Product Owner

The opportunity

As we continue to realise our growth plans, we are looking for a dedicated and detail-oriented Product Owner to join the team. You'll be responsible for defining and prioritising product features, ensuring the development team delivers high-quality products that meet customer needs and business goals.
To be successful, you'll be a highly effective communicator and collaborator, a believer in servant leadership who seeks to empower and give voice to all team members across all disciplines, product, tech and change, working with tech and change peers as part of a collaborative leadership approach.
The successful candidate will be passionate about the user (client, adviser and colleague) and show deep empathy with their needs, whether that be clients, advisers or colleagues and believe in the value of advice to clients and be able to inspire teams as to the “why” of The Openwork Partnership. The benefits:

• Salary – £55,000
  
• Bonus scheme - on target bonus – 10%
  
• Pension scheme - contribute up to 5% of your salary and Openwork will match you and put in an extra 5%
  
• Critical illness cover
  
• Income protection - 1 x salary
  
• Death in service - 4 x salary
  
• 27 days holiday + bank holidays, with the opportunity to buy up to an additional 10 days
  
• A range of other flexible benefits to include private medical insurance, dental insurance and much more.

Key Accountabilities:

• Product Backlog Management: Create, prioritise, and maintain the product backlog.
  
• Requirements Ownership: Collaborate with Business Analysts from the Business Change Function to define the requirements for any product development incorporating the needs of business stakeholders, advisers and end-clients.
  
• User Stories: Write clear and concise user stories and acceptance criteria to guide the development team.
  
• Sprint Planning: Participate in sprint planning meetings to help the team understand the backlog items and set sprint goals
  
• Stakeholder Collaboration: Work closely with stakeholders, including customers, management, and the development team, to gather and prioritise requirements
  
• Decision Making: Make informed decisions regarding the product's features, release schedule, and overall direction.
  
• Customer Feedback: Gather and analyse customer feedback to inform product improvements and validate that the product meets user needs.
  
• Release Management: Plan and manage product releases, ensuring the delivery of valuable and usable increments.
  
• Continuous Improvement: Continuously refine and improve the product backlog based on feedback, market changes, and new opportunities.
  
• Business Case Creation: In collaboration with Propositions, support business case development within Domain scope for new vendor integrations or in-house builds.
  

What will you need to succeed?

• Proven experience in product ownership, particularly within financial services or technology sectors.
  
• Understanding of the detail within Financial Services systems – e.g. CRM, data management & orchestration,
  
• Experience leading the product development processes.
  
• Experience of product ownership tools and best practice e.g. DevOps, JIRA
  
• A proven leader and collaborator, working with cross discipline teams as part of a ‘three amigos’ trio.
• Established experience working with and collaborating with tech teams to get the best outcome that delivers value for the user and ensures technology is built in a scalable and sustainable way.
  
• Experience of the power of “data” and practical methods to ensure its conformity, consistency and completeness.
  
• Deep understanding of product ownership principles and lifecycle management.
  
• Knowledge of the wealth, mortgage and protection advice process.
• Proficiency in Agile and Scrum methodologies, with experience leading Agile teams.
  
• Experience working on a complex multi-app platform.
  
• Adaptability: Flexibility to adapt to changing business needs and market conditions.
  
• Data-Driven Decision-Making: Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret complex data to inform product decisions.
  
• Collaboration: Strong team player with the ability to work effectively across departments and with external partners.
  
• Customer Focus: Deep commitment to empathising with and meeting the needs of advisers and end-clients.
  
• Innovation: A proactive approach to identifying opportunities for product enhancements and new developments.
  
• Results-Oriented: Driven to achieve results and deliver high-quality products that meet business objectives.

Why us?

We're a dynamic, fast paced, and growing business with huge ambition. This is all made possible by the brilliant people who are part of The Openwork Partnership family. We're investing heavily in our colleagues, continuously striving to give them the platform to develop personally and professionally and reach their full potential.

We’re also very proud of our culture, as one of the Best 100 Large Companies to work for in 2022. The Openwork Partnership values, and respects individuality and we are committed to building an inclusive culture and environment which truly recognises and celebrates our colleague’s individual differences and identities – just like our financial advice, for us, it’s personal. We believe everyone can make a difference and your race, religion, disability, and gender will never be a barrier. At Openwork, we have a strong ethic of care for each other where you can balance a successful career with your commitments and interests outside of work. We believe that you will bring your best self to work if you are trusted to choose when, where and how you do it.