Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. VertexOne is hiring a Product Owner Practice Lead to establish and scale its Product Owner practice across its utility software products. The role defines the PO approach, coaches and trains Product Owners and teams, and leads backlog ownership and objective-driven planning on live products.
Responsibilities
- Define the PO role: a role charter, decision rights, and a RACI covering Product Management, Product Owners, Business Analysts, Engineering, and Client Success
- Set standards for Definition of Ready, story writing, backlog structure, and a single intake path for requests
- Triage and rank the current backlog by business value, and set up Classes of Service and WIP limits for the kanban team
- Help break a current pool of about 20 developers and QA engineers into cross-functional scrum teams, each aligned to a Product Owner
- Get two scrum teams to at least two sprints of Ready stories
- Introduce objective-driven planning: measurable quarterly objectives, and sprint goals that tie directly to them
- Train the broader Product and Engineering organizations on how to work with Product Owners: who decides what, how requests flow, and what to expect in refinement, planning, and reviews
- Build the PO competency scorecard and help select two Product Owners
- Train and coach the new POs until they run refinement, planning, and triage on their own
- Assess how each product’s backlogs, teams, and intake work today
- Adapt the charter, RACI, and standards to each product
- Help identify, place, and train Product Owners for each product
- Bring each team’s backlog to at least two sprints of Ready stories, with objective-driven quarterly and sprint planning in place
- Extend Product and Engineering training on working with POs to each product’s teams
- Publish a reusable PO playbook and launch a PO community of practice with an internal owner
- Deliver a final readout on outcomes and recommendations
Skills
- 7+ years as a hands-on Product Owner, owning backlogs for multiple Scrum and Kanban teams
- You've set up or turned around a PO practice in an organization that didn't have one, including defining roles and coaching new POs
- Strong with value-based prioritization (WSJF, cost of delay) and with keeping backlogs ready
- Deep, hands-on experience with Agile Scrum and Kanban, including quarterly planning across multiple teams
- You've run objective-driven planning, setting measurable quarterly objectives and sprint goals tied to business outcomes
- You've designed and delivered training for Product and Engineering teams, and you can coach peers and earn credibility with senior leaders
- Fluent in Jira
- Agile Product Owner certification
- A coaching or training certification
- B2B SaaS experience, especially with customer implementations
Benefits
- Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance
- Health Savings Account (HSA)
- Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)
- 401K match
- Flexible PTO
- Employee recognition platform with monetary rewards
- 100% Remote work environment
- Initial work from home stipend
- Leadership/Coaching training programs
- Free access to Bizlibrary for unlimited professional development
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP) with counseling sessions available 24/7
- Health and wellbeing programs
- Paid parental leave
- Employee bonus referral program
- Employee Discount Program
Company Overview