Product Owner III

The Specialist III, Product Owner role at National Student Clearinghouse focuses on turning customer and business objectives into practical technology requirements, then supporting delivery across the product lifecycle. This position leads and supports multiple agile initiatives while maintaining a groomed backlog and producing business and process documentation in collaboration with business and technical stakeholders.

Location and Work Setup

Herndon, VA (remote). The position is remote-first, with periodic on-site work that may be required depending on departmental or division needs. Candidates must reside within a reasonable commuting distance to Herndon or be willing to travel to the office when required.

Compensation

USD 89,160 - 112,012 per year.

Role Overview

As a standing leader within agile Scrum and Kanban teams, the Specialist III, Product Owner translates mission needs into actionable requirements. The role supports development, testing, training, implementation, and ongoing system maintenance by researching, communicating, negotiating, and documenting both business and technical requirements.

Responsibilities

• Translate customer and business objectives into actionable technology requirements.
• Research, communicate, negotiate, and document business and technical requirements.
• Independently and collaboratively gather and analyze data, document findings, define requirements, and support the product lifecycle from development through ongoing maintenance.
• Manage and support multiple initiatives simultaneously across scrum and Kanban teams.
• Use creative approaches to data collection, analysis, research, design, documentation, and go-to-market strategies to inform product decisions.
• Coach junior team members and provide cross-functional support as needed.
• Document interconnections, integrations, and dependencies across products, technologies, processes, and systems.
• Improve existing systems to increase flexibility while minimizing reliance on technical resources and future maintenance.
• Demonstrate core competencies: Customer Focus, Optimizes Work Processes, Collaborates, Communicates Effectively, and Be Open and Authentic.
• Within Customer Focus, apply data literacy to build customer-centric solutions, including how data is modeled, defined, validated, captured, cleansed, stored, reported, visualized, and accessed.
• Use data knowledge to write business requirements, process flows, and user stories that reflect enterprise data and support additional insights for education and business stakeholders.
• Work closely with the Business Owner/Product Manager to understand market or industry needs and define initiative scope.
• Solicit, review, document, and refine requirements using interviews, workshops, group meetings, and existing systems documentation or procedures.
• Prioritize and refine the backlog, including business stories, enablers, and technical work.
• Maintain a backlog with at least 2-3 sprints worth of groomed work.
• Contribute to successful on-time, within-budget, and in-scope delivery of business initiatives.
• Define and develop user stories, wireframes, sequence diagrams, and data flow diagrams.
• Produce As Is and To Be process flow diagrams.
• Derive business requirements from use cases in an Agile environment.
• Create, revise, validate, and maintain business flow maps, business requirements, business rules, user stories, user flows, and related artifacts.
• Analyze how new requirements and user stories impact the current application from both business and technical perspectives.
• Collaborate with the Scrum Master and Scrum Team on estimated delivery dates, dependencies, team velocity, challenges, quality assurance, user acceptance, and overall team performance.
• Collaborate with Product Managers and other business owners to identify cross-system interfaces and define requirements.
• Accurately represent business owner needs to scrum teams and vice versa.
• Participate in Agile ceremonies.
• Understand and communicate service data elements, service details, and processes to scrum teams and business owners.
• Create and maintain positive, open communication channels among external and internal stakeholders.
• Foster collaboration, teamwork, innovation, and service excellence; help resolve product or project issues.
• Perform other duties as required.

What You Bring

• Bachelor's degree in technology, business, or related field; or a combination of education and experience, including through military service.
• 5 years of related experience soliciting and defining requirements for mission critical business applications.
• Experience with Agile methodology as a Product Owner or Business Analyst.
• Ability to embed quality controls in work processes to support uninterrupted operation.
• Experience analyzing data to compose targeted, concise requirements and translate strategic and tactical goals.
• Demonstrated strong collaboration and stakeholder partnership.
• Ability to solicit, define, and write business requirements from research, customer, market, and internal feedback into user stories.
• Product knowledge and awareness of impact to other product(s).
• Ability to identify tradeoffs and drive resolution of organizational challenges.
• Experience modeling solutions for a business process.
• Experience working with Agile principles and processes, driving decision-making and aligning teams to goals and objectives.
• Effective written and verbal communication, including confident negotiation with internal and external stakeholders.
• Experience managing and prioritizing multiple initiatives for timely completion and issue resolution.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite and/or other collaboration tools.
• Must live within commutable distance to Herndon, VA (preferred) or in one of the approved States for hiring purposes.
• Must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. No intent to sponsor work visas; sponsorship may be considered only if no qualified candidates are authorized to work without sponsorship.
• Must be at least 18 years old.

Technologies

• Microsoft Office Suite
• Rally
• JIRA
• Confluence
• Co-pilot
• Gemini

Desired Qualifications

• Knowledge of Clearinghouse services and applications.
• Knowledge of education related data standards, such as IMS Comprehensive Learner Record, Common Education Data Standards (CEDS), or other industry-based or government-based data exchange standards.
• Experience performing complex data analysis using analytic tools and database queries.
• Experience with CRM and enterprise tools.
• Master's degree or PhD in technology, business, or related field, or additional combination of advanced education and experience (including through military service).
• Project management skills for ideation to delivery, including timelines and required wireframes and documentation.
• Critical thinking to distill complex processes and data.
• Strategic, interpersonal, and operational competencies to lead and champion a project with a clear vision.
• Task tracking and management with the ability to project manage with minimal supervision.
• Project planning and scoping, including independently creating and supporting project plans, timelines, milestones, and deliverables aligned to business objectives.
• Task tracking and execution, including tracking progress and escalating risks or delays early.
• Self-direction and accountability, with proactive issue identification and solution development.
• Resilience and follow-through in dynamic environments by proposing solutions despite ambiguity.
• Prioritization and task management, including assessing competing priorities and sequencing work to meet deadlines.
• Acting with urgency, including starting work quickly when possible and proactively keeping managers updated in writing.
• Documenting and communicating in writing, including meeting summaries and decisions.
• Utilizing AI tools such as Co-pilot and Gemini.

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Life and disability insurance benefits
• Health care, dependent care, and limited purpose flexible spending accounts
• Health savings account with annual employer contributions of $300 for employees and $600 for employees enrolled with their spouse and/or dependents
• Voluntary supplemental health plans for Accident and Hospital Indemnity coverage
• Infertility coverage
• 401k matching contribution program, opportunity to defer pre-tax and Roth contributions, and catch-up contributions for eligible employees
• Competitive paid leave program (vacation, sick, personal time) and paid holidays
• Up to 3 weeks of paid parental leave during a 12-month period
• Up to 5 days of paid military leave per calendar year
• Vacation accrual based on length of service, with new full-time hires able to accrue up to 13 days of vacation and up to 10 days of sick time per year
• Up to 32 hours of accrued sick time can be used as personal time annually
• At least 15 paid holidays per year, including company year-end close between Christmas and New Years Holidays
• Reimbursement for basic wholesale company and roadside assistance memberships (e.g., Costco and AAA)
• Buy back on portions of unused accrued vacation based on tenure and certain other qualifications
• Employee Education Assistance Program for reimbursement of qualified education expenses upon successful completion
• LinkedIn Learning subscription (enterprise-wide)
• Mental health benefits with up to eight free therapy sessions for employees and their family members
• Well-being reward benefits
• Service credit towards the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (PSLF)

Physical Demands

• Use of a computer for 8 or more hours a day
• Use of a telephone and/or copy machine
• Frequently required to sit for 7 or more hours per day
• Occasionally required to use hands and fingers to operate, handle, and reach
• Vision abilities include close vision and the ability to adjust focus
• Travel via car, train, and airplane when needed