growth, transformation, and change.
• Experience defining product roadmaps, managing priorities, and delivering customer-centric products in fast-paced environments.
• An understanding of LC-MS workflows as well as familiarity with Waters Informatics products and applications, is highly desirable.

Competencies:

• Exceptional organizational, planning, and prioritization skills, with the ability to manage multiple initiatives and competing priorities.
• A proactive change agent who thrives in dynamic environments and can effectively drive product and organizational transformation.
• Strong collaboration and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to build relationships across functions, geographies, and customer organizations.
• A deep understanding of how to create customer value and translate customer-focused outcomes into measurable business impact.
• Customer-centric mindset, with a passion for understanding user needs and delivering solutions that delight customers.
• Strong communication and influencing skills, capable of aligning diverse stakeholders around a shared vision and strategy.
• Ability to adapt leadership and management styles to effectively engage, coach, and influence both direct and indirect teams.
• Analytical and data-driven approach, using insights and metrics to support decision‑making and continuous improvement.

Travel (If Applicable):

• Up to 25% international travel

In addition to salary, wework flexibly and provide 25 days holidays, excellent family friendly benefits such as attractive employer pension contribution, life assurance, income protection and private medical. With Waters, there are plenty of opportunities for you to grow, develop and contribute.

Company Description

Waters Corporation (NYSE:WAT)is a global leader in life sciences and diagnostics, dedicated to accelerating the benefits of pioneering science through analytical technologies, informatics, and service. With a focus on regulated, high-volume testing environments, our innovative portfolio harnesses deep scientific expertise across chemistry, physics, and biology. We collaborate with customers around the world to advance the release of effective, high-quality medicines, ensure the safety of food and water, and drive better patient outcomes by detecting diseases earlier, managing routine infections, and combating antibiotic resistance. Through a shared culture of relentless innovation, our passionate team of ~16,000 colleagues turn scientific challenges into breakthroughs that improve lives worldwide.

Diversity and inclusion are fundamental to our core values at Waters Corporation. It benefits our employees, our products, our customers and our community. Waters complies with all applicable federal, state,and local laws. Qualified applicants are considered without regard to sex, race, color, ancestry, national origin, citizenship status, religion, age, marital status (including civil unions), military service, veteran status, pregnancy (including childbirth and related medical conditions), genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, legally recognized disability, domestic violence victim status,or any other characteristic protected by law. Waters is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. All hiring decisions are based solely on qualifications, merit, and business needs at the time.