Description
Product Owner

Note: This role is open nationwide, qualified candidates from all time zones are encouraged to apply!

About this Role...

Individuals in this role provide the following services to the organization: 1) l eadership and driving of successful product delivery; 2) leadership and advocacy of agile S crum and Kanban teams; 3 ) continuous improvement of processes for the Product Development department ; and 4 ) development and maintenance of tools, techniques, and standards pertaining to the project life cycle.

Responsibilities ...

• Fulfill the role of a Product Owner within the Scaled Agile Framework on all sizes of initiatives.
• Support NWEA's commitment to implementing and establishing policies and procedures that are grounded in diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility best practices. Make diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) practices the backbone of our work.
• Collaborate with Product Management and other department stakeholders on exploration and planning of program initiatives .
• Lead and facilitate the work of a gile teams from Design to Release by working with stakeholders to clarify epic success criteria , design feature solutions , and build and release features that bring business value .
• Accountable for d esign activities including user research, information architecture , user testing, and feature mapping .
• Advocate for and facilitate Human Centered Design and l ean - agile methodolog ies in all initiatives; act a s a catalyst for creative problem solving and a champion for reducing waste .
• Accountable for code builds, releases, and validation of released code within your domain .
• Create Program Increment, Sprint and R elease plans; ensure that plans receive appropriate review, authorization , and visibility through a gile ceremonies .
• Ownership and strong stewardship of agile team backlog , story definitions and refinement ; including rank order across competing priorities (roadmap, maintenance , defects, etc .)
• Be an advocate and voice across the enterprise for agile development team .
• Be the voice of the customer (partner) within the agile team .
• Assist team in evaluating and establishing their capacity to inform project plans.
• Track project/team interdependencies and coordinate efforts across disparate teams with other Product Owners or stakeholders .
• Timely approval of stories to ensure quality control at the team level and to ensure technical and functional integrity of our products.
• Track and forecast project progress, activity, and effort; communicate effectively through multiple channels to sponsors and key stakeholders; manage external delivery partners where required.
• C ontinuous and early assess ment of project risk factors and recommend ation of courses of action to mitigate risk.
• Lead and participate in developing, maintaining, and evolving standards, tools, templates and documented processes for process improvement and project governance.

Skills and A bilities ...

• Strong experience in Scrum and /or Kanban processes and protocols , a must ; p roven foundational knowledge of standard project management best practices , a must .
• Experience with the Scaled Agile Framework is desired .
• Strong l eadership skills with proven ability to successfully manage and facilitate functional and/or cross-functional teams; ability to build strong working relationships and work effectively with all levels of an organization from entry level to executive.
• Exceptional communication skills: proven ability to transform complexities into clear, concise written communications , ability to listen and absorb details and strategic vision, convey respect and inclusion for colleagues and partners .
• Ability to distinguish milestones and measures critical to project success and translate these into meaningful management information .
• Ability to balance competing demands for project scope, time, cost, risk and quality; combined with ability to manage several projects concurrently with a sense for organizational priority .
• Ability to remain cool under pressure and demonstrate competence when challenged .
• Experience in successfully and logically negotiating with stakeholders .
• Ability to facilitate and control meetings and discussions where disparate points of views need to be voiced and acknowledged .
• Innate ability to continuously identify and implement improvements to process, protocol, or policy .
• Ability to track detail s and strategize for product vision and plan several steps ahead .
• Proficiency in a broad range of agile project management and roadmap tools such as Jira, Confluence, Target Process , Trello, Miro .

Education and E xperience ...

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, or similar discipline required ; MBA or other advanced degree or equivalent work experience preferred .
• Minimum five years of practical delivery experience in the area of product ownership, project management , Scrum Master and/or business analy sis with demonstrated results .
• Minimum 2 years leading agile team s .
• Strong preference for experience in the technology industry .
• Extensive project management process experience including project portfolio prioritization, estimating, project planning, scheduling, risk, and issue management .
• Experience in vendor relations and contract negotiations for program/project outsourced services and products , preferred .
• Scrum Certification in Product Ownership desired; experience with creation of project portfolio management tools and design of dynamic, data-driven web applications highly desirable.

About Us...
NWEA® is a research-based, not-for-profit organization that supports students and educators worldwide by creating assessment solutions that precisely measure growth and proficiency-and provide timely data to help tailor instruction. For more than 40 years, NWEA has developed innovative pre-K-12 assessments, including our flagship interim assessment, MAP® Growth™; our progress monitoring and skills mastery tool, MAP® Skills™; and our reading fluency and comprehension assessment, MAP® Reading Fluency™. Educators trust our professional learning offerings to accelerate student learning and our research to support assessment validity and data interpretation. More than 11 million students in 146 countries use our solutions to support their learning and growth each year.
What We Can Offer You...
At NWEA we not only offer a competitive base salary, we offer a 15% contribution of eligible employees' base salary to a defined contribution 403(b) retirement savings plan; career development opportunities; an awesome work culture and environment; we also offer industry leading benefits and perks that are focused on supporting our employees' holistic wellbeing. To learn more about what we can offer more, click here.
NWEA strives to make diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) practices the center of our work. Our organization's mission, Partnering to Help All Kids Learn, is the foundation for our DEIA commitment as we work to reflect, value, and support the educators, students, colleagues, and communities we serve. We seek to empower and engage all stakeholders in the research, services, solutions, and products we provide, our organizational culture, and the partnerships we establish with schools, districts, states, and countries.
NWEA is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status. For our EEO Policy Statement, please visit our website. If you'd like more information on your EEO rights under the law, please visit the EEOC website.