Product Owner, Product Development (PO)

Ascensus; Pennsylvania; Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 135,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Professional development

Paid time off

Medical, dental & vision benefits

401(k) & 529 college savings match

Volunteer programs

Job summary

Ascensus is seeking a Product Owner to drive the roadmap and execution for Retirement and Government Savings programs. You will define stories, prioritize the backlog, and maintain alignment with business value and ROI.

You will collaborate with a Scrum team, BA colleagues, and technology partners to deliver features in sprints, while maintaining quality and regulatory compliance. Strong communication and facilitation skills are essential for success.

Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree in business or technology fields.
• Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Office and solid knowledge of Agile and SDLC.
• Minimum 5 years’ experience in the assigned business domain (401(k), IRA, 529, etc.).
• Minimum 5 years’ experience as a Product Owner or in a technology practice.
• Proven ability to implement and execute Agile principles with strong technical skills.
• Able to work in a fast-paced environment with high-quality output and regulatory compliance.
• Strong communication and writing skills with ability to influence at all levels.
• Experience with facilitation, change management and continuous improvement.
• Curiosity, detail-orientation and strong analytical skills.

Responsibilities

• Creates and maintains the Scrum Team Roadmap.
• Prioritizes the Backlog by business value or ROI.
• Conveys Vision and Goals at each Release and Sprint.
• Represents the customer and engages stakeholders.
• Collaborates with the Scrum team on feature development and backlog management.
• Interfaces with BAs and Tech to create BD-Driven Development stories.
• Elaborates Epics into actionable user stories for sprints.
• Participates in daily Scrums, planning, reviews and retrospectives.
• Inspects progress and accepts or rejects work.
• Maintains relationships with business and client to understand needs.
• Leads organizational readiness activities.
• Acts as primary internal and external point of contact for updates.
• Identifies KPIs and tracks product performance.
• Sets annual goals and outcomes for products.

Skills

Agile methodologies

Product ownership

Communication

Facilitation

Scrum ceremonies

BDD & test planning

Education

Undergraduate degree in business or technology fields

Tools

Confluence

JIRA

Azure DevOps

Aha!

Job description

Section 1: Position Summary

As a Product Owner at Ascensus, you will be responsible for the roadmap and execution to carry out the vision for the assigned Program (Retirement and Government Savings). The Product Owner is a member of an Agile team responsible for defining Stories and prioritizing the Team Backlog so as to streamline the execution of program priorities, while maintaining conceptual and technical integrity of the Features or components the team is responsible for. In addition, the ability to build relationships, influence and be a driver of execution in a fast-paced environment is critical to this role.

Section 2: Job Functions, Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Creates and maintains the Scrum Team Roadmap.
• Prioritizes and sequences the Backlog according to business value or ROI.
• Conveys the Vision and Goals at the beginning of every Release and Sprint.
• Represents the customer, interfaces and engages the customer.
• Collaborating with a Scrum team on new Feature development, requests including building and maintaining a Product backlog, contributing to/reviewing/approving user stories, sprint support, and UAT testing.
• Where appropriate, works closely with BAs and Technology to create Behaviors Driven Development (BDD) stories.
• Assists with the elaboration of Epics, Themes and Features into user stories that are granular enough to be achieved in a single sprint.
• Participates in the daily Scrums, Sprint Planning Meetings, Release Planning, Sprint Reviews and Retrospectives.
• Inspects the product progress at the end of every Sprint and has complete authority to accept or reject work done.
• If necessary assess and change the course of the project at the end of every Sprint as needed.
• Maintains relationships with the business and the client to understand the current and changing needs.
• Actively involved in Organizational readiness activities.
• Primary point person internally and externally for the team for updates and feedback.
• Identify and maintain the KPIs need to support the team and assigned product.
• Establish annual goals, objectives and outcomes for product(s); Track and monitor key performance indicators.
• Supervision No direct reports, but provides critical leadership to drive the scrum team(s)

Section 3: Experience, Skills, Knowledge Requirements

Undergraduate degree in business or technology related fields.

Advanced with Microsoft Office applications and a strong working knowledge of Agile and SDLC methodologies.

Minimum 5 years’ experience in the assigned business domain: 401(k), IRA, 529, etc.

Minimum 5 years’ experience as a Product Owner, or a Technology (Dev or QA) practice.

Demonstrated experience implementing and executing Agile principles with strong technical skills.

Ability to work in a fast-paced environment; high quality of work that adheres to all standards, regulatory and audit requirements.

Strong consultative and well-articulated communication and writing skills with the ability to interact and influence at all levels of the organization.

Demonstrated experience with facilitation, situational awareness, conflict resolution, change management, continual improvement, empowerment, and increasing transparency.

Demonstrated experience implementing and executing Agile principles with strong technical skills.

Naturally curious, detail oriented, with strong analytic, and research skills.

Knowledge and/or experience with Confluence, JIRA, Azure DevOps, and Aha!.

Experience in administering the aforementioned applications a plus.

We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer.

What makes any career at Ascensus so rewarding?

• Collaborative, idea-sharing environment
• Professional Development with in-house training and tuition reimbursement
• Generous reward programs
• Paid time off
• Medical, dental & vision benefits
• Health Savings Account with employer contribution up to $1,100
• 401(k) & 529 college savings match programs
• Volunteer and charitable-giving programs
• Business casual dress