Senior Product Owner

This position will act as a Senior Product Owner on a production team utilizing Scrum methodology and implement Agile ideology. The Senior Product Owner serves as a bridge between the product development process, business stakeholders, and clients. The Senior Product Owner's primary goal is to provide value for the business/customers and align the business needs with the overall strategy of the department. These responsibilities include meeting with stakeholders, developing and adapting product vision, writing user stories, prioritizing and grooming the backlog, release planning, etc. This position attends daily stand up, sprint planning, and retro. The ultimate goal of an Agile team is to understand business needs and develop optimal business and/or IT solutions in partnership with department stakeholders and functional experts.

ORGANIZATIONAL SUMMARY:

Located in the vibrant and diverse Tampa Bay region of Florida’s gulf coast, the University of South Florida (USF) is a Preeminent State Research University with campuses in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee. Rated as one of the top places to live in the U.S., Tampa Bay offers a high quality of life, year-round sunshine, and easy access to top-rated entertainment. USF is one of the nation’s largest public universities, serving more than 50,000 students with an annual budget of $1.8 billon. Over the past five years, USF has been the fastest-rising university in the nation, public or private, on the U.S. News and World Report's list of best universities, which it ranks as the 44^th best public university in America.

USF is proud to be an innovating partner within the Tampa Bay region, listed by Forbes as the top emerging tech city in the country. 

USF Information Technology (USF IT) provides technology services and support for the University of South Florida. The IT team, led by the Vice President and CIO, provides the following services: Administrative Services, Client Support, Communication Services, Teaching and Learning, Analytics and Reporting, Mobile and Web Services, Consulting Services, Cybersecurity Service and Research Technologies. For more information, please visit: Information Technology | University of South Florida (usf.edu)

ADDITIONAL INFO FOR APPLICANTS:

The selected candidate must have current work authorization in the United States. This position is not eligible for Visa Sponsorship.

USF offers GREAT BENEFITS to full time employees!!

• Medical Insurance
• Dental Insurance
• Vision Insurance
• Paid Vacation Days
• Paid Sick Days
• 11 Paid Holidays
• Various Retirement Options, including 401K employer match
• Tuition Assistance (available for yourself, spouse, partner or dependent)

For more information about your total compensation package and other USF benefits, please visit: Work at USF

PRIMARY JOB DUTIES

30% Customer / Stakeholder Relations:
Provides strategic consultation and participates in quality reviews and provides feedback sessions. Advises on options, risks, costs versus benefits, and impacts on end-user products and services, business processes and system priorities. Create reports and communications to both Stakeholders and Senior Management. Devises and evaluates plans that integrate system components across existing and new businesses. Set and articulate clear product vision aligned to the overall strategy for the product. Negotiate and mediate problems with stakeholders.

30% Project Management and Product Backlog:
Lead complex, major or highly visible tasks in support of multiple projects that require multiple areas of expertise and that may span a broad range of applications. Analyze and interpret complex enterprise-wide problems or processes, identify and understand requirements, and develop alternate solutions while educating senior leaders as to their solution. Establish strategic goals with a long-term view and builds a shared vision with others. Use formal methodologies to forecast trends and define innovative strategic choices in response to the potential implications of multiple integrated options.
Use MoSCoW, Story Mapping, Kano Analysis and other prioritization methods while considering the value of the feature including impact on the individual, team and organization, story cost, estimated time to implement, impact on other stories, risk and opportunity costs when prioritizing. Create Business Model/ Product Canvas, Product Roadmap, and Product Launch Strategy. Conduct SWOT and competitive analysis Guide Product Owners in the use of appropriate requirements gathering methods. Prioritize urgent customer requests with the team to negotiate inclusion in current sprint and adjustments to other planned work as needed.

10% Review/Testing:
Write and approve Acceptance Criteria. 
Provide final acceptance of the User Story. 
Create and validate prototypes.

10% Agile Project Management:
Understand and keep abreast of Scrum and other Agile methodologies. Apply methodologies and tools as needed to ensure an effective, and transparent agile project. Partner with the Scrum Master who is the owner of the Scrum process, to ensure continuous improvement on project tasks.

15%Mentorship:
Mentors and guides Product Owners. Review and monitors the Project Management of the Product Owner and identify areas of improvement. Gradually allow more autonomy on Projects to Product Owner as their experience and skills increase.

5% Performs other duties as assigned.

MINIMUM EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE

Bachelor’s degree Business, Engineering, Computer Science or IT related field and three years of IT or Project Management experience OR seven years of IT or Project Management experience, or a combination of relevant experience and education.

Degree Equivalency Clause: Four years of direct experience for a bachelor’s degree.
• Senate Bill 1310- The Florida Senate (https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2023/1310) is conditional upon meeting all employment eligibility requirements in the U.S.
• SB 1310: Substitution of Work Experience for Postsecondary Education Requirements
• A public employer may include a postsecondary degree as a baseline requirement only as an alternative to the number of years of direct experience required, not to exceed:
• (a) Two years of direct experience for an associate degree;
• (b) Four years of direct experience for a bachelor’s degree;
• (c) Six years of direct experience for a master’s degree;
• (d) Seven years of direct experience for a professional degree; or
• (e) Nine years of direct experience for a doctoral degree
• Related work experience may not substitute for any required licensure, certification, or registration required for the position of employment as established by the public employer and indicated in the advertised description of the position of employment.
• Minimum Qualifications that require a high school diploma are exempt from SB 1310.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES

Technical Skills

Product Management - Managing and developing products or services through their full life cycle from inception, growth, maturity, decline to retirement.

Stakeholder Relationship Management - Influencing stakeholder attitudes, decisions, and actions for mutual benefit.

Requirements Definition and Management - Managing requirements through the entire delivery and operational life cycle.

Project Management-Delivering agreed outcomes from projects using appropriate management techniques, collaboration, leadership and governance.

Soft Skills

IT Core Competencies: 

• Growth Mindset - Takes ownership of personal growth and embraces the concept that intelligence and talent can be developed through continuous learning. Willing to take on new challenges, and views failure as an opportunity to grow.
• Communication - Comfortable using a broad range of communication styles, and chooses appropriate, effective ways to communicate. Adapts communication style depending on the audience and situation. Listens and asks questions to develop a better understanding.
• Collaboration- Collaborates with others in the pursuit of common missions, visions, values and goals. Fosters a sense of community within and across teams, building on mutual respect, trust, and drawing on the strengths of others.
• Client Obsession-Client focused when creating solutions or solving problems, believing that everything we do is to earn and keep our clients’ trust.
• Ownership-Takes responsibility, accountability and proactively focuses on areas they can directly influence. Understands their role within the team and recognizes that they share the team’s successes and failures.
• Outcome Driven-Focuses on desired results, business outcomes, and how to achieve them. Takes appropriate actions to ensure commitments are met and results achieved.

Industry Knowledge

• Three years of experience as a Product Owner or working in a Scrum Environment 
• Experience using tools such as JIRA and Confluence 
• Certified Product Owner or SAFe Product Owner