Product Owner - Individual Project Management

Position Title: Product Owner - Individual Project Management
Reports To: Director, Individual Projects and Production Support
Department: Individual Project Management
Term: Permanent Full-Time


Work Arrangements: This is a hybrid role. You will work in our office in Waterloo, ON a minimum of two (2) assigned, consecutive days every other week, plus a fifth (5th) assigned day per month. You are welcome to work from the office more than the minimum requirement and there may be some roles that are required to work in our office more than the minimum requirement. 

The Opportunity: The key responsibility or the purpose of the Product Owner role is to “maximize the value of the Product” where product is defined as a journey (e.g., Inquiring/Awareness, Acquiring/Purchasing, Servicing/Deepening) or set of cross-cutting capabilities (e.g., Document Management, Identity & Access Management) within a line of business or corporate area.

The Product Owner is the person responsible for maximizing the value of their product. The way the Product Owner maximizes value is by continuously making choices about what to build and what not to build in the Product. To do so, the Product Owner is also responsible for the product vision and for managing the Product backlog and stakeholders.

What you will be doing:

• Managing the Product Backlog. This includes activities such as clearly expressing product backlog items, ensuring the Product Backlog is visible, transparent, and clear to all, and shows what the Scrum Team will work on next.
• Collaborating with team and stakeholders to facilitate decisions, define stories and confirming when stories meet acceptance criteria
• Confirming when epics meet definition of done and definition of release
• Monitoring and providing reporting on burn down of epics
• Facilitating key agile ceremonies such as sprint planning, sprint refinement and sprint review
• Understands key voices in developing the backlog and setting priorities and brokers the conversations so developers can speak directly with the experts
• Identifying and describing client/partner value of the product item to the team to build a shared understanding with the squad; informed by market needs, market research and stakeholder and end user feedback
• Setting clear measures to monitor the health of the product, capabilities/assets, people, and delivery
• Providing decisions on experience, with support from Project Manager, Experience Analyst, Accountable Person(s) as needed
• Responsible for following established processes and procedures, identifying potential gaps, omissions or activities that could expose the organization to unnecessary operational risk

What you will bring:

• Business acumen. Understanding the domain in which one works is essential, to help you understand how the technology can affect the business
• Able to work with limited information to help articulate proof of concepts or high-level concepts for new ideas
• Experience with Business Governance and Review practices, including creation of auditable artifacts and peer review processes
• The ability to decompose complex issues and determine optimal solution across technology domains.
• Excellent communications skills with the ability to make persuasive presentations and influence others

What’s in it for you: 

• A healthy work-life balance with employee wellness top of mind 
• Annual bonus program, annual vacation allowance, and company-paid benefits program  
• An additional paid volunteer day each year so you can spend time giving back to the community 
• Immediate enrollment in the company’s pension program with employer matching 
• Employee resource groups that support an inclusive work environment 
• Tuition support and specialized program assistance  
• An onsite full-service cafeteria with a variety of daily options 
• Discounts on company products and services, and access to exclusive employee perks  
• Regular EQ Together events focused on company togetherness and collaboration

As part of the recruitment/offer process you will be required to:​ 

• Provide two professional references (minimum one supervisor and above) 

This role is open due to an existing vacancy.

To learn more about Equitable, we encourage you to explore our organization.

At Equitable, we are committed to providing equal access to employment opportunities across our organization. Please contact our HR team at careers@equitable.ca if you would like to receive our job postings in an alternative format or require an accommodation with the application process.

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