Senior Product Owner

Job Description

Senior Product Owner

Location: Woodbury, Connecticut, United States

Industry: Restuarnts

Work Setting: Hybrid

Are you passionate about driving enterprise application strategy, managing complex technology portfolios, and delivering business-critical solutions that support Finance, HR, Procurement, Legal, and other corporate functions?

We are seeking a Senior Product Owner – Enterprise Applications to provide strategic leadership across a portfolio of enterprise business applications spanning SaaS, cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments. This role combines product ownership, application management, IT service management, vendor governance, business analysis, and technology leadership to ensure reliable, secure, and scalable application services.

The ideal candidate brings deep experience in enterprise applications, ServiceNow, ITIL, SaaS platforms, product ownership, application support, vendor management, and digital transformation, while serving as a senior technical leader and escalation point for complex business systems.

Key Responsibilities

Product Ownership & Portfolio Strategy

\n
• Own and manage the product roadmap for enterprise applications.
\n
• Prioritize and maintain application backlogs based on business value and strategic objectives.
\n
• Translate business requirements into actionable product and technology initiatives.
\n
• Balance enhancement requests, technical debt, operational risks, and compliance requirements.
\n
• Drive adoption and business value realization across supported applications.
\n

Focus Areas

\n
• Product Ownership
\n
• Application Portfolio Management
\n
• Enterprise Systems Strategy
\n
• Roadmap Development
\n
• Backlog Prioritization
\n

Enterprise Application Management

Provide leadership and support across enterprise applications serving:

\n
• Human Resources
\n
• Finance
\n
• Accounting
\n
• Procurement
\n
• Legal
\n
• Corporate Functions
\n

Responsibilities

\n
• Application Administration
\n
• Configuration Management
\n
• Patch Management
\n
• Security Administration
\n
• Business Process Configuration
\n
• System Enhancements
\n
• User Support
\n

SaaS & Cloud Platform Governance

\n
• Manage SaaS, hybrid, and on-premises application environments.
\n
• Oversee application lifecycle management from implementation through retirement.
\n
• Evaluate emerging technologies and modernization opportunities.
\n
• Support licensing governance and application rationalization initiatives.
\n
• Ensure operational efficiency across the application ecosystem.
\n

Technologies

\n
• SaaS Applications
\n
• Cloud Platforms
\n
• Hybrid Environments
\n
• Enterprise Software Solutions
\n

IT Service Management (ITSM)

Lead ITIL-driven application support processes, including:

\n
• Incident Management
\n
• Problem Management
\n
• Change Management
\n
• Request Fulfillment
\n
• Knowledge Management
\n

Responsibilities

\n
• ServiceNow Administration
\n
• SLA Management
\n
• Root Cause Analysis
\n
• Escalation Management
\n
• Service Delivery Governance
\n

Vendor & Managed Service Provider Management

\n
• Provide strategic oversight of Managed Service Providers (MSPs).
\n
• Manage relationships with software vendors and integration partners.
\n
• Hold vendors accountable to contractual obligations and service levels.
\n
• Escalate and resolve performance concerns.
\n
• Support contract renewal and licensing discussions.
\n

Areas of Focus

\n
• Vendor Governance
\n
• Contract Performance
\n
• Supplier Management
\n
• SLA Compliance
\n
• Outsourced Service Delivery
\n

Business Analysis & Process Improvement

\n
• Conduct discovery workshops and stakeholder interviews.
\n
• Facilitate current-state and future-state process mapping sessions.
\n
• Analyze business requirements and identify solution opportunities.
\n
• Drive process standardization, automation, and optimization initiatives.
\n
• Develop business cases supporting enhancements and investments.
\n

Responsibilities

\n
• Requirements Gathering
\n
• Workflow Design
\n
• Process Improvement
\n
• Solution Assessment
\n
• Gap Analysis
\n

Project Delivery & Release Management

\n
• Lead small-to-medium application projects and enhancement initiatives.
\n
• Coordinate deployments, upgrades, and software implementations.
\n
• Validate change management and release readiness controls.
\n
• Support production deployment planning and hypercare activities.
\n
• Ensure seamless transition from project delivery into operational support.
\n

Delivery Activities

\n
• Release Management
\n
• Change Control
\n
• Deployment Coordination
\n
• Hypercare Management
\n
• Production Support
\n

Testing & Quality Assurance

Partner with QA and business teams to execute:

\n
• Unit Testing
\n
• Integration Testing
\n
• System Testing
\n
• Regression Testing
\n
• User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
\n

Responsibilities

\n
• Test Planning
\n
• Defect Management
\n
• Deployment Validation
\n
• Rollback Planning
\n
• Quality Governance
\n

Security, Compliance & Access Governance

\n
• Manage security roles, permissions, and application access controls.
\n
• Conduct audits of user roles, master data, and access activity.
\n
• Support compliance, audit, and regulatory requirements.
\n
• Ensure applications align with data privacy and security standards.
\n
• Monitor identity and access governance across the portfolio.
\n

Reporting & Analytics

\n
• Develop application health and service performance reporting.
\n
• Track KPIs, adoption metrics, licensing utilization, and operational risks.
\n
• Deliver insights supporting roadmap and investment decisions.
\n
• Provide leadership visibility into application performance and support trends.
\n

Documentation & Knowledge Management

\n
• Create and maintain:
\n
• Technical Documentation
\n
• Standard Operating Procedures
\n
• Training Materials
\n
• Workflow Maps
\n
• Application Configuration Records
\n
• Serve as the subject matter expert for supported systems.
\n
• Drive knowledge sharing and operational excellence.
\n

Required Qualifications

Education

Bachelor's Degree in:

\n
• Information Technology
\n
• Computer Science
\n
• CIS/MIS
\n
• Business Administration
\n
• Related Discipline
\n

Equivalent experience may be considered.

Experience

\n
• 10+ years of enterprise application experience.
\n
• Experience in:
\n
• Application Management Services (AMS)
\n
• Product Ownership
\n
• Business Analysis
\n
• ServiceNow-based ITSM
\n
• SaaS Application Administration
\n
• Experience supporting enterprise business applications.
\n
• Experience leading application support and enhancement initiatives.
\n
• Experience managing vendors and managed service providers.
\n

Technical Skills

Application Management

\n
• Application Support
\n
• Application Administration
\n
• SaaS Platforms
\n
• Cloud Applications
\n
• Hybrid Environments
\n
• Enterprise Systems
\n

IT Service Management

\n
• ServiceNow
\n
• Incident Management
\n
• Problem Management
\n
• Change Management
\n
• ITIL v4
\n
• Knowledge Management
\n

Product Ownership

\n
• Roadmap Development
\n
• Backlog Management
\n
• Agile Planning
\n
• User Stories
\n
• Feature Prioritization
\n

Business Analysis

\n
• Requirements Gathering
\n
• Process Mapping
\n
• Stakeholder Management
\n
• Functional Analysis
\n
• Solution Design
\n

Governance & Compliance

\n
• Security Administration
\n
• Access Management
\n
• Audit Readiness
\n
• Risk Management
\n
• Data Privacy Controls
\n

Preferred Certifications

\n
• Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)
\n
• SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager (POPM)
\n
• Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP)
\n
• Project Management Professional (PMP)
\n
• ITIL Certification
\n
• Certified Scrum Master (CSM)
\n

Professional Competencies

\n
• Strategic Thinking
\n
• Product Leadership
\n
• Business Partnership
\n
• Problem Solving
\n
• Communication Skills
\n
• Vendor Management
\n
• Organizational Influence
\n
• Continuous Improvement
\n
• Decision Making
\n

Core Competencies

\n
• Product Ownership
\n
• Enterprise Applications
\n
• ServiceNow
\n
• ITIL
\n
• SaaS Applications
\n
• Application Management Services (AMS)
\n
• Business Analysis
\n
• Vendor Management
\n
• Change Management
\n
• Incident Management
\n
• Agile
\n
• Scrum
\n
• Roadmap Management
\n
• Application Support
\n
• Process Improvement
\n
• Digital Transformation
\n
• Security Administration
\n
• Compliance
\n
• Hybrid Cloud Applications
\n