IT Product Owner

Role Description

Eaton’s Corporate Sector division is currently seeking an IT Product Owner - Project Accounting. The expected annual salary range for this role is $146,000 - $215,000 a year. Please note the salary information shown above is a general guideline only. Salaries are based upon candidate skills, experience, and qualifications, as well as market and business considerations.

This position is responsible for maximizing the value of enterprise value of Eaton’s Project Accounting capability by defining the product strategy, governance model, roadmap, prioritization framework, and measurable business outcomes across SAP Project Systems, Oracle Project Accounting, and related enterprise integrations.

The Principal Product Owner is responsible for high complexity products with higher levels of impact on Eaton Business Outcomes. Work on these products may be considered transformational to Eaton's business. For Project Accounting, this role serves as the enterprise-wide strategic capability owner, accountable for aligning capability direction, standards, controls, and roadmap priorities across businesses, regions, project types, and legal-entity structures.

The Principal Product Owner will:

• Set and champion the product vision.
• Work with key senior leaders to influence strategic business objectives.
• Develop and maintain the product roadmap.
• Define key operational processes like the product release schedule.
• Work closely with business partners and customers to define epics that align with key business objectives for the Scrum or Kanban team.
• Communicate strategy and status at the C level.
• Partner with senior Finance, IT, business, and compliance leaders to influence enterprise investment priorities.
• Standardize Project Accounting capabilities and ensure roadmap decisions support financial governance, cost transparency, and business outcome delivery.
• Track and manage product funding and define work priorities for individuals dedicated to the product team.
• Balance new features against continuous improvement, system health, and support.
• Work across multiple product teams and cross-functional stakeholders to guide the Project Accounting capability lifecycle.

This position is responsible for maximizing the value of the product offering by creating, prioritizing, and managing the product backlog.

The Product Owner is responsible for simple products with small levels of impact on Eaton Business Outcomes. Work on these products is foundational to the business.

The Product Owner will:

• Set and communicate the product vision.
• Develop and maintain the product roadmap.
• Define and influence key operational processes like the product release schedule.
• Work closely with business partners and customers to define epics that align with key business objectives for the Scrum or Kanban team.
• Track and manage product funding and define work priorities for individuals dedicated to the product team.
• Balance new features against continuous improvement, system health, and support.
• Work directly with analysts, engineers, and other product team members to execute the product roadmap.
• Guide the product development lifecycle, define user stories, and provide voice of the customer within product processes.

Essentials Functions:

Job Responsibilities:

• Define and champion the enterprise Project Accounting capability vision, roadmap, governance priorities, and epics, demonstrating alignment to business strategy, financial governance, cost transparency, and enterprise transformation outcomes.
• Own the enterprise Project Accounting capability backlog and prioritization model, ensuring roadmap decisions balance new capability development, financial tracking and cost-control features, compliance requirements, system health, support, and continuous improvement work.
• Set enterprise priorities for capabilities that improve project budgeting, cost forecasting, profitability analysis, and real-time visibility into project spend versus budget.
• Plan, manage, and track product funding. Is fully responsible for product budget and profit plan.
• Develop and maintain product-specific persona and customer journeys.
• Work closely with business stakeholders and customers, understanding their priorities and defining business outcomes and KPIs for the product in collaboration with those key stakeholders.
• Communicate goals for product increments and releases. Define goals for team sprints.
• Support the onboarding of internal and external resources.
• Accountable for product support, stability, and governance: including data, policy, cybersecurity, and usage.
• Establish and oversee enterprise Project Accounting governance standards for financial controls, compliance checks, data handling, and policy alignment, including requirements related to SOX, revenue recognition policies, and capital-versus-expense treatment.
• Lead cross-business alignment of Project Accounting process standards across different project types, end-to-end project lifecycles, business units, regions, and legal entities.
• Act as a functional expert in areas related to Project Accounting capabilities across Eaton’s portfolio, including SAP Project Systems, Oracle Project Accounting, related integrations, and cross-platform process standardization.
• Drive definition and continuous improvement of Project Accounting product and process capabilities, coordinating with other key capability owners where project lifecycle, finance, integration, compliance, and reporting processes intersect.
• Understand commercial, business and go-to-market strategies where applicable.
• Support a Secure Product Development Lifecycle approach that establishes a strong cybersecurity focus and culture across the entire engineering lifecycle.
• Manage contracts with software and service vendors to support the product strategy. Manage vendor strategy and relationship.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution.
• Minimum of 10 years of experience as an analyst, project manager, engineer, BRM, or program lead on highly complex technology projects and programs.
• 5+ years of experience as a Product Owner or equivalent position.
• Eaton will not consider applicants for employment immigration sponsorship or support for this position.
• Relocation is not available. Candidates must currently reside within the United States to be considered.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree.
• Strong understanding and deep experience with product management and modern product delivery processes.
• Practical knowledge of and experience working with Agile, Scrum, and/or Kanban software delivery teams.
• General understanding of DevSecOps principles.
• Strong understanding of modern software development principles including code management, test automation, APIs, microservices, and cloud services.
• Deep Project Accounting domain expertise across SAP Project Systems and Oracle Project Accounting.
• Advanced knowledge of financial governance, internal controls, compliance requirements, and data-handling expectations for Project Accounting processes.
• Ability to own and influence a cross-platform Project Accounting roadmap.
• Understanding of complex enterprise project structures spanning multiple business units or legal entities.

Skills

• Executive communication skills.
• Ability to influence senior Finance, IT, compliance, architecture, and business-unit stakeholders.
• Practical knowledge of and experience working with design thinking methodologies.
• Strong ability to create and manage product roadmaps.
• Strong understanding of lean principles with respect to product and portfolio management.
• Data orientation and ability to make data-driven decisions.
• Passion for great customer experiences.
• Financial and budget management.
• Comfortable working directly with business leaders, external customers, and engineering teams.
• Proven ability to drive change across organizational boundaries.
• Experience working with diverse, global cultures, organizations, and teams.

Benefits

We know that good benefit programs are important to employees and their families. Eaton provides various Health and Welfare benefits as well as Retirement benefits, and several programs that provide for paid and unpaid time away from work.

Click here for more detail: Eaton Benefits Overview. Please note that specific programs and options available to an employee may depend on eligibility factors such as geographic location, date of hire, and the applicability of collective bargaining agreements.