Product Owner

Digital Modernization Product Owner

At ICF our Digital Modernization Division is an information technology and management consulting organization that delivers integrated, strategic solutions to federal clients. We bring expertise in cloud, cybersecurity, enterprise architecture, data modernization, and digital transformation to support mission-critical government programs.

Join a team accelerating the modernization of a large federal agency's enterprise data and analytics ecosystem. This cloud-based platform provides data storage, analytics, governance, and AI/ML capabilities that enable thousands of users to transform data into actionable insights. As demand continues to grow, the team is focused on migrating legacy workloads, streamlining onboarding and support, expanding platform capabilities, and helping organizations across the enterprise adopt modern data and AI solutions at scale.

The Product Owner owns contractor-side backlog readiness for an assigned delivery domain and ensures approved needs are translated into features, user stories, requirements, and testable acceptance criteria before refinement. Leads discovery, stakeholder clarification, backlog grooming, dependency identification, decision tracking, and sprint-ready story preparation with the Functional Lead and Agile Delivery Manager. Supports the Senior Product Manager and VA Product Owner but does not replace Government authority for priority, sequencing, approval, or acceptance.

Job Location: Remote, however, strong preference for candidates who live in the Washington DC Metro Area. There will be occasional onsite meetings on the client site in Washington, DC.

What You Will Do:

• Owns contractor-side backlog readiness for an assigned delivery domain and ensures approved needs are translated into features, user stories, requirements, and testable acceptance criteria before refinement.
• Leads discovery, stakeholder clarification, backlog grooming, dependency identification, decision tracking, and sprint-ready story preparation with the Functional Lead and Agile Delivery Manager.
• Supports the Senior Product Manager and VA Product Owner but does not replace Government authority for priority, sequencing, approval, or acceptance.
• Apply Agile product management, requirements analysis, user stories, acceptance criteria, backlog refinement, stakeholder facilitation, domain discovery, and dependency management to support role delivery.
• Collaborate with relevant product, engineering, security, governance, quality, and customer-facing stakeholders as required by the role.
• Document work products, decisions, risks, and delivery evidence to support traceability and continuous improvement.

Basic Qualifications

• U.S. Citizenship is required due to federal contract requirements.
• Candidate must reside in the U.S., be authorized to work in the U.S., and all work must be performed in the U.S.
• Candidate must have lived in the U.S. for three (3) full years out of the last five (5) years.
• Bachelor's degree in Product Management, Business Administration, Information Systems, Computer Science, Data Analytics, Data Science, Engineering, or related field; or a high school diploma with four (4) additional years of relevant experience in lieu of a bachelor's degree.
• Minimum 6 years of relevant experience aligned to the responsibilities of this role.
• Master's degree may substitute for two (2) years of relevant experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience serving as a Product Owner, Technical Product Owner, Business Analyst, Solutions Analyst, or similar role supporting cloud, data, analytics, AI/ML, or enterprise platform modernization initiatives.
• Experience translating complex business, platform, architecture, governance, and operational requirements into epics, features, user stories, acceptance criteria, and sprint-ready backlog items.
• Experience facilitating discovery sessions, requirements workshops, backlog refinement, stakeholder alignment, dependency management, and release planning activities.
• Strong understanding of modern cloud data platform architectures, Lakehouse concepts, data engineering workflows, data governance practices, and enterprise analytics ecosystems.
• Experience working with Databricks, Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, Azure Data Factory, Azure Machine Learning, Power BI, or comparable cloud-based analytics and AI platforms.
• Familiarity with AI/ML concepts including predictive analytics, machine learning lifecycle management, MLOps, NLP, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), generative AI, and responsible AI principles.
• Experience supporting enterprise data warehouse modernization, cloud migration, analytics enablement, self-service analytics platforms, or data product delivery initiatives.
• Experience collaborating closely with Data Engineers, AI Engineers, Data Scientists, Architects, Security teams, Governance teams, and Product Managers to define and prioritize technology solutions.
• Experience managing technical dependencies, architectural decisions, platform capabilities, non-functional requirements, and cross-team delivery coordination.
• Experience defining and validating functional requirements, technical requirements, operational readiness criteria, and testable acceptance criteria for platform, data, analytics, and AI solutions.
• Familiarity with enterprise data governance concepts including metadata management, data quality, data stewardship, lineage, Collibra EDC, Immuta, Unity Catalog, or comparable governance capabilities.
• Experience utilizing Agile delivery tools such as Jira, Confluence, Azure DevOps, Miro, or similar platforms.
• Experience developing roadmaps, release plans, backlog priorities, and delivery metrics in Agile, Scrum, or SAFe environments.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to explain technical concepts, architectural tradeoffs, and platform capabilities to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience supporting Federal government, healthcare, or other highly regulated environments preferred.
• Experience working in Agile, Scrum, SAFe, or cross-functional technology delivery teams.

Professional Skills:

• Highly effective analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making capabilities.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to work effectively across technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strong organization, attention to detail, and the ability to prioritize and manage multiple responsibilities.
• Collaborative approach with a commitment to quality, accountability, and continuous improvement.