SENIOR PRODUCT OWNER

SENIOR PRODUCT OWNER

Job ID: 928-1-Product Owner -4 @ NNS

Work Arrangement: Hybrid

Pay Rate: $55.00-$69.00/hourly

PPE Required: Steel-toe boots, hard hat, and safety glasses

POSITION SUMMARY

We are seeking a highly skilled and engaged Senior Product Owner to lead backlog strategy, customer discovery, and delivery execution for a software development team operating within an Agile delivery model.

This role is ideal for a strong practitioner who can model best-in-class Product Ownership while serving as a change agent to improve delivery discipline, customer focus, and Agile maturity across the portfolio.

The Senior Product Owner will:

• Own the delivery team backlog.
• Ensure work is clearly defined, prioritized, and ready for delivery.
• Represent the customer and end user.
• Drive consistent delivery of high-value business outcomes.
• Align product priorities with business and portfolio objectives.
• Collaborate closely with customers, business partners, architects, developers, and testers.
• Spend regular onsite time with customers, business partners, and delivery teams.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Backlog Ownership & Delivery

• Own, maintain, and continuously refine the delivery team's backlog.

• Align backlog priorities with business objectives and highest-value outcomes.

• Translate business and portfolio priorities into clear, actionable user stories and acceptance criteria.

• Ensure backlog items are sufficiently detailed, understood, and ready before sprint execution.

• Lead backlog refinement sessions.

• Actively participate in:

• Sprint planning

• Sprint reviews/demos

• Retrospectives

• Other Agile ceremonies

• Serve as the content authority for the delivery team.

• Provide timely answers, clarification, direction, and decisions.

• Identify and manage upstream and downstream dependencies.

• Drive alignment with adjacent product teams.

• Collaborate with architects to ensure backlog items comply with enterprise architecture requirements.

2. Customer Discovery & Validation

• Engage directly and regularly with customers and end users.

• Understand real-world workflows, pain points, and operational needs.

• Spend meaningful onsite time at customer worksites.

• Observe how work is performed and identify opportunities for improvement.

• Serve as the voice of the customer within the delivery team.

• Ensure product development remains aligned with actual business value.

• Validate completed work with customers.

• Gather customer feedback to confirm solutions meet intended needs.

• Use customer feedback and delivery results to refine future backlog items.

• Conduct continuous discovery activities, including:

• Customer interviews

• Surveys

• Workflow observation

• Feedback sessions

• Identify evolving customer needs and translate them into product opportunities.

3. Agile Leadership & Collaboration

• Build strong collaborative relationships with:

• Developers

• Testers

• Architects

• Business stakeholders

• Customers

• Model strong SAFe and Agile Product Owner behaviors.

• Help improve Product Owner capability and Agile maturity across the portfolio.

• Promote:

• Backlog discipline

• Transparency

• Customer engagement

• Continuous improvement

• Maintain an Agile team culture aligned with organizational values and modern delivery practices.

• Lead, direct, and empower team members without formal management authority.

• Identify risks, unclear requirements, and delivery issues early.

• Proactively resolve or escalate delivery challenges.

4. Strategic Thinking & Decision Making

• Apply a data-driven approach to prioritization and trade-off decisions.
• Make informed product and delivery decisions based on business value.
• Influence stakeholders at all organizational levels, including senior leadership.
• Define and deliver against measurable OKRs and KPIs.
• Work effectively with ambiguous requirements.
• Collaborate across multidisciplinary teams.
• Adapt quickly in a fast-paced, collaborative, and continuously changing environment.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Proven experience as a Product Owner in a software development environment.

• Senior-level Product Ownership experience preferred.

• SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager (POPM) certification preferred.

• Certified Product Owner certification preferred.

• Demonstrated success owning and continuously refining Agile delivery team backlogs.

• Experience working directly with customers and end users.

• Strong facilitation and communication skills.

• Excellent stakeholder management and relationship-building abilities.

• Ability to lead, direct, and empower team members without formal management authority.

• Experience collaborating with:

• Software developers

• QA/testers

• Architects

• Business stakeholders

• Large enterprise experience preferred.

• SAP experience desired but not required.

• Azure DevOps experience preferred.

IDEAL CANDIDATE

The ideal candidate understands Product Ownership as a strategic, customer-centered discipline, rather than simply backlog maintenance or requirements intake.

The successful candidate continually asks:

• Who is the customer?
• What problem are we trying to solve?
• Do we understand the customer's real workflow?
• Is the work clear enough for the delivery team?
• What does success look like?
• Did the delivered solution truly solve the customer's problem?

CORE COMPETENCIES

Product Ownership | Agile | SAFe | Backlog Management | Product Strategy | Customer Discovery | User Stories | Acceptance Criteria | Sprint Planning | Backlog Refinement | Sprint Reviews | Customer Validation | Stakeholder Management | Agile Leadership | Continuous Improvement | OKRs | KPIs | Dependency Management | Enterprise Architecture | Software Development | Azure DevOps | SAP

WORK ENVIRONMENT

This is a hybrid position requiring regular onsite engagement with customers, business partners, and software delivery teams.

Required Personal Protective Equipment

• Steel-toe boots
• Hard hat
• Safety glasse