Product Owner

Momentum; Centurion; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Job summary

Momentum Group is seeking a Product Owner to translate strategic direction into actionable delivery within cross-functional squads, owning the backlog and ensuring value realisation across platforms. You will balance business value, risk and regulatory considerations while guiding delivery with Architects, Analysts and squads.

You will focus on the “How and When” of delivery, enabling measurable value progression and alignment with strategic priorities in a financial services context.

Qualifications

• Relevant tertiary qualification in business, technology, product, finance or a related field.
• Agile, product ownership or delivery-related certification is advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Backlog Ownership and Delivery Readiness
• Own, manage and continuously refine the product backlog to ensure it reflects agreed strategic priorities, delivery sequencing, business and customer value, commercial and financial outcomes, risk, regulatory requirements, technical sustainability and squad capacity.
• Provide day-to-day execution leadership within the squad by ensuring that work is well defined, appropriately prioritised and delivered in a disciplined, value-led manner that solves meaningful customer and business problems.
• Translate initiatives into clear user stories, acceptance criteria, delivery increments and squad-ready requirements that connect the strategic intent to the customer, business, commercial, risk and technical outcomes expected.
• Lead backlog refinement, sprint planning and prioritisation discussions within the squad.
• Ensure delivery commitments are realistic, appropriately sequenced and achievable within available capacity.
• Drive the delivery of incremental outputs aligned to defined OKRs, strategic product priorities, measurable business outcomes, customer value and sustainable value realisation.
• Track delivery progress, surface execution insights and support visibility of value progression, including how delivery is contributing to commercial outcomes, financial benefits, risk reduction, regulatory compliance or technical sustainability.
• Identify and upscale blockers, risks, dependencies or constraints that may impact delivery timelines, customer and business outcomes, financial value, regulatory obligations or technical sustainability.
• Support the Strategic Product Owner with delivery insight, progress reporting and evidence required to assess value realisation.
• Overall accountability for strategic outcomes and value realisation remains with the Strategic Product Owner. The Product Owner enables value progression by ensuring that delivery is clear, controlled, execution-ready and visibly linked to sustainable business value.
• Translate business and stakeholder requirements into clear, structured and actionable backlog items that are anchored in strategic intent, customer and business problems, commercial value, financial outcomes and required controls.
• Create alignment between business expectations, delivery scope, squad capacity, technical feasibility, regulatory requirements and sustainable product or platform outcomes.
• Provide structured updates on delivery progress, decisions required, risks and dependencies.
• Cross-functional Delivery Integration
• Partner with Architects, Lead Business Analysts and delivery teams to ensure feasibility, design alignment, requirements quality, process clarity, architectural integrity and technical sustainability.
• Coordinate dependencies within the squad and across adjacent squads or delivery teams.
• Ensure delivery activity remains aligned to broader platform, portfolio and roadmap sequencing, with clear visibility of value, dependency, risk and sustainability considerations.
• Delivery Governance and Quality Adherence
• Ensure squad delivery adheres to agreed governance, risk, compliance, regulatory and architectural standards, while maintaining focus on sustainable business value.
• Maintain strong delivery discipline, documentation quality, release readiness and traceability of decisions.
• Governance ownership sits at portfolio, programme or product-management level. The Product Owner ensures that squad execution remains compliant with the agreed standards and guardrails, and that delivery decisions are traceable to value, risk, regulatory and technical considerations.
• Continuous Delivery Improvement
• Identify opportunities to improve delivery efficiency, backlog quality, squad effectiveness, customer experience, business outcomes and technical sustainability, and work with Scrum Masters and relevant stakeholders to ensure these improvements are understood, prioritised and taken forward.
• Work with Scrum Masters, delivery teams and stakeholders to support agile ways of working, delivery discipline and continuous improvement within the squad.

Skills

Product ownership

Agile delivery

Backlog management

Stakeholder management

Job description

Through our client-facing brands and our other specialist brands, Momentum Group enables business and people from all walks of life to achieve their financial goals and life aspirations.

We help people grow their savings, protect what matters to them and invest for the future. We help companies and organisations care for and reward their employees and members. Through our own network of advisers or via independent brokers and utilising new platforms Momentum Group provides practical financial solutions for people, communities and businesses.

Disclaimer As an applicant, please verify the legitimacy of this job advert on our company career page.

Role Purpose

The core role outcome for a Product Owner is to maximise sustainable business value by translating the organisation’s strategy into prioritised technology-enabled products and capabilities that solve meaningful customer and business problems, while balancing commercial value, financial outcomes, risk, regulatory requirements and technical sustainability. The Product Owner is accountable for translating strategic product priorities into a clear, sequenced and executable delivery backlog.

Working closely with the Strategic Product Owner, Architects, Lead Business Analysts and cross-functional delivery teams, the Product Owner ensures that squad delivery remains aligned to strategic intent, business priorities, architectural guardrails and defined outcomes.

In a scaled product model, the Product Owner is primarily focused on the “How and When” of delivery: converting strategic direction into practical squad outputs, enabling delivery predictability and supporting measurable value progression.

Requirements

Minimum Requirements

• Relevant tertiary qualification in business, technology, product, finance or a related field.
• Agile, product ownership or delivery-related certification is advantageous.

Experience

• 5–8+ years’ experience in product ownership, business analysis, delivery management or related execution roles, with demonstrable experience translating strategy into prioritised technology-enabled delivery.
• Proven track record delivering complex initiatives across business and technology environments, with clear evidence of business value, commercial or financial outcomes, customer impact and controlled delivery.
• Experience working in cross-functional agile teams, ideally within financial services, wealth, investments or platform-based environments.
• Strong understanding of backlog management, agile execution, delivery governance, stakeholder translation, value-based prioritisation, risk and regulatory considerations, and sustainable technology delivery.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Backlog Ownership and Delivery Readiness
• Own, manage and continuously refine the product backlog to ensure it reflects agreed strategic priorities, delivery sequencing, business and customer value, commercial and financial outcomes, risk, regulatory requirements, technical sustainability and squad capacity.
• Provide day-to-day execution leadership within the squad by ensuring that work is well defined, appropriately prioritised and delivered in a disciplined, value-led manner that solves meaningful customer and business problems.
• Translate initiatives into clear user stories, acceptance criteria, delivery increments and squad-ready requirements that connect the strategic intent to the customer, business, commercial, risk and technical outcomes expected.
• Lead backlog refinement, sprint planning and prioritisation discussions within the squad.
• Ensure delivery commitments are realistic, appropriately sequenced and achievable within available capacity.
• Delivery Progression and Value Enablement
• Drive the delivery of incremental outputs aligned to defined OKRs, strategic product priorities, measurable business outcomes, customer value and sustainable value realisation.
• Track delivery progress, surface execution insights and support visibility of value progression, including how delivery is contributing to commercial outcomes, financial benefits, risk reduction, regulatory compliance or technical sustainability.
• Identify and upscale blockers, risks, dependencies or constraints that may impact delivery timelines, customer and business outcomes, financial value, regulatory obligations or technical sustainability.
• Support the Strategic Product Owner with delivery insight, progress reporting and evidence required to assess value realisation.
• Overall accountability for strategic outcomes and value realisation remains with the Strategic Product Owner. The Product Owner enables value progression by ensuring that delivery is clear, controlled, execution-ready and visibly linked to sustainable business value.
• Stakeholder Translation and Delivery Alignment
• Translate business and stakeholder requirements into clear, structured and actionable backlog items that are anchored in strategic intent, customer and business problems, commercial value, financial outcomes and required controls.
• Create alignment between business expectations, delivery scope, squad capacity, technical feasibility, regulatory requirements and sustainable product or platform outcomes.
• Provide structured updates on delivery progress, decisions required, risks and dependencies.

The Product Owner provides delivery translation and alignment. Enterprise-level stakeholder ownership and strategic trade-off decisions remain with the Strategic Product Owner.

• Cross-functional Delivery Integration
• Partner with Architects, Lead Business Analysts and delivery teams to ensure feasibility, design alignment, requirements quality, process clarity, architectural integrity and technical sustainability.
• Coordinate dependencies within the squad and across adjacent squads or delivery teams.
• Ensure delivery activity remains aligned to broader platform, portfolio and roadmap sequencing, with clear visibility of value, dependency, risk and sustainability considerations.
• Delivery Governance and Quality Adherence
• Ensure squad delivery adheres to agreed governance, risk, compliance, regulatory and architectural standards, while maintaining focus on sustainable business value.
• Maintain strong delivery discipline, documentation quality, release readiness and traceability of decisions.
• Governance ownership sits at portfolio, programme or product-management level. The Product Owner ensures that squad execution remains compliant with the agreed standards and guardrails, and that delivery decisions are traceable to value, risk, regulatory and technical considerations.
• Continuous Delivery Improvement
• Identify opportunities to improve delivery efficiency, backlog quality, squad effectiveness, customer experience, business outcomes and technical sustainability, and work with Scrum Masters and relevant stakeholders to ensure these improvements are understood, prioritised and taken forward.
• Work with Scrum Masters, delivery teams and stakeholders to support agile ways of working, delivery discipline and continuous improvement within the squad.

Competencies

• Strategic Translation
• Backlog Management & Prioritisation
• Agile Delivery Leadership
• Stakeholder Management & Alignment
• Customer & Business Value Orientation