IT Product Owner

The IT Product Owner is a member of an assigned Agile solution team that drives the vision and requirements for solution delivery in their assigned area and will organize, prioritize, and assess work for the scrum team. This person will gather feature requests; schedule releases, coordinate sprints, identify user needs and work with cross-functional teams to manage product releases.

What will you do?

Product Roadmap:
- Define product vision, product roadmap and growth opportunities.- Prioritize stories, epics, and themes to ensure work focuses on those with maximum value and are aligned with product strategy. Incorporate feature requests into product roadmap.

Product Backlog Management:
- Responsible for managing and clearly expressing Product Backlog items.- Provide elaboration of the user stories and confirm understanding of the items in the Product Backlog.- Deliver a visible, transparent, and clear Product Backlog to all.- Ensure that the team always has an adequate amount of prior prepared tasks to work on and understanding of what the Scrum Team will work on next.
- Scrum Team Leadership:
- Work closely with the scrum team throughout the development process.- Lead the product release plans and set the expectation for delivery of new functionalities.- Plan releases and upgrades; set sprint goals. Follow progress of work and address production issues during sprints.
- Partnership with Stakeholders:
- Work with business stakeholders, IT Business Partners, and other team members to understand business opportunities and strategy, drive development of solutions that support short
- and long-term objectives and ensure stakeholder needs are reflected in backlog.
- Quality Assurance:
- Understand, create, and implement test plan, automation, and validation procedures based on stated product features and acceptance criteria.- Analyze test findings as needed to determine whether they constitute a defect against existing requirements or a request for enhancement.
- Other projects and job duties as assigned.

What do you need for this role?
- Associate's degree in computer science, Information Systems, or related area required.
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related area preferred.
- Certifications from either Scrum Alliance (CSPO/A-CSPO) or Scaled Agile (Certified SAFe Product Owner/Manager) preferred
- 7+ years of experience filling the role of Product Owner role in either Scrum or Scaled Agile Framework methodologies or direct business experience in the area of focus**:

- Strong knowledge of Agile principles and process
- Strong requirements elicitation, gathering, and documentation skills, at business, functional, and technical levels
- Ability to manage customer requirements and scope discussions; as well as ability to facilitate large groups (in person or virtually)
- Ability to translate metrics into business decisions of importance and priorities
- Direct hands-on experience with grooming backlogs and coordinating/prioritizing conflicting requirements
- Successful track record of delivering projects within deadlines and budgets
- Experience in filling the role of Product Owner role in either Scrum or Scaled Agile Framework methodologies preferred
- Experience leading large business or IT programs involving multiple teams preferred
- In-depth understanding of industry market conditions and trends preferred
- Excellent verbal, written, listening and presentation communication skills
- Highly organized
- Ability to present and discuss technical information in a way that establishes rapport, persuades others, and gains understanding with the technical and the business teams
- Strong organizational and planning skills as well as attention to detail
- Ability to effectively work and create effective partnerships with employees at all levels within the organization
- Ability to anticipate and understand business strategies, objectives and priorities
- Strong leader that possesses a hands-on, lead by example approach
- Excellent interpersonal and teamwork skills
- Ability to adapt to a continually changing business and work environment and manage multiple priorities
- Demonstrated critical thinking and decision making skills
- Excellent analysis and problem-solving skills
- Ability to provide oversight across multiple initiatives or projects.
- Ability to handle confidential and sensitive information- Portuguese is a significant asset- Ability to coordinate / manage offshore teams
- Proficient with Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook), Visio and Project