Product Owner

hiscox; York and North Yorkshire; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

Hiscox UK Retail Change Team is seeking a Product Owner to drive value across a defined stream from idea to delivery. You will translate strategy into actionable initiatives, align stakeholders, and prioritise the backlog to deliver customer-focused outcomes.

You will collaborate with business and technology teams, champion an evidence-based approach, and ensure the team keeps a continuous flow of value while aligning with the broader strategy.

Qualifications

• Proven experience as Product Owner, Product Manager, or similar role in insurance/financial services.
• Strong understanding of value stream models and applying them in a business context.
• Expertise in agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban) and familiarity with SAFe.
• Exceptional communication and stakeholder management with ability to influence at all levels.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities focused on delivering customer and business value.
• Willingness and ability to coach and develop others.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain a clear product vision aligned with the value stream's strategic goals.
• Translate customer and stakeholder needs into a compelling product roadmap with measurable outcomes.
• Engage with business stakeholders, customers, and technical teams to understand requirements and priorities.
• Create, refine, and prioritise the product backlog with clear user stories and acceptance criteria.
• Prioritise incidents and maintenance work against value stream capacity and priorities.
• Work closely with development teams to ensure timely delivery of high-quality solutions.
• Monitor product performance and use data-driven decisions to optimise value.
• Incorporate customer feedback into product improvements and innovation.

Skills

Product ownership experience

Agile methodologies

Stakeholder management

Strategic thinking

Communication skills

Coaching others

Job description

Job Type

Permanent

Build a brilliant future with Hiscox

Position

Product Owner

Location

Colchester or York

The Team

The Hiscox UK Change Team is the bridge between the business and the technology teams, ensuring that technology change is prioritised, defined, broken down and delivered in a way that enables the business to achieve its strategic goals, whilst also enabling the technology strategy. This means understanding the end-to-end context of the change and having a laser-focus on value so that we can ensure both that we're doing the right things and doing the things right. As such, we are looking for exemplary collaborators; people who thrive on building relationships, who aren't afraid to challenge how things are done, and are capable of driving consensus and guiding people through every stage of the change journey, from idea to reality.

The role

The Product Owner is a key role that sits within the Hiscox UK Retail Change team and is focused on delivering value across a designated value stream by aligning products and solutions to customer and stakeholder needs. As the key interface between the business, technology, and customer experience, you will be responsible for translating strategic objectives into actionable product initiatives that deliver functional business outcomes. In this role you'll work with the value stream sponsor to craft the value streams strategic roadmap, based on business strategy changes and then manage and prioritise the backlog to best deliver functional changes in line with the strategy and roadmap.

You'll be someone who enjoys making things happen and consider stakeholder management one of your strengths, with the ability to effectively engage with both business and technical stakeholders. You like to be an empowered decision maker, able to prioritise, and can quickly establish where time needs to be invested to drive business value, providing cost effective solutions to the business in line with the overarching strategy.

The Product Owner is empowered to make decisions around priority, scope and requirements driving stakeholder engagement, ensuring they are clear on customer needs ensuring a continuous flow of value from the team.

What you’ll be doing

Product Vision & Strategy

• Develop and maintain a clear product vision aligned with the strategic goals of the value stream.
• Translate customer and stakeholder needs into a compelling product roadmap that delivers measurable outcomes.

Stakeholder Collaboration

• Engage with business stakeholders, customers, and technical teams to understand requirements and priorities.
• Act as the primary point of contact for the product within the value stream, facilitating clear communication between all parties.
• Supporting formal performance reviews, celebrating hard work, individual and team success

Backlog Management

• Create, refine, and prioritise the product backlog to ensure alignment with value stream objectives.
• Define clear, actionable user stories and acceptance criteria to guide the development team.
• Prioritising incidents and other maintenance / health activities against value stream capacity and priorities

Value Delivery

• Work closely with development teams to ensure timely delivery of high-quality solutions.
• Monitor and measure product performance, making data-driven decisions to optimise value

Customer-Centric Innovation

• Incorporate customer feedback into product improvements and innovation.
• Advocate for the end-user experience in every decision, ensuring our products meet customer needs and expectations.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Collaborate with other value streams and change initiatives to identify synergies and dependencies.
• Promote a culture of continuous improvement and agile practices within the team and across Hiscox UK

Our must haves

• Proven experience as a Product Owner, Product Manager, or similar role, ideally within insurance, financial services, or a comparable industry.
• Strong understanding of value stream models and their application in a business context.
• Expertise in agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban) and familiarity with scaled agile frameworks (e.g., SAFe).
• Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence at all levels.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities, with a focus on delivering customer and business value.
• A willingness and ability to help coach and develop others

Our nice to haves

• Financial services or insurance industry experience
• Experience of working with digital channels / automation and/or Insurance policy administration software

Key Competencies

• Customer-Centricity: A strong focus on understanding and addressing customer needs.
• Strategic Thinking: Ability to align product goals with the company's broader objectives.
• Collaboration: Proven ability to work effectively with cross-functional teams.
• Adaptability: Comfort in a fast-paced, dynamic environment with changing priorities.
• Leadership: Inspire and guide teams