Product Owner (Hybrid OR Remote- Raleigh or Jersey City)

Overview With a company culture rooted in collaboration, expertise and innovation, we aim to promote progress and inspire our clients, employees, investors and communities to achieve their greatest potential. Our work is the catalyst that helps others achieve their goals. In short, We Enable Possibility℠. We are seeking a forward-thinking Product Owner who thrives in a fast-paced, Agile environment and brings strong experience managing complex work with cross-team dependencies. This role is the voice of the customer within the Agile development team and is responsible for supporting the optimization of business outcomes and product development processes on digital transformation efforts. This role will own the product/team delivery roadmap, manage relationships and stakeholder communications, maintain product strategy and business alignment in the delivery team backlog, and work to deliver results quickly. This role acts as the triangulation liaison and primary communication link between the product manager, business/stakeholders and the Agile development team, ensuring sprint deliverables align with business user needs and meet customer expectations within an Agile framework. Location Hybrid, 3 days onsite per week. Raleigh, NC is strongly preferred. Jersey City, NJ may be considered as a secondary location based on business need. We are also open to remote candidates located on the East Coast. Responsibilities Product Backlog Management: Create, maintain, and prioritize the product backlog, ensuring items align with product vision and strategy to meet business objectives, and reflect evolving business needs and priorities aligned to business outcomes. Ensure the backlog content includes user stories, enablers and defects with work ready for the team to execute. Accept stories while confirming the story meets approved standards, acceptance criteria, and the definition of done to ensure quality. Ensure the backlog supports architectural runway. User Story Refinement: Ensure user stories are clear, concise, and well-defined to accurately represent the business need and fit with the product strategy with clear direction and the ability to facilitate development. Break down stories into small parts, clarify details and ensure usability. Prioritization: Collaborate with the product manager to ensure the team is focused on the highest value work based on business needs, product strategy and/or initiative delivery and user feedback. Ensure the backlog reflects the vision and delivery roadmap and is properly sequenced based on high value. Team Collaboration: Facilitate communication and collaboration between the development team, designers, and other stakeholders. Sprint and Increment Planning: Collaborate with the domain product manager and development team to define sprint goals, select user stories, and facilitate sprint planning aligned with team capacity and priorities. Communicate the vision during planning to prepare teams to execute and deliver solutions. Acceptance Criteria: Define clear acceptance criteria for each user story to ensure quality and delivery expectations are met. Release Management: Plan and manage product releases in line with the domain’s product and/or initiative delivery strategy. Facilitate frequent team conversations to resolve questions, manage dependencies and communicate emerging priorities as stories are implemented. Metrics and Analysis: Track and analyze key product metrics to measure success and identify areas for improvement. Regularly check progress toward meeting story acceptance criteria and ensure quality standards are met (Definition of Done and nonfunctional requirements). Collaborate with the team to identify and fix quality issues. Requirements Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to influence and present complex, technical information to varying stakeholder groups, gather and provide feedback, and effectively engage with diverse teams across the organization. Proven experience in playing a product owner role in the development of large-scale commercial and specialty systems (DuckCreek, Guidewire, Unqork, UW Platforms, Submission & Clearance Systems, Extraction or AI-driven platforms, etc.) and demonstrated value creation and business outcomes. Ability to lead, partner and guide multiple Agile teams (Dev, QA, Design) and business teams in achieving product goals and resolving conflicts. Experience developing productive relationships across the organization. Ability to empathize with users and advocate for their needs as aligned with the domain’s product strategy and translate and articulate aligned user stories for execution with the development teams. Advanced technical and business acumen to articulate business outcomes and priority and translate into technical user stories for various development teams. Ability to convey complex, technical concepts to non-technical audiences. Proficiency in teamwork, interpersonal skills, communication, technical problem solving, continuous improvement and service skills. Self-starter with flexibility, accountability and adaptability. Ability to work independently and with minimal guidance at times; comfortable working with ambiguity. Able to balance and drive progress across multiple development teams. Proven experience with Agile frameworks (e.g., Scrum, SAFe) and tools such as JIRA, Confluence, MIRO and other product management and roadmap tools. Deep understanding of commercial and specialty insurance product lifecycle. Education And Experience Bachelor’s Degree in a related field Certified Scrum Product Owner and/or SAFe® POPM certification strongly preferred 5-7 years’ prior experience in Insurance, Product Owner with IT development teams in Agile delivery & execution through software development lifecycle using Agile/Scrum/SAFe frameworks or related roles Compensation and Benefits Base salary range: $100,000 - $150,000/year. Total compensation will consider location, scope and responsibilities, qualifications, talent availability and business needs. Benefits include multiple medical plans plus dental, vision and prescription drug coverage; a 401k with matching; PTO starting at 20 days per year; up to 12 paid holidays; paid parental leave up to 10 weeks; life and AD&D insurance; short and long-term disability; student loan assistance and tuition reimbursement; backup child and elder care; and more. #J-18808-Ljbffr