Product Owner

WoodmenLife is hiring a Product Owner for a hybrid role based in Omaha, Nebraska.

Responsibilities

• Drive execution of the program vision as a participant within a support or enterprise project development team.
• Review and contribute to the program vision, roadmap, and content presentations in preparation for Program Increment Planning.
• Assess product usefulness and explain functionality to users.
• Coordinate resolutions involving system or application-level changes for incidents reported by the business.
• Monitor new features and releases, coordinating with Business Technology and stakeholders to plan and initiate upgrades.
• Act as a liaison between the development team, stakeholders, and senior leadership to define product features and user stories needed to execute the program vision.
• In partnership with the Product Manager, System Architect/Engineering, and key stakeholders, manage the backlog and prioritize stories for future implementation.
• Negotiate scope, priority, commitments, and schedule related to backlog work across multiple stakeholders and subject matter experts.
• Inspect and evaluate product progress through iterations via demos, determining whether the final product is acceptable.
• Participate in agile ceremonies including Program Increment Planning, sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and sprint reviews to provide input on sprint accomplishments.
• Collaborate with other WoodmenLife product owners to share ideas on necessary product features.
• Understand and communicate how related risks, assumptions, dependencies, and constraints can impact delivery and the overall release plan.
• Depending on the platform, perform functional-level configurations within the product.
• Set and adapt administrative rules for product usage; monitor and report on product usage, performance, and productivity.
• Set up users, assign rights, and create user-level and administrative-level workflows within the product.
• Meet expectations for attendance and punctuality per manager and WoodmenLife policy.
• Perform other duties as assigned by management and/or occasional tasks to help the dev team meet release commitments.
• Abide by all company security policies and procedures.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent with 2+ years of experience as an Agile Product Owner or as an Agile Business Analyst in a product-facing capacity.
• Knowledge and experience in agile user story management, user story elicitation, stakeholder management, and backlog grooming/management, including change management.
• Ability to create features and user stories that follow I.N.V.E.S.T: independent, negotiable, verifiable, estimable, small, and testable.
• Understanding of techniques for applying splitting patterns to larger stories to deliver user value within each iteration or release.
• Solid understanding of Agile practices and principles, including creating user stories aligned to I.N.V.E.S.T and using split patterns to provide value across iterations/releases.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and product management skills.
• Proficiency in MS Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio, and ability to work with appropriate technical tools and methods.
• Experience developing solutions with cross-functional teams using Scrum, Kanban, or a hybrid approach.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a team environment and with business customers, including quickly establishing credibility in new subject areas.
• Ability to meet established deadlines and be proactive in achieving outcomes using supporting technology applications across a broad user base.
• Excellent communication and customer service skills, including professional collaboration with executives, management, project team members, subject matter experts, and front-line users.
• Willingness to learn and take on new challenges, with ability to contribute effectively with little or no supervision.
• Ability to provide S.T.A.R. (seamless, trustworthy, attentive, resourceful) customer service.
• Ability to engage well with others and support an exemplary customer experience.
• Ability to maintain highly confidential and sensitive information (as applicable to roles working with customer and/or employee personal information).

Location and Work Arrangement

• Omaha, NE (hybrid)
• Eligible for hybrid work arrangement in Omaha, Nebraska

Compensation

• USD 88,000 - 120,000 per year

Technologies

• Agile
• Scrum
• Kanban
• MS Excel
• MS Word
• MS PowerPoint
• Visio

Employment Process / Checks

• Criminal background check
• Credit check (when required for the position)
• Fingerprint check (when required for the position)
• Drug screen
• Reference checks
• Offer of employment contingent upon successfully passing the above checks