Product Owner

Summary:

We are looking for an Engineering Product Owner to join our growing engineering organization (headquartered in Reigate, ~300 engineers) developing a wide range of market leading InsurTech solutions. You will join us at an exciting time as we focus increasingly on cloud/SaaS solutions, upgrading existing products to new technologies and modern UX, as well as developing brand-new applications.

As Engineering Product Owner, you will be involved in the definition and development of work items within a specific product family, working with senior stakeholders such as Product Managers, Engineering Managers and Architects, to define and prioritise a backlog of user stories to be implemented by one or two scrum teams.

At WTW, we believe difference makes us stronger. We want our workforce to reflect the different and varied markets we operate in and to build a culture of inclusivity that makes colleagues feel welcome, valued and empowered to bring their whole selves to work every day. We are an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive work environment throughout our organisation. We embrace all types of diversity.

The Role:

• Work with the Product Management team to understand the relevant market/competitors/end-users, and influence the definition of the product vision and feature-level roadmap,
• Collaborate with stakeholders (including internal subject matter experts, internal end-users) and members of the scrum team(s) to translate this roadmap into a user-story backlog which can be consumed and implemented by one or two engineering teams,
• Ensure the backlog is in a clean state at all times, maintaining a clear epic/feature/story hierarchy, triaging new requirements/defects efficiently, and appropriately tagging backlog items which qualify for capitalisation and R&D tax relief,
• Articulate this backlog into quarterly release increments, working with the team to ensure the upcoming quarterly increment is appropriately defined and planned, covering the various necessary dimensions involved in the development of the product under consideration (eg functional and non-function product requirements, but also research work, as well as infrastructure and service-related requirements),
• Continuously re-prioritise the user-story backlog considering the direction from the Product Manager, feedback from the team, the value of the work item (effort vs. benefit) and potential dependencies between stories,
• Ensure there is at least 1-2 sprints worth of user stories defined against the agreed Definition of Ready (DoR), in particular by working with the QA engineer(s) to define clear and complete acceptance criteria,
• If necessary, produce the necessary artefacts to meet the DoR (eg wireframes/UI mockups),
• Provide input to the sprint planning process, ensuring the scrum team is sufficiently familiar with the proposed stories upfront to facilitate a smooth planning process,
• Coach and support the scrum team during execution of the sprint and the release increments by providing clarification or further direction where necessary, and taking an active role in mitigating impediments,
• Formally accept/reject user stories implemented by the team once they meet the definition of done, Contribute to the production of internal or external product documentation, vision
• Keep abreast with Agile/Scrum best practices and new trends, and as appropriate, participate in sprint planning meetings, daily stand-ups, sprint retrospectives, and other scrum of scrum ceremonies, striving to continuously improve the team velocity, its processes and engineering practices.

The Requirements:

The essential skills/experience for this position are:

• Extensive years of experience as an Engineering Product Owner leading one or two scrum teams developing commercial B2B/B2C applications, or of subsystems of such applications,
• In-depth understanding of the Agile software development life cycle in a commercial/production environment,
• Hands-on experience managing all stages of the product life cycle, from concept to productisation,
• High attention to detail and high quality standards whilst being pragmatic and delivering at pace,
• Strong organisation skills, ability to balance multiple priorities and to provide clear status updates,
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, ability to influence senior stakeholders,
• At ease working in a team environment, can provide and receive constructive criticism,
• Sharp analytical and problem solving skills,
• Creative thinker with a vision.

Other highly desirable, but not essential skills are:

• Formal Product Owner/Product Management training and accreditations,
• Familiarity with scaled Agile frameworks (eg SAFe),
• Hands-on experience with the production of wireframes (eg using Balsamiq),
• Prior software development experience,
• General knowledge of the Insurance industry,
• Open mindset and desire to progress towards a Product Management role in the future,
• Degree-educated with Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics or relevant discipline

At WTW, we trust you to know your work and the people, tools and environment you need to be successful. The majority of our colleagues work in a hybrid style, with a mix of remote, in-person and in-office interactions dependent on the needs of the team, role and clients. Our flexibility is rooted in trust and hybrid is not a one-size-fits-all solution.

We understand flexibility is key to supporting an inclusive and diverse workforce and so we encourage requests for all types of flexible working as well as location-based arrangements. Please speak to your recruiter to discuss more.

Equal Opportunity Employer

At WTW, we believe difference makes us stronger. We want our workforce to reflect the different and varied markets we operate in and to build a culture of inclusivity that makes colleagues feel welcome, valued and empowered to bring their whole selves to work every day. We are an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive work environment throughout our organisation. We embrace all types of diversity.

At WTW, we trust you to know your work and the people, tools and environment you need to be successful. The majority of our colleagues work in a hybrid style, with a mix of remote, in-person and in-office interactions dependent on the needs of the team, role and clients. Our flexibility is rooted in trust and hybrid is not a one-size-fits-all solution.

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