Product Owner - Digital Solutions Team | Marketing & Communications

The Rector & Visitors of the University of Virginia; Charlottesville (VA); Hybrid; USD 70,600 - 141,201; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance

Paid Time Off

Retirement Savings

Health Savings Plans

Educational support

Job summary

The Rector & Visitors of the University of Virginia is seeking a Product Owner to join the Digital Solutions Team. This role focuses on managing the product backlog, ensuring well-defined user stories, and collaborating closely with developers and UX designers.

The ideal candidate will possess strong organizational skills and have experience in Agile environments. Benefits include comprehensive insurance, paid time off, and educational support. This position is primarily located in Charlottesville, requiring on-site presence at least two days a week.

Qualifications

• Five years of experience in a Product Owner, Product Manager, Business Analyst, or related digital product role.
• Strong backlog management skills - prioritization, grooming, and sprint readiness.
• Experience conducting user research or stakeholder interviews to inform product decisions.

Responsibilities

• Own, maintain, and prioritize the product backlog at all times.
• Write user stories with explicit, testable acceptance criteria.
• Participate in sprint planning, backlog refinement, daily stand-up, and retrospectives.

Skills

Backlog management

Agile methodologies

User story writing

Stakeholder communication

Organizational skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in a relevant field or equivalent experience

Tools

Jira

Airtable

Job description

UVA Health is seeking a Product Owner to join the Digital Solutions Team within Marketing & Communications. This role is responsible for the day-to-day health and execution of the product backlog - ensuring stories are well-defined, prioritized, and sprint-ready so the development team can deliver with clarity and confidence.

About the Digital Solutions Team

Our team operates using a product-led model focused on UVA Health's digital front door and the end-to-end digital patient experience. We are responsible for the strategy, user experience, and technologies that support and power UVA Health's digital ecosystem. We prioritize initiatives that advance:

• Patient acquisition
• Frictionless patient experience
• Long-term patient loyalty
• Operational efficiency
• Department-wide marketing technology

Key Responsibilities

Backlog Ownership & Story Development

• Own, maintain, and prioritize the product backlog at all times, ensuring it is never empty or unsorted and always reflects current team priorities.
• Write user stories with explicit, testable acceptance criteria; no user story enters a sprint without them.
• Translate business requirements and stakeholder requests into actionable, appropriately-scoped backlog items.
• Prioritize the backlog based on user value, delivery effort, and strategic alignment - and defend those decisions clearly.
• Maintain and enforce the team's definition of done alongside the Delivery Lead.

Sprint Execution Support

• Be available to developers during active sprints to answer scope and requirements questions without changing scope mid-sprint.
• Formally accept or reject sprint deliverables against acceptance criteria at review.
• Participate in sprint planning, backlog refinement, daily stand-up, sprint review, and retrospectives.
• Partner with the Delivery Lead during backlog refinement to ensure stories are estimated and sprint-ready.

Discovery & User Insight

• Conduct discovery work in parallel with delivery, including user interviews, stakeholder sessions, and competitive landscape review, to ensure the backlog reflects validated user needs, not just internal requests.
• Work with the UX Designer to ensure research findings and usability insights inform backlog decisions.
• Track product outcome metrics alongside delivery metrics (adoption, task completion, and user satisfaction) to assess whether shipped work is creating real value.

Roadmap Contribution & Stakeholder Communication

• Connect epics and stories to the overarching strategic intent in the backlog as they ladder up to departmental and organizational goals and roadmaps.
• Contribute to roadmap planning conversations by providing delivery-informed perspective, surfacing constraints, and identifying opportunities uncovered during discovery.
• Communicate planned work and delivery timelines to internal stakeholders; proactively manage expectations on scope and scheduling.
• Keep the Manager of Digital Solutions informed on backlog direction and flag potential pivots before they become surprises.
• Translate stakeholder goals into prioritized backlog items that balance business needs with team capacity.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Collaborate closely with the UX Designer, Delivery Lead, and Web Developers to ensure stories are technically feasible and experientially sound before sprints begin.
• Participate in UX reviews and design critiques to ensure that what is being designed aligns with what can be built and what users need.
• Partner with the Delivery Lead to maintain accurate sprint boards and clear status reporting to leadership.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Information Systems, Communications, or a related field (or equivalent professional experience).
• Five years of experience in a Product Owner, Product Manager, Business Analyst, or related digital product role.
• Demonstrated experience writing user stories with clear, testable acceptance criteria.
• Strong backlog management skills - prioritization, grooming, and sprint readiness.
• Experience working within Agile/Scrum delivery teams.
• Ability to translate business goals and stakeholder needs into actionable, appropriately-scoped work.
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail; comfortable managing multiple concurrent priorities.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills; equally effective with technical developers and non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience conducting user research or stakeholder interviews to inform product decisions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) or equivalent Agile certification.
• Experience in digital product, website, or web application development contexts.
• Familiarity with platforms such as Contentstack, Epic, Kyruus, or Coveo.
• Experience using Jira and/or Airtable for backlog management, intake workflows, and stakeholder reporting.
• Experience in healthcare, academic medicine, or other regulated industries.
• Familiarity with digital marketing, analytics, SEO, or conversion optimization as it relates to product decision-making.
• Experience coordinating work that involves third-party vendors or external development partners.

Success Measures

• Backlog quality - stories are consistently well-defined, estimated, and sprint-ready with clear acceptance criteria.
• Sprint stability - developers can execute sprint commitments without mid-sprint scope ambiguity.
• Discovery cadence - discovery is happening in parallel with delivery, not after the fact.
• Stakeholder clarity - internal stakeholders have accurate, up-to-date visibility into planned work and delivery timelines.
• Outcome tracking - shipped work is evaluated against user and business value metrics, not just completion status.
• Roadmap contribution - insights from delivery and discovery are meaningfully feeding into planning conversations with the Manager.

Physical Demands & Work Location

This is primarily a sedentary role involving extensive use of desktop computers. The position currently requires on-site presence in the Charlottesville office at least two days per week. Some travel to attend meetings or programs may occasionally be required.

Pay range: $70,600.00 – $141,201.00 annually.

Benefits

• Comprehensive Benefits Package: Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• Paid Time Off, Long-term and Short-term Disability, Retirement Savings
• Health Savings Plans, and Flexible Spending Accounts
• Certification and education support
• Generous Paid Time Off

The University of Virginia, including the UVA Health System, is fundamentally committed to the diversity of its faculty and staff. We believe diversity is excellence expressed through every person's perspectives and lived experiences. We are an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, color, disability, gender identity or expression, marital status, national or ethnic origin, political affiliation, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, veteran status, and family medical or genetic information.

The University of Virginia is an equal opportunity employer. All interested persons are encouraged to apply, including veterans and individuals with disabilities. Learn more about UVA's commitment to non-discrimination and equal opportunity employment.