Principal Product Owner

The Principal Product Owner works to fulfill the strategic Workforce product roadmap established by the Product Management leadership team and meet business objectives. Manages multiple initiatives and/or backlogs for more than one product and/or for more complex products. Responsible for defining the detailed product deliverables. Works closely with Product Owners on the requirements to ensure their Agile teams have the information needed to deliver a product that provides maximum value to the users. Coaches and mentors product owners in a matrix product organization.

The individual in this role will lead the platform integration initiatives, manage technical dependencies, and drive value creation through strategic alignment of enterprise services and APIs to our Workforce solution. This role will be instrumental in bridging platform services with business needs while ensuring security compliance and stakeholder satisfaction.

Strategic Leadership & Product Management

• Partner with Product Managers to understand and translate market demands, priorities, and product strategy into actionable requirements
• Lead the roadmap planning for adoption of platform services
• Lead API strategy and execution of development initiatives; oversee early adopter program and general availability release process
• Define and manage product scope, releases, and roadmaps across multiple initiatives; partnering closely with the Product Managers on strategy and Product Owners on execution.

• Own and manage the technical product backlog, prioritizing initiatives based on business value and technical dependencies; collaborate with Innovation technical subject matter experts
• Align product roadmap initiatives with security priorities

• Create detailed specifications/requirements for product features with clear acceptance criteria
• Act as a product champion while maintaining awareness of product management industry best practices

Technical Integration & Platform Management

• Coordinate with platform services teams to understand and leverage existing capabilities
• Drive platform service adoption and ensure efficient integration across teams

• Contribute to platform services requirements for Workforce

• Partner with Platform and Innovation engineering to define API standards and integration patterns
• Manage technical dependencies and cross-team implementation efforts
• Research and clarify technical requirements with customers and internal stakeholders during development
• Document technical requirements

Stakeholder Collaboration & Communication

• Build and maintain relationships with technical teams, business stakeholders, and customers
• Facilitate communication between platform services, architecture, product owners, and development teams

• Drive consensus on technical decisions across multiple stakeholder groups

• Conduct regular demos and status updates for all stakeholders
• Oversee EST (defect management process) and collaborate with Support to manage system status communication and escalation processes
• Drive consensus on technical decisions across multiple stakeholder groups

Agile Leadership & Process Improvement

• Actively participate in PI planning, product sprints, and daily stand-ups
• Work with Product Owners and Agile teams to deliver high-value releases
• Monitor and balance project budgets, scope, and timelines
• Use metrics and feedback to improve team processes and delivery
• Provide coaching and mentoring to less experienced product owners

Customer Focus & Market Research

• Partner with UX teams on market research to understand and prioritize customer needs
• Manage customer commitments and internal team expectations
• Work directly with customers to gather feedback and iterate on solutions
• Coordinate with external partners on integration requirements
• Ensure deliverables exceed customer expectations

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Information Technology, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Product Management or related field
• Five years of software development experience as an Agile Product Owner, Engineer, Architect or similar role
• Healthcare industry knowledge
• Demonstrated capabilities in being technical and business savvy
• Strong level of technical knowledge of development, databases, and operating systems related to the area being supported
• Strong knowledge of Agile principles and process
• Ability to anticipate needs and drive innovation in both business needs and technology enablers
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills

• Ability to influence cross-functional team without formal authority
• Excellent time management, resource organization and priority establishment skills with the ability to multi-task in a fast-paced, deadline-oriented environment
• Keen attention to detail
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, with diplomacy and tact, including when responding to resistance
• Ability to work with an optimistic attitude both independently and as part of a team
• Self-motivated with strong, proven, analytical and problem-solving skills
• Understand the importance of data flow, data integrity, and business process efficiency, as well as the potential role technology could play to improve or enhance them
• Ability to work independently with limited guidance from manager
• Project management skills
• Ability to describe complex information in a concise but thorough fashion 

Desired Skills and Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in Business, Information Technology, Computer Science, or related field
• Familiarity with Microsoft SQL for creating queries
• Business analysis/data experience
• Pendo experience
• Relevant certifications:
• Certified Product Owner and other certificates
• Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) or willingness to certify
• Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO)
• SAFe Product Owner
• PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)
• Your Scrum Product Owner (Accredited Certification)
• EXIN Agile Scrum Product Owner

The above job description is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of duties and standards of the position. Incumbents will follow any other instructions, and perform any other related duties, as assigned by their supervisor.