Product Owner

Primary Purpose of Position 

The technology product management organization designs, develops, and manages activities for a specific product or group of products, from product definition and planning through production, release, and end-of-life. It is responsible for management of the full product lifecycle with a technical focus, including the strategy, design, development, management, and end-of-life of new, existing, or acquired products. 

The organization leverages market insights and emerging technology developments and trends to understand market/customer needs, as well as identify new opportunities or make adjustments to current product offerings. Team members balance deep subject matter expertise with knowledge of business use cases and strong technical aptitude. 
The organization is accountable for delivering product performance in alignment with expectations and updates changes to a product portfolio to improve competitive position and produce optimal product performance to meet customer and market needs. It is accountable to the OptumServe business line P&L owners and is responsible for cross-functional stakeholder management, including (but not limited to) design, engineering, scrum teams, and business leaders. 
Essential Functions Include 

• To deliver on the organization’s responsibility, the Lead Tech Product Owner position conducts the following:  
• Responsible for 3 or more key tech capabilities tied lines of business customers  
• Specializes in their customer-centric area and acts as product owner in relation to the teams for that area  
• Works with product manager and business to obtain voice of customer (VOC) and identify capabilities to add to the product  
• Defines and provides direction for user experience and user interface; creates user documentation  
• Creates and communicates the value proposition for features in the backlog  
• Possesses an in-depth understanding of lean product management best practices and frameworks  
• Understands capabilities across the portfolio/product line and across customer deliverables between product lines  
• Partners appropriately to support dependencies and minimize overlapping work  
• Ensures high-level roadmap alignment across portfolio areas where required; effectively looks ‘up and out’ to influence multiportfolio capabilities and their dependencies; enables on-time delivery via manageable features/stories coordinated across teams  
• Negotiates win-win solutions across teams and lines of business  
• Communicates effectively with all senior stakeholders (up to Senior Leadership); clearly communicates strategic portfolio direction  
• Ensures user stories/features are directly tied to OKRs  
• Drives the budget at scrum team/product level  
• Speaks credibly to both business and technology partners across teams and levels  
• Understands the infrastructure/technology/flow of product/system components and how they integrate  
• Influences the prioritization of the product backlog and their respective area  
• Evaluates technical alternatives and decomposes significantly complex problems into straightforward technical propositions  
• Fluent in key product management development tools and platforms  
• Great Coach to form great teams and great products  
  • Thinks strategically with the ability to offer ideas that will facilitate product maturity  
• Diffuses conflict by driving consensus based on the greater good of the product  
• Anticipates leadership/stakeholder needs and proactively addresses gaps  
• Effectively influences multiple areas within tech and business for the good of the product and contributes to product level decisions  
• Effectively supports other product areas and positively influences outcomes across complex capabilities/initiatives, coaches others on areas of expertise  
• Effectively leads meetings with senior leadership and anticipates leadership/stakeholder needs; proactively addresses gaps  
• Consistently maintains a growth mindset; builds network and cultivates relationships with a variety of individuals inside and outside of the organization  
• Advocates position and has tenacity to drive to objectives; serves as an influential voice for product management strategies  
• Manages complex requirements and refines capabilities based on business goals and market needs  

Job Qualifications 
 
Requirements: 

• HS Diploma or GED equivalent 
• 3+ years of experience in product ownership or product leadership roles 
• 3+ years of experience developing and maintaining product or capability roadmaps 
• 3+ years of experience in internal or external customer engagement and managing customer expectations and feedback 
• 3+ years of experience creating or calculating savings for cost benefit analyses 
• 2+ years of experience working in an agile or scaled agile development environment 
• 2+ years of experience managing matrixed product teams 

Preferences:  

• Undergraduate degree or equivalent experience  
• MBA completed or actively pursuing  
• Certified Scrum Product Owner  
• LESS certification  
• Ability to present complex ideas in a clear, concise fashion to technical and non-technical audiences  
• Ability to represent 'the voice of the customer' in technical discussions with architecture and engineering  
• Experience with application development and software integrations  
• Experience managing relationship NPS surveying, scoring, and analysis  
• Experience managing direct reports or leading $1M+ enterprise-level programs  
• Solid research and problem-solving skills  
• Ability to use quantitative and qualitative data to assess priorities and influence roadmaps  
• Ability to use straightforward, structured communication when connecting with stakeholders  
• Excellent presentation skills and experience presenting to large groups  
• Demonstrated ability to achieve goals in a matrix environment  
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively and influence others without direct authority  
• Familiarity with software development concepts and comfortable reading and interpreting technical documentation and working with developers, solution architects, and other technical staff  
• Experience in Healthcare  

Experience working with state or federal government clients including the bidding and implementation process