Product Owner – Contractor, Part-time

Description:
• Oversee multiple workstreams and client projects concurrently through every stage of the project lifecycle, from scoping through delivery, including solutioning, scoping, planning, discovery, requirements definition, execution, release management and post-release activities
• Lead discovery with relevant SMEs and collaborate with client to define project requirements, flush out overlooked details and manage expectations
• Partner closely with cross-functional teams to ensure that the product meets customer needs and is delivered on time and within budget
• Author business requirements, translating them into detailed functional and technical project requirements of varying complexities. Further translate functional/technical requirements into executable and manageable stories for project team, ensuring they are complete with acceptance criteria (definition of done) with a focus on quality, usability and scalability
• Own project backlog – reprioritizing, refining and negotiating around triple constraints to achieve successful outcomes and optimizing against feedback and changing priorities
• Organize and lead Agile ceremonies, including backlog grooming, sprint planning, daily standups, demos/reviews and retrospectives
• Facilitate technical conversations to align teams and identify opportunities for process and tool improvements
• Monitor team capacity and plan velocity to ensure efficient and sustainable delivery
• Ensure awareness, management and tracking of project progress, dependencies, blockers, risks and action items. Track and report on sprint and release progress using tools such as burn-down and burn-up charts
• Forecast delivery timelines and identify potential bottlenecks or challenges early
• Proactively anticipate potential risks and define mitigation plans, ensuring operational readiness in order to deliver successfully on schedule, on budget and within scope
• Partner with project SMEs on execution strategy and contingency planning activities to ensure policies, standards and best practices are met
• Effectively and frequently communicate project status to a diverse set of stakeholders and promote open communication
• Lead project teams with authority, and supervise execution through each project stage
• Take initiative to assess situations and navigate successfully through ambiguous situations

Requirements:
• 4+ years of product owner experience in a technical environment
• Strong analytical, interpersonal and verbal/written communication skills with both technical and non-technical groups
• Strong understanding of Scrum/Kanban/Agile/DevOps methodologies and practices
• Significant experience with Jira or other project management tools
• Ability to see the big picture, but love to get the details right
• Excellent stakeholder management skills
• Licensing or certifications are a plus (e.g., CSPO)

Benefits: