Description

Product Owner ( 12 month contract)

Position s ummary

Individuals in this role provide the following services to the organization: 1) l eadership and driving successful execution of Agile S crum and Kanban teams; 2) i mprovement of processes and procedures for the Product Engineering division ; and 3) development and maintenance of tools, techniques, and standards pertaining to the SDLC .

Responsibilities

• Fulfill the role of a Product Owner (different than a Product Manager) within the Scaled Agile Framework for on-shore or off-shore teams on all sizes of initiatives.
• Lead and facilitate the work of Agile teams (including ceremonies) by working with stakeholders to clarify delivery objective s and ensure the cross - functional Agile team members can accomplish these objectives.
• Create Program Increment, Sprint and R elease plans; ensure that plans receive appropriate review, authorization , and visibility through Agile ceremonies and other stakeholders .
• Ownership and strong stewardship of agile team(s) backlog , story definitions and refinement ; including rank order across competing priorities (roadmap, maintenance and defects, etc ...)
• Be an advocate and voice across the enterprise for agile development team(s) .
• Assist teams in evaluating and establishing their capacity to inform pro gram 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 integr ity of our products.
• Track and forecast project progress, activity and effort; communicate effectively through multiple channels to sponsors and key stakeholders.
• C ontinuous and early assess ment of project risk factors , change control and recommend ation of courses of action to mitigate risk.
• P articipate in developing, maintaining and evolving standards, tools, templates and documented processes for process improvement and project governance.
• Perform other duties as assigned to ensure the success of the team and the organization.

Skills and a bilities

• E xperience in scrum and /or Kanban processes and protocols , a must ; Proven 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 , including off-shore teams .
• A bility to build working relationships and work effectively with a variety of cultures and varying personalities.
• Well-developed communication skills, including proven ability to transform complexities into clear, concise written communications for stakeholders and development teams.
• Ability to distinguish milestones and measures critical to project success and translate these into me aningful 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 , respectfully and logically n egotiati ng with stakeholders .
• Ability to facilitate and control meetings and discussions where disparate points of views need to be voiced and acknowledged .
• Ability to track at the detail level and some experience plan ning several steps ahead.
• Proficiency in a broad range of agile project management and roadmap tools such as Jira, Target Process , Confluence and Aha .
• Must be able to perform the physical and intellectual requirements of the role, with or without accommodation .

Education and e xperience

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, or similar discipline preferred
• Minimum two to three years of practical delivery experience in the area of Agile project management with demonstrated results leading an agile team.
• Strong preference for experience in the technology industry .
• P roject management process experience including project prioritization, estimating, project planning, scheduling, risk and issue management .
• Experience in vendor relations and contract negotiations for program/project outsourced services and products desired .
• Scrum Certified Product Owner desired; experience with creation of project portfolio management tools and design of dynamic, data-driven web applications highly desirable.

About us :

Founded by educators nearly 40 years ago, NWEA™ is a global not-for-profit educational services organization known for our flagship interim assessment, Measures of Academic Progress® (MAP®).

More than 7,400 partners in U.S. schools, districts, education agencies, and international schools trust us to offer pre-kindergarten through grade 12 assessments that accurately measure student growth and learning needs, professional development that fosters educators' ability to accelerate student learning, and research that supports assessment validity and data interpretation.