Principal Product Owner

First Citizens Bank; Raleigh (NC); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

First Citizens Bank is seeking a Technical Product Owner to lead enterprise AI initiatives and ensure successful delivery and adoption. This role requires a blend of product ownership and technical skills, focusing on translating business objectives into scalable AI solutions.

The ideal candidate has over 8 years of experience in product management and a strong understanding of AI technologies. Responsibilities include partnering with cross-functional teams and driving alignment in AI project delivery.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in Product Management or related fields.
• Strong understanding of Generative AI and Large Language Models.
• Experience delivering AI, Data, or Digital Transformation initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end delivery of AI initiatives and platforms.
• Partner with stakeholders to evaluate and prioritize AI opportunities.
• Collaborate with engineering teams to define technical requirements.

Skills

Product Management

Agile methodologies

Stakeholder management

Cloud-native architectures

Generative AI

Education

Bachelor's Degree

High School Diploma or GED

Tools

AWS

Snowflake Cortex AI

Job description

Overview

The Technical Product Owner is a highly visible principal-level product leader, responsible for driving the successful delivery and adoption of enterprise AI initiatives, platforms, and solutions. This role combines product ownership, technical acumen, and program execution to translate business opportunities into scalable AI capabilities that deliver measurable value. The role partners closely with business stakeholders, architects, engineering teams, data teams, security, governance, and platform providers to define requirements, prioritize roadmaps, manage delivery, and ensure successful implementation of AI-powered solutions. This individual serves as the bridge between strategy and execution, ensuring AI initiatives progress from concept to production while aligning with enterprise architecture, security, and governance standards.

Responsibilities

AI Product Strategy & Delivery

• Own the end-to-end delivery lifecycle for AI initiatives, platforms, and use cases.
• Partner with business stakeholders to identify, evaluate, and prioritize AI opportunities.
• Translate business objectives into actionable product roadmaps, epics, user stories, and delivery plans.
• Define MVPs, phased releases, and adoption strategies for Data & AI solutions.
• Drive execution across multiple initiatives simultaneously while managing dependencies, risks, and timelines.
• Establish success metrics and KPIs to measure business value and platform adoption.

AI Use Case Enablement

• Lead discovery, requirements gathering, and solution definition for AI use cases across the enterprise.
• Facilitate workshops with business and technology stakeholders to refine use case scope and expected outcomes.
• Support use case evaluation, feasibility analysis, and prioritization.
• Coordinate proof-of-concepts, pilots, and production implementations.
• Ensure AI solutions are aligned with enterprise standards, governance requirements, and business objectives.

Technical Product Ownership

• Collaborate with architects and engineering teams to define solution requirements and technical capabilities.
• Develop and maintain product backlogs, user stories, acceptance criteria, and release plans.
• Internal
• Participate in architecture reviews, design discussions, and solution planning activities.
• Understand AI architecture patterns including RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), Agentic AI, Graph RAG, AI Assistants & Copilots, Knowledge Management Platforms, Model Orchestration Frameworks.
• Ensure technical requirements align with scalability, security, reliability, and operational objectives.

AWS & Data Platform Collaboration

• Partner with cloud, platform, and data engineering teams to deliver AI capabilities leveraging AWS Bedrock, Snowflake Cortex AI, Snowflake Native AI capabilities.
• Coordinate platform onboarding, integration, testing, and production readiness activities.
• Drive adoption of reusable platform capabilities, patterns, and accelerators.

Stakeholder Management & Governance

• Serve as the primary liaison between business stakeholders and technology delivery teams.
• Present roadmap progress, risks, dependencies, and outcomes to leadership.
• Coordinate with Security, Risk, Compliance, Architecture Review Boards, and AI Governance teams.
• Ensure AI initiatives comply with enterprise policies and responsible AI practices.
• Manage vendor engagements, proof-of-concepts, and external partnerships.

Leadership & Best Practices

• Champion agile product management and iterative delivery practices.
• Drive alignment across business, architecture, engineering, and governance teams.
• Promote reuse of AI platform capabilities and enterprise standards.
• Foster collaboration, transparency, and continuous improvement.
• Stay informed on emerging AI technologies, market trends, and industry best practices.

Qualifications

Bachelor's Degree and 8 years of experience in Product Management, Scrum, Agile OR High School Diploma or GED and 12 years of experience in Product Management, Scrum, Agile

Preferred Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in Product Management, Product Ownership, Program Delivery, Technology Delivery, or related leadership roles.
• 3+ years of experience delivering AI, Data, Analytics, Cloud, or Digital Transformation initiatives in enterprise environments.
• Proven ability to lead complex cross-functional programs involving business stakeholders, architecture, engineering, security, and governance teams.
• Strong understanding of Generative AI, Large Language Models (LLMs), Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), AI Agents, and emerging AI technologies.
• Hands-on knowledge of cloud-native architectures and services, preferably AWS, including AI/ML, data, integration, and platform capabilities.
• Experience working with Agile methodologies, backlog management, roadmap planning, user story development, release management, and product lifecycle processes.
• Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and executive presentation skills, with the ability to translate business needs into scalable technical solutions.
• Experience delivering Enterprise AI Platforms or large-scale AI products.
• Experience with AWS Bedrock, Snowflake Cortex AI, Vector Databases, GraphRAG, and Agentic AI solutions.
• Experience within Banking, Financial Services, or other regulated industries.
• Product Owner (CSPO, SAFe POPM) and/or AWS Cloud/AI certifications.

Benefits

Benefits are an integral part of total rewards and First Citizens Bank is committed to providing a competitive, thoughtfully designed and quality benefits program to meet the needs of our associates. More information can be found at https://jobs.firstcitizens.com/benefits