Senior Product Owner - ServiceNow Agentic AI and Now Assist

NTT; Johannesburg; Hybrid; ZAR 900 000 - 1 200 000; Full time

Job summary

A global technology leader is seeking a Senior Product Owner for ServiceNow AI technologies in Johannesburg, South Africa. This role involves prioritizing product features and managing a team to ensure delivery of high-value product functionalities. The ideal candidate will have in-depth knowledge of ServiceNow products, experience in product management, and strong collaboration skills. This position offers a hybrid work environment and opportunities for growth in a diverse setting.

Benefits

Diversity and inclusion initiatives

Career growth opportunities

Competitive salary

Qualifications

• In-depth experience with ServiceNow Products and ITSM.
• Advanced experience in Product Management and Development.
• Successful track record in building IT managed services.

Responsibilities

• Drive and deliver AI product milestones.
• Manage product feature backlog and development.
• Collaborate with Product Management on product backlog.

Skills

ServiceNow Agentic AI knowledge

Effective communication

Conflict resolution

Collaboration

Agile methodology understanding

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

SAFe Product Owner / Product Manager Certification

ITIL Service Management certification

Tools

ServiceNow

Job description

Make an impact with NTT DATA

Join a company that is pushing the boundaries of what is possible. We are renowned for our technical excellence and leading innovations, and for making a difference to our clients and society. Our workplace embraces diversity and inclusion – it’s a place where you can grow, belong and thrive.

Your day at NTT DATA

The Senior Product Owner (PO) - ServiceNow AI and Now Assist, is an advanced subject matter expert, considered as the content authority for the team level of the Scaled Agile Framework for Enterprises (SAFe) with experience and knowledge on ServiceNow's AI technologies and products.

The Senior PO is responsible for multiple strategic high-priority products, managing the team backlog, writing, prioritizing and accepting user stories, and representing the customer to the Agile team. They optimize return on investment by ensuring that the Scrum team members are engaged in delivering the most valuable product features.

This role has significant relationships and responsibilities outside the local team, including working with Product Management to prepare for Program Backlog, participating in Agile Release Train (ART) Sync meetings, and cooperating to deliver Solution value.

Key Responsibilities

• Drive and deliver AI product milestones aligned to the ServiceNow AI and Now assist strategies.
• Provides vision and direction to the Agile development team and stakeholders.
• Ensures that the team always has an adequate amount of prior prepared tasks to work on.
• Plans and prioritizes product feature backlog and development for the offer/product.
• Fully understands the product vision, roadmap and growth opportunities to enable onward articulation into the development team.
• Assesses value, prioritizes backlog items based on this value, time, and other team dependencies determined in the PI planning meeting and refined during the PI, to ensure focus on those with maximum value that are aligned with the offer/product strategy.
• Provides backlog management, iteration planning, and elaboration of the user stories.
• Works closely with Product Management to create and maintain a product backlog according to business value or ROI.
• Leads the planning product release plans and sets expectation for delivery of new functionality/capability.
• Provides an active role in mitigating impediments impacting successful team completion of release and iteration goals.
• Drives iteration goals and iteration content via prioritized stories.
• Establishes story acceptance criteria, accepts stories into the baseline.
• Researches and analyzes the market, the users, and the roadmap for the product.
• Follows business competitors and the industry and keeps abreast with Agile/Scrum/SAFe best practices and new trends and seeks to relentlessly improve the operation of the Product Owner role.
• Required to perform any other activity relevant to the role.

Knowledge and Attributes

• ServiceNow Agentic AI, now assist and platform knowledge
• ServiceNow ITSM product knowledge
• Advanced knowledge of the technologies and portfolio of offers.
• Advanced knowledge of product development in an ITC industry.
• Advanced knowledge of the SAFe’s practices and its application/operation.
• Powerful communication aptitude, with an innate ability to say “no” in a way that will not discourage or upset the business.
• Effective conflict resolution skills
• Effective escalator.
• Considerable ability to empower teams – through strong collaboration and knowledge brokering.
• Advanced understanding of iterative development.
• Ability to enable value creation and ensure value commitments to delivery are met.
• Advanced understanding of incremental delivery and the value of metrics.
• Advanced understanding of backlog tracking, burndown metrics, velocity, and task definition.
• Ability to relate to and integrate with alternate development methodologies (for example, waterfall).
• Be conversant in DevOps practices and understand strong relationship and bi-directional dependency required with deployment teams.

Academic Qualifications and Certifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in Computer Science, Information Technology or related field preferred.
• Relevant SAFe Product Owner / Product Manager Certification preferred.
• ITIL Service Management certification preferred.
• ServiceNow CSA preferred.
• Implementing and Leading SAFe certification preferred.
• Advantageous certifications – SAFe Scrum Master, SAFe for Teams, SAFe DevOps, Professional scrum product owner (PSPO) or certified scrum product owner (CSPO), Program Management Professional (PgMP).

Required experience

• In depth experience with ServiceNow Products, ITSM, ITAM, ITOM and a good understanding of Agentic AI and Now assist Skills.
• Advanced experience in Product Management and / or Product Development.
• Successful track record in building IT managed services solutions.
• Advanced program or development management experience.
• Advanced planning experience.
• Advanced Agile coaching experience.
• Advanced experience working in Agile approaches such as XP, Kanban, Crystal, FDD.
• Advanced experience managing multiple teams and product roadmaps.

Workplace type

Hybrid Working

About NTT DATA

NTT DATA is a $30+ billion business and technology services leader, serving 75% of the Fortune Global 100. We are committed to accelerating client success and positively impacting society through responsible innovation. We are one of the world’s leading AI and digital infrastructure providers, with unmatched capabilities in enterprise-scale AI, cloud, security, connectivity, data centers and application services. Our consulting and industry solutions help organizations and society move confidently and sustainably into the digital future. As a Global Top Employer, we have experts in more than 50 countries. We also offer clients access to a robust ecosystem of innovation centers as well as established and start-up partners. NTT DATA is part of NTT Group, which invests over $3 billion each year in R&D.

Equal Opportunity Employer

NTT DATA is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer with a global culture that embraces diversity. We are committed to providing an environment free of unfair discrimination and harassment. We do not discriminate based on age, race, colour, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, disability, pregnancy, marital status, veteran status, or any other protected category. Join our growing global team and accelerate your career with us. Apply today.

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