Principal Product Owner (Backend Platform)

Discover Financial Services; Riverwoods (IL); On-site; USD 113,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a forward-thinking company as a Principal Product Owner, where your expertise in product management will shape the future of digital banking. In this pivotal role, you will partner with stakeholders to define product vision and prioritize initiatives that deliver real value to customers. You will oversee product performance, develop strategic plans, and collaborate across teams to ensure alignment with business goals. This dynamic environment values innovation and teamwork, providing you the opportunity to make a significant impact on millions of lives. If you're passionate about driving product excellence and want to be part of a collaborative culture, this is the perfect opportunity for you.

Benefits

Paid Parental Leave

Paid Time Off

401(k) Plan

Medical, Dental, Vision, & Health Savings Account

STD, Life, LTD and AD&D

Recognition Program

Education Assistance

Commuter Benefits

Family Support Programs

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience in Product Management or Engineering in Financial Services or Tech Industry.
• Bachelor's Degree in a relevant field or 8+ years of experience in lieu of a degree.

Responsibilities

• Define product vision and prioritize backlog to deliver customer value.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to align product features and roadmap.

Skills

Product Management

Stakeholder Engagement

Agile Methodologies

Business Analysis

Risk Management

Data Analysis

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology

Bachelor's Degree in Engineering

Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration

Bachelor's Degree in Finance

Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics

Bachelor's Degree in Economics

Bachelor's Degree in Statistics

Tools

Postman

Datadog

Instana

Job description

Principal Product Owner (Backend Platform)

With us, you’ll do meaningful work from Day 1. Our collaborative culture is built on three core behaviors: We Play to Win, We Get Better Every Day & We Succeed Together. And we mean it — we want you to grow and make a difference at one of the world's leading digital banking and payments companies. We value what makes you unique so that you have an opportunity to shine.

Come build your future, while being the reason millions of people find a brighter financial future with Discover.

Job Description:

What You’ll Do

The Product Professional is responsible for partnering with stakeholders to define the product vision at the team level while prioritizing "what" the team is working on to deliver value to the customer. Assesses the performance of and shapes the structure and direction of new/existing product lines and develops or assists in developing and executing strategic product plans. Assists the team in achieving specific goals for each product, including evaluating product performance, and identifying innovations to deliver business value and address customer needs to improve the product's performance. Actively manages and escalates risk and customer-impacting issues within the day-to-day role to management.

How You’ll Do It

• Builds product backlog, prioritizes its items to achieve Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) and continuously keeps it up to date. Holds meetings with the product team to continuously update product backlog. Ensures product features and processes align with applicable Discover compliance and risk management standards. Ensures product adheres to the highest quality standards, including releasing security patches not linked to customers.
• Participates in the development of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) for the product team and ensures alignment with senior leadership (e.g., SPO, Dir, etc.). Creates and/or maintains key product documentation (e.g., customer journey map, technical specs, process mapping, etc.). Identifies and defines key non-functional requirements (e.g., security, availability, performance, etc.) to achieve necessary product metrics. Defines and executes strategic product roadmaps to build new products, enhance existing products, or improve performance.
• Interacts and collaborates with stakeholders on key product considerations and aligns with product vision, features and roadmap. Leverages customer insights, feedback, financials, compliance, and risk data to define product features and roadmap in partnership with other SMEs.
• Contributes to defining the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and is responsible for delivering MVP/features/user stories for delivery product roadmap; in-line with the Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) of the greater product vision outlined by SPO and/or Business Director is the final decision maker for product scope.
• Defines functional and non-functional product requirements; ensures completeness; integral and consistent; source of requirements for product team. Creates and validates user story acceptance criteria. Defines and ensures appropriate testing frameworks for product features (e.g., market testing, functional performance, etc.). Works with Data stewards in their respective LOBs to ensure required Data quality controls are identified and implemented. Inspects and evaluates product progress through each iteration.
• Partners with business technology to create technical features that are required to continuously optimize system components and underlying infrastructure maintenance.
• Identifies sources, monitors, analyzes (Business Analysis), tests, and interprets key product performance metrics including financials, network volumes, other key statistics, and internal/external customer feedback trends, industry trends, research findings, and competitive innovations then develops and communicates findings, and makes strategic and tactical recommendations for performance improvements throughout the product lifecycle.
• Collaborates with cross-functional teams to develop and execute go-to-market strategies.
• Builds a culture of accountability and ownership by empowering the product team to make decisions as close to the work as possible. Serves as business lead on cross-functional teams and assists in managing dependencies with other team's functions while identifying, building, and managing strategic partnerships across different product teams. This includes collaborating to develop or support efforts of go-to-market strategies.

Qualifications You’ll Need

The Basics

• Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology, Engineering, Business Administration & Management, Finance, Mathematics, Economics, Statistics, or related
• 6+ years of experience in Product Management or Engineering experience in Financial Services or Tech Industry, or related
• In lieu of a degree, 8+ years of experience in Product Management or Engineering experience in Financial Services or Tech Industry, or related

Physical & Cognitive Requirements

• Primarily remain in a stationary position.
• No required movement about the work environment to complete the major responsibilities of the job.
• Primarily performed indoors in an office setting.
• Ability to operate office equipment such as but not limited to computer, telephone, printer, and calculator.
• Ability to communicate verbally; Ability to communicate in written form.

Bonus Points If You Have

• Knowledge of APIs and Microservices
• Knowledge of Datadog or Instana
• Postman testing
• Agile Certification: Scrum Master or Scrum Product Owner

Discover will not sponsor or transfer employment work visas for this position. Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis.

Application Deadline: The application window for this position is anticipated to close on Jan-12-2025. We encourage you to apply as soon as possible. The posting may be available past this date, but it is not guaranteed.

Compensation: The base pay for this position generally ranges between $113,500.00 to $159,100.00. Additional incentives may be provided as part of a market competitive total compensation package. Factors, such as but not limited to, geographical location, relevant experience, education, and skill level may impact the pay for this position.

Benefits: We also offer a range of benefits and programs based on eligibility. These benefits include:

• Paid Parental Leave
• Paid Time Off
• 401(k) Plan
• Medical, Dental, Vision, & Health Savings Account
• STD, Life, LTD and AD&D
• Recognition Program
• Education Assistance
• Commuter Benefits
• Family Support Programs
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Learn more at mydiscoverbenefits.com.

All Discover employees place our customers at the very center of our work. To deliver on our promises to our customers, each of us contributes every day to a culture that values compliance and risk management.

Discover is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. Discover is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, or other legally protected status.

Discover complies with federal, state, and local laws applicable to qualified individuals with disabilities and is committed to providing reasonable accommodations. If you require a reasonable accommodation to search for a position, to complete an application, and/or to participate in an interview, please email [e-mail]. Any information you provide regarding your accommodation needs will be kept confidential and will only be used to determine and provide necessary accommodation.