Digital Product Owner

Location Address: Toronto
Contract Duration: 6 Months (Possibility for extension or Convert to FTE) – potential for 2+ years

Story Behind the Need:
Project: Seeking a Digital Product Owner – Wealth management, to contribute to the long-term profitability of the business line by establishing performance goals and work practices which drive the design and development of high-quality end-to-end product and user experiences.

This is a demanding hands-on and strategic role which requires the incumbent to have deep knowledge and experience identifying gaps in the Customer Experience, analyze customer journey, define transformation and improvement opportunities and has experience collaborating with international teams, especially Pacific Alliance, Central America & Caribbean regions.

This role will be specifically focused on acceleration of Customer Facing digital transformation.

Candidate Value Proposition:
The successful candidate will not only have the opportunity to gain valuable experience at a top 5 Canadian bank, but also get exposure to some of the most advanced and disruptive Asset Management applications in the world, implementing them at a multi billion dollar enterprise. The candidate would have the ability to strategically drive the Asset Management footprint in the international landscape.

Typical Day in Role:
– Collaborate with head office and in-country business partners to collect and analyze data and market research on client preferences and needs as input in identifying potential markets and factors affecting product demand and to assist in driving the product roadmap and backlog prioritization.
– Leverage best practices and collaborate with Wealth Management.
– Manage communications and status reporting of ongoing initiatives, including summarizing project risks and options and facilitating prompt decisions when needed.
– Support the definition of the overall Wealth Management product strategy and technology roadmap to drive P&L goals for specific Wealth Management capabilities.
– Independently resolve highly complex, multi-faceted problems, which are often unstructured and without precedent to meet the business needs of the end users.
– Work with Program Delivery team to formulate costs and funding requests, proposals.
– Lead teams to focus on business value & impact, client-centric model.
– Must have holistic full-stack, end-to-end, consideration at all times.
– Works directly with business stakeholders to understand business needs and communicate them effectively to the scrum team. Translates business needs into user stories with clear acceptance criteria. Continuously refines backlog and prioritizes items for delivery based on value to business.
– Ensures product delivery is relevant and of high quality, eliminating the need for workarounds. Identifies capabilities, features, value proposition and potential risks for the product vision, working with stakeholders to produce high quality business solutions.
– Communicates progress, elicits feedback and enables stakeholder reviews for validation. Manages engagement with stakeholders and effectively communicates product release features and expected product capabilities within the customer journey.
– Plays a leadership role in the scrum team, working closely with their scrum master to ensure that product features are delivered on-time and aligned to business stakeholder expectations.
– Attends agile ceremonies (e.g. planning sessions, stand-ups, retrospectives, iteration reviews) and other team meetings in order to provide necessary guidance and verify that the output of the delivery team is consistently delivering business value and aligned with the agreed upon commitments.
– Creates and communicates product roadmaps for the delivery team. Works collaboratively with other Product Owners and Scrum Masters within the larger team to ensure business objectives are aligned and consistency in delivery. Support the team by being available to provide clarity required to complete detailed user stories.
– Act as primary reviewer and approver of finished development work during demos/reviews based on established acceptance criteria. Facilitates problem solving as required, working closely with the delivery team on implementation changes.
– Coaches team members and creates an environment that lends itself to self-organizing activities.
– Identifies and manages business activities (training, communication) required to support agile initiatives
– Thinks strategically beyond in-scope scrum activities, providing innovative ideas to challenge or extend current product vision.
– Define, lead and execute a cohesive digital transformation strategy designed to limit technological debt and to effectively manage transition from segregated platforms to global platforms adoption, while modernizing technology stacks & digitalization workflows. Work closely with in-country leads and partners to effect execution quality and success.
– Maintain an understanding of financial services markets, the competitive landscape and digital transformation trends relative to the Wealth Management sector and client/user needs and requirements.
– Continually acquire and enhance knowledge of both the Bank’s and the Division's business strategies and policies, risk management practices and methodologies, product offerings, financial markets, financial instruments, regulatory requirements, Back Office processes, and rapidly changing technology to be able to provide effective business solutions, services and support to the end user business lines.
– Work with partners on tech architecture reviews (ARB), ensure solutions are globally aligned (build-once, multiple re-use). Escalate on any misalignment or act as advocate on why in-country solution is mandatory.
– Work with partners on business architecture, operating protocols, vendor management, technology adoption, contract negotiations.

Candidate Requirements/Must Have Skills:
1) 3+ years of experience in a similar Product Owner in an Agile environment
2) 5+ years of experience in developing research priorities, design validation, feature prioritization, epic / story definition of customer facing platforms
3) 5+ years of experience supporting product throughout the SDLC and familiarity with all stages

Soft Skills:
– Spanish / English Fluency – both verbal and written is nice to have but not required
– Excellent communication skills both written and verbal
– Communicate effectively across diverse audiences within and outside of the development team (Stakeholders, Executives), acting as a champion of the agile methodology
– Partner with Agile Coach and other agile teams to share findings, best practices, and resources to help mature the organization agility
– Critical thinking skills: using logic and reasoning to evaluate alternative solutions, summarize conclusions and approaches to mitigate risks
– Demonstrated ability to achieve strategic goals
– Ability to develop strong working relationships with business and technology partners globally

Degrees or certifications:
– Bachelor's degree in a technical field such as computer science, computer engineering or related field required
– Any Agile, PMP, PO Certifications