Product Owner

Role: Product Owner

Location: Summit, NJ

Job Type: Long Term Contract

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced Product Owner to lead the strategy, discovery, definition, and delivery of digital products supporting insurance business operations.

This role combines strategic product management with hands-on product ownership . You will work closely with business leaders, insurance subject-matter experts, users, architects, developers, data teams, UX, and QA to understand business challenges and translate them into scalable digital solutions.

The ideal candidate brings strong insurance domain knowledge , proven product ownership experience, and the ability to connect complex business workflows with technology solutions.

Key Responsibilities

Product Strategy & Ownership

• Define and communicate the product vision, strategy, roadmap, priorities, and measurable business outcomes .
• Partner with business stakeholders to understand operational challenges, user needs, and opportunities for digital transformation.
• Evaluate product opportunities based on business value, customer impact, cost, risk, technical feasibility, and ROI .
• Own product priorities and facilitate decisions around scope, trade-offs, releases, and enhancements.
• Track product adoption, performance, user feedback, and business outcomes to drive continuous improvement.

Discovery & Requirements

• Lead discovery workshops with business leaders, SMEs, users, architects, developers, data teams, UX, and QA.
• Analyze and document current-state and future-state business processes .
• Understand workflows involving policies, underwriting, endorsements, renewals, claims, billing, financial transactions, and client servicing.
• Identify business rules, data requirements, integrations, exceptions, dependencies, and control requirements.
• Translate business needs into clear epics, features, user stories, acceptance criteria, process flows, and functional requirements .
• Break complex requirements into appropriately sized and testable backlog items.
• Identify requirement gaps, conflicts, and dependencies early to minimize delivery risks and rework.

Agile Delivery & Backlog Management

• Own, maintain, and prioritize the product backlog .
• Partner closely with engineering and QA teams throughout the Agile delivery lifecycle.
• Clarify requirements and acceptance criteria during development and testing.
• Participate in sprint planning, refinement, reviews, release planning, and other Agile ceremonies.
• Ensure delivered solutions align with business requirements and intended product outcomes.
• Support product launches, user adoption, training, and post-production enhancements.

Stakeholder & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Serve as the primary bridge between business stakeholders and technology teams .
• Build alignment across executives, business teams, engineering, architecture, QA, data, and other stakeholders.
• Facilitate discussions and drive decisions when requirements, priorities, or stakeholder expectations conflict.
• Communicate product direction, progress, dependencies, risks, and decisions clearly across different audiences.

Data, Integration & Technology

• Work with technology teams on data mapping, transformation rules, APIs, integrations, error handling, exception management, and retry mechanisms .
• Support data validation and analysis to ensure product and integration accuracy.
• Understand how business processes connect across multiple enterprise platforms.
• Leverage AI-powered tools and technologies to improve product discovery, requirements management, backlog management, documentation, and stakeholder communication.

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of progressive experience as a Product Owner, Product Manager, Business Product Lead, or similar product-focused role.
• Strong experience delivering software or digital products from discovery through implementation.
• Strong knowledge of the insurance industry and insurance business processes .
• Understanding of areas such as:
• Policy administration
• Underwriting
• Endorsements and renewals
• Claims
• Premiums and exposures
• Client servicing
• Billing
• Accounts Receivable / Accounts Payable
• Financial transactions
• Proven experience defining product vision, roadmap, priorities, and backlog .
• Strong hands-on experience creating epics, user stories, acceptance criteria, business rules, process flows, and functional requirements.
• Experience working within Agile/Scrum delivery environments .
• Strong stakeholder-management, facilitation, presentation, and communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively with both business and technical stakeholders.
• Working knowledge of APIs, system integrations, data mapping, transformation rules, exception handling, and error management .
• Strong analytical, prioritization, decision-making, and problem-solving capabilities.
• Ability to work independently and take ownership of product outcomes.
• Working proficiency with AI tools and Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, or comparable tools.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience within commercial insurance or insurance brokerage environments.
• Experience with insurance technology supporting policy administration, CRM, document management, billing, finance, or client servicing.
• Exposure to Salesforce, Sagitta, Azure DevOps, Jira , or similar enterprise platforms.
• SQL or comparable querying experience for data validation and analysis.
• Technical exposure to software development, web technologies, data platforms, APIs, or systems integration.
• Experience with digital transformation or modernization initiatives within insurance.
• Relevant certifications in Product Management, Agile, Scrum, Business Analysis, Insurance, or Project Management .