Technical Product Owner (Ref: 197023)

Forsyth Barnes; United States; Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension plan

Hybrid work

Professional development

Medical & life insurance

Wellbeing program

Job summary

Forsyth Barnes is recruiting a Technical Product Manager with a strong focus on Microsoft Azure to lead the Aurora platform. You will own the product lifecycle from discovery through delivery to live service, shaping technical direction and ensuring alignment with design principles.

The role requires proven Product Owner experience, Azure expertise, and a track record in Agile delivery. A hybrid work setup with critical collaboration across teams is offered.

Qualifications

• Proven experience as a Product Owner, Technical Product Manager, or similar role within a software engineering environment.
• Strong experience with Microsoft Azure-based solutions, including cloud-native and serverless architectures.
• Experience working in Agile delivery teams with ownership of backlog management and delivery outcomes.
• Demonstrable ability to shape and challenge technical solutions with engineering teams.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end product lifecycle for the Aurora platform from discovery to live service.
• Provide technical oversight of solution direction aligning with Azure-first, serverless-first, API-first principles.
• Act as a design checkpoint for engineering to ensure alignment with Azure reference patterns.
• Collaborate with developers to shape solutions and ensure platform-wide consistency.
• Maintain Azure services knowledge and ensure proper use of API Management, Functions, App Services, and Service Bus.
• Define and enforce standard integration, security, and data access patterns.

Skills

Product Owner

Azure

Agile

Backlog Management

DevOps

Tools

Azure DevOps

API Management

Service Bus

Job description

About Us

Our client specialises in delivering management consulting and finance-oriented solutions tailored to pensions, insurers, brokers and financial institutions. The organisation blends sector-specific advisory with hands-on implementation across risk, operations and customer propositions to help clients modernise processes and meet regulatory obligations.

Job Description

This role sits within the IT Development and Delivery team; a centralised technical team that specialises in the management and maintenance of the core software used to deliver pension services to customers and clients.

We develop software in-house that we can tune to our own processes to give ourselves a competitive advantage. We run a development team that is focused on pragmatic approaches to real business needs.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Product & Solution Leadership:

• Own the end-to-end product lifecycle for the Aurora platform, from discovery through to delivery and live service operation.
• Provide technical oversight of solution direction, ensuring all designs align with defined principles including: Azure-first, Serverless-first, API-first and event-driven integration.
• Act as a design checkpoint for engineering teams, validating that proposed solutions follow agreed Azure reference patterns and avoid unnecessary complexity or technical debt.
• Collaborate with developers to shape solutions while ensuring consistency across the platform

Azure Architecture Alignment:

• Maintain strong working knowledge of Azure services and ensure their appropriate use, including: API Management, Azure Functions / App Services, and Service Bus / event-driven patterns.
• Enforce standard integration, security, and data access patterns.
• Work with external or internal architecture support (where required) to ensure alignment to wider enterprise standards.

DevOps & Delivery Model Ownership:

• Own and evolve the Azure DevOps delivery process, including: backlog structure and refinement, flow optimisation, and release and deployment practices.
• Ensure all solutions are deployable via CI/CD pipelines, observable and supportable in production.
• Drive improvements in delivery predictability, quality, and speed.

Non-Functional Requirements & Quality:

• Define and own non-functional requirements, including: performance and scalability, resilience and availability, security and auditability, and cost efficiency within Azure.
• Validate that delivered solutions meet both functional and non-functional expectations before release.

Stakeholder & Domain Translation:

• Work with SMEs, operations, and compliance teams to understand business requirements.
• Translate complex regulatory and process requirements into clear, implementable delivery items.
• Ensure regulatory and audit obligations are embedded within solutions.

Performance & Continuous Improvement:

• Define and monitor key delivery metrics, including: lead time for change, deployment frequency, and defect rates and rework.
• Drive continuous improvement across engineering and delivery practices.

Requirements

Essential:

• Proven experience as a Product Owner, Technical Product Manager, or similar role within a software engineering environment.
• Strong experience working with Microsoft Azure-based solutions, including practical understanding of cloud-native and serverless architectures.
• Experience working in Agile delivery teams, with ownership of backlog management and delivery outcomes.
• Demonstrable ability to shape and challenge technical solutions in collaboration with engineering teams.
• Experience working with Azure DevOps (or similar tools) for backlog management, release tracking, and delivery governance.
• Experience delivering solutions within regulated or data-sensitive environments (e.g., financial services, pensions, insurance).

Desirable:

• Experience working with API-led and event-driven architectures, and Azure services such as API Management, Functions, and Service Bus.
• Familiarity with DevOps practices, including CI/CD pipelines and release management.
• Experience in platform modernisation or legacy system transformation programmes.
• Understanding of data-driven systems (e.g. SQL Server or similar).
• Experience within pensions or financial services (desirable but not essential).
• Exposure to integration with third-party platforms or enterprise systems.

Benefits

• Competitive salary and pension plan aligned with industry benchmarks.
• Generous annual leave entitlement plus bank holidays.
• Hybrid working arrangement with office presence in Reading, England.
• Professional development budget and access to industry training.
• Private medical insurance and life cover options.
• Employee assistance programme and wellbeing resources.

Other

The role provides an opportunity to shape solutions used by brokers, underwriters and internal teams across the insurance and finance sectors. Candidates from adjacent sectors with relevant digital product experience are encouraged to apply.