Product Owner

at  Benefact Group

Working hours: 35 hours per week, Monday to Friday
Duration: 12-18 month FTC
Location: Gloucester
Job Ref: 202910

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

Essential:

• Demonstrable experience of being a Product Owner
• Proficient in analysing the underlying issues in complex problems by correctly relating these to simpler or better understood concepts.
• Keeps overall objectives and outcomes in mind
• Understands the needs of the internal or external customer
• Ability to establish relationships and maintain contacts with people from a variety of backgrounds
• Identifies a project’s key stakeholders and an assesses correctly their interests
• Organisational and problem solving capabilities
• Strong verbal communication skills
• Confident and influential communicator at all levels
• A clear appreciation of the need for exceptional standards of delivery and evidence of a strong commitment to delivering improved standards

Preferred:

• Financial Service experience is desirable, preferably Insurance
• Certified Product Owner qualification

ABOUT US

Benefact Group is a unique international financial services group made up of over 30 businesses. We are owned by a charity and currently the 3rd largest corporate donor in the country, having given away £200 million since 2016. We have an ambitious plan to become the number one corporate donor with strategic objectives in place to double the groups size over the next five years.
We believe it’s essential to attract, empower, grow and reward talented people offer career opportunities and personal development through a fantastic learning and career framework. Luckily for us, the nature of who we are – our giving ethos, our 135 year history and the diversity of what we do – has built a culture of kindness, of great ambition, of passionate people driven to do better and be better.
At Benefact Group, we are committed to creating an inclusive culture and building an environment where each and every one of us feels valued and respected. We are a community made up of people with a range of different backgrounds, abilities, perspectives, beliefs and interests and we value the strength this brings to us as a Group. We welcome applications from everyone.
If you need any additional support during the recruitment process, then please let us know.

ABOUT THE ROLE

Ecclesiastical, who are proudly part of the Benefact Group, are looking for a Product Owner to join our Gloucester office, with hybrid working.
The Group Technology Team delivers technology solutions via new and existing technologies to meet business needs. Our work is either Portfolio Change via the Group Transformation Team who do the initial viability assessment & agree funding, Continual Improvement for ongoing enhancements to live business products, or Technology only change e.g. upgrades and refreshes.
The Group Technology Business Analysis function works with the Group Transformation team as part of the foundation stage of projects, internal technology development teams, external delivery partners and extensively with business owners and business SMEs. While this is a Technology role, strong engagement is required with both technology and business stakeholders.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Working as a Product Owner in the Group Technology Business Analysis Team:

• As-Is and To-Be Process analysis
• Analysis of complex functionality
• Act as translator from technical discussion to the business owner
• Identify internal & technical constraints, assess & present options where applicable
• Work proactively with delivery partners whose Agile ways of working may differ to ours
• Requirements elicitation at Epic, Feature and (mostly) User Story level - aligned to business owner vision & provide challenge to requirement & clarity on value
• Ownership of the backlog & liaison with business owners for prioritisation & ordering. Agree which product backlog items to bring to the team
• Support Scrum Master in ensuring engagement and eliciting info from team
• Take part in agile ceremonies to support refinement, development and testing
• Ensure quality of backlog user stories, such that they meet “definition of ready” including non-functional requirements
• Walk the team through each user story, including pre-conditions, each acceptance criteria, and post conditions & address questions/clarifications from team
• Take any feedback from refinement that needs further consideration, and updates stories
• Able to cover/answer any questions re the backlog items - to ensure clarity and shared understanding
• User Story sign-off, engaging with business owners/SMEs as required
• Support the developers to prep for demos, test and rehearse prior to demo and take outstanding comments/feedback from demo, and adjust backlog as required
• Test support and defect triage including prioritisation for in sprint testing and for user acceptance testing
• Work with Service Management to ensure smooth transition of new/updated service in Live
• Communications to stakeholders throughout project lifecycle

Other:

• Plan, prioritise and manage individual workflow effectively to deliver exceptional service
• Proactively build successful internal and external relationships to support excellence in delivery
• Maintains links with appropriate counterparts within business functions and plays a full part in bringing solutions to implementation
• Take ownership and an approach of continuous improvement to your own skills, knowledge, and personal development
• Participate in continuous improvement reviews. Identify and lead opportunities to improve current methods, practices, and processes