Product Owner - Finance

Berkshire Hathaway Homestate Companies; United States; Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Berkshire Hathaway Homestate Companies is seeking a Product Owner II to lead software delivery in Omaha, Nebraska. This role involves collaborating with stakeholders, managing software features, and guiding delivery teams. The position offers a hybrid work schedule of 50% in-office and requires strong Agile methodology knowledge.

Ideal candidates have a Bachelor's degree, five years of related experience, and skills in team facilitation and communication. Successful candidates will demonstrate a strong sense of ownership and effective interpersonal skills.

Qualifications

• Five or more years of related work experience.
• Experience working in application lifecycle management tools.
• Familiarity with continuous delivery and continuous integration.

Responsibilities

• Identify Product Team Goals and create execution plans.
• Translate product initiative requirements to functional team members.
• Provide overall leadership and guidance of software teams.

Skills

Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban)

Software development practices

Team facilitation skills

Interpersonal skills

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in a related field

Tools

DevOps

JIRA

Rally

Job description

Overview

Company: NICO National Indemnity Company. Want to work for a company with unparalleled financial strength and stability that offers “large company” benefits with an exciting, friendly, and “small company” atmosphere? As part of the Berkshire Hathaway group of Insurance Companies, NICO provides opportunities for professionals interested in just that.

The Product Owner II is responsible for identifying, organizing, prioritizing, and assessing work for a software delivery team. Responsibilities include gathering feature requests, scheduling releases, coordinating sprints, identifying user needs, coordinating with cross‑functional teams, facilitating communication between stakeholders and delivery teams, and supporting BA/QA professionals in creating user stories and test plans.

This position will be based in Omaha, Nebraska and will have a hybrid work schedule of 50% in the office at our Corporate Headquarters. Sponsorship is not available for this position.

What will you do?

• Identify Product Team Goals: Collaborates with key stakeholders to define goals and create an execution plan for development projects, focusing on outcomes rather than solutions.
• User Stories and Release Planning: Translates product initiative requirements to functional team members by defining user stories for the team, maintaining and applying understanding of work process dependencies into functional requirements.
• Product Team Guidance and Direction: Provides overall leadership, guidance, and support of software product delivery team(s); works with Scrum Masters and Technical Leads to direct, motivate, and guide the delivery team(s); works with BA/QA to support development of project test plans, test scripts, and organization of testing efforts.
• Agile Ceremonies: Leads daily stand‑ups, story reviews, release and sprint planning sessions, status meetings, sprint reviews, demos, and retrospectives along with the Scrum Master.
• Communication and Collaboration: Works closely with and ensures regular communication with Program and Portfolio Managers, internal stakeholders, project sponsors, and other technology teams to ensure smooth onboarding of work.

What are we looking for?

• Bachelor’s Degree in a related field or equivalent work experience.
• Five or more years of related work experience.
• Knowledge of Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, etc.).
• Knowledge of software development practices and procedures.
• Experience working in application lifecycle management tools such as DevOps, JIRA, or Rally.
• Professional experience as a Business Analyst, Business Team Manager, Project Manager, or Scrum Master.
• Experience with business analysis or project management.
• Familiarity with continuous delivery and continuous integration.
• Insurance industry and product knowledge.

Who would excel in this role?

• Strong team facilitation skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills including conflict resolution.
• Strong sense of ownership and accountability.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills with all levels of the organization.
• Ability to explain and defend a viewpoint and persuade others to a defined position.