Principal Product Owner, Integrations

Solution Design & DevelopmentUS Exempt RegularFull timeStateside Exempt 4.3Location: Adelphi, MD (Hybrid)

Summary:

The Principal Product Owner operates as part of one or more Platform teams, participating in an Agile team environment, collaborating with our customers, partners, and other Platform teams to convey product vision, strategy, to deliver the roadmap to the team of engineers, designers, and QA testers. The Principal Product Owner is responsible for knowing customers, prioritizing the backlog to deliver work of the highest value to the customer, and collaborating with one or more scrum teams to deliver quality features.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• The Principal Product Owner is responsible for envisioning, strategizing, and making decisions on how products need to progress so that it can generate value for UMGC customers. The Product Owner is highly focused on ensuring that UMGC is realizing our customers' strategic goals in an efficient manner.

• The Product Owner represents the voice of the customer or the stakeholders. They are responsible for defining and prioritizing the product backlog based on customer and stakeholder requirements. They collaborate with stakeholders to gather and refine product requirements. The Product Owner makes decisions on the product's direction, documents Feature Records and User Stories, and leads prioritization. They provide clear and concise user stories and acceptance criteria and work closely with the Scrum Master and development team to ensure successful delivery of the product. 

• A Principal Product Owner has unique skills to be applied to multiple Products at a time, helping with complicated and wide spread features and capabilities that cross Products or Platforms.

Specific Duties and responsibilities of Product Owner:

• Foster relationships with stakeholders to establish trust and understand their processes and pain points, to then leverage knowledge of industry best practices and identify opportunities for improvement. 

• Working with cross platform teams - CRM, LMS, SIS, EDM , HCM , Data and Front end experience teams. 

• Gather comprehensive requirements by gaining an in depth understanding of processes and related functionality, to then translate the needs into detailed requirements. 

• Evaluate new business feature requests, assess business value, and prioritize.

• Prioritize the product backlog appropriately to provide high priority to the most critical work.

• Communicate the priorities of the team to customers and internal stakeholders, conveying the business value throughout. 

• Serve as a liaison between customers and the development team; ensure requirements are understood by all and convey technical aspects of the work clearly to the customer.

• Participate in various enterprise projects that require cross Platform coordination  

• Develop repeatable assets to facilitate go-to-market activities for discovery, implementation, support and operations for various Platforms.

• Work closely with the Scrum Master and development team to ensure successful delivery of the product. 

• Define and prioritize the product backlog based on customer and stakeholder requirements. 

• Collaborate with stakeholders to gather and refine product requirements. 

• Make decisions on the product's direction. 

• Partner with vendors and consultants to develop functional aspects of the Integration Strategy. 

• Prioritize technology upgrades, technical debt and migration to CloudHub 2.0 for developers. 

• Evangelize the integration strategy. 

• Document Feature Records. 

• Lead prioritization. 

• Provide clear and concise User Stories and acceptance criteria. 

Skills:

Communication (Oral & Written)

• Conveys information clearly and succinctly to diverse audiences including direct reports, colleagues, customers, business partners, advisors and boards in a variety of settings and interactions, such as one-on-one discussions, presentations, group meetings, interviews, sale pitches, consulting sessions, interviews, disciplinary actions and development sessions.

Customer Focus

• Anticipates and meets internal/external customer needs.  Seeks highest levels of customer satisfaction by delivering excellence in products and services through the process of completing assignments. Establishes appropriate cadence of customer communication and positive working relationships.              

Business Acumen

• Obtains essential information about a situation, focuses on the key objectives, recognizes the relevant options available for a solution, and selects an appropriate course of action - setting in motion an implementation plan to get the job done. Adapts to unforeseen circumstances, make adjustments as necessary and keep projects moving forward.

Teamwork

• Works cooperatively with peers and colleagues to accomplish department and company-wide objectives.  Develop and maintain respect and trust with employees, customers, partners and the community -- offering assistance when required and being a team player. Assesses team effectiveness and enhances performance through coaching and goal setting.  Encourage cooperation, collaboration and co-ownership of processes.

Problem-Solving & Critical Thinking

• Views issues holistically, organization-wide. Anticipates problems and develops creative solutions, using data to make informed decisions. Takes ownership of the problem, shows dedication to see the problem through to successful completion, and follows-up to ensure resolution. Actively and skillfully conceptualize, analyze, synthesize, evaluate and apply information to reach a conclusion. Disciplined thinking that is clear, rational, open-minded and informed by evidence.

Knowledge Seeking

• Continually pursues growth and learning. Takes on new challenges and stretch assignments. Asks “how can I continue to develop my skills?” Knowledge seekers help propel the company forward. 

Act with Integrity: Exhibit honesty and integrity at all times. 

• Do the right thing in an honest, fair and responsible way.  Always consider the impact of decisions on customers, employees, partners, and others you deal with each day. 

Focus on Customers: Strive to always exceed customer expectations. 

• Focus on the customer's goal and student outcomes. Ask questions. Build relationships. Listen. 

Engage with Respect: Treat colleagues, customers, and partners fairly. 

• Regardless of work experience, tenure, gender, race, cultural background or any other distinguishing factor promoting healthy and positive working relationships between all employees, customers and other stakeholders. 

Collaborate Always: Be dedicated to success.  

• Work together with customers, employees and partners to solve problems and achieve goals.  Collaboration is realized through idea sharing, innovating and creating to achieve common goals and objectives. Leverage the knowledge, skills and abilities of others to accomplish tasks.

Innovate with Passion: 

• Embrace and drive change. Generate innovative solutions for work challenges and evolving markets. Take risks, be curious, inspire creativity.

• Challenge the norm. Find and share alternative ways to view or define problems; be not constrained by thoughts or approaches of others. 

• Create Workable Solutions. Produce innovations and solutions that acknowledge the reality of the situation.   Don't allow perfect to be the enemy of progress.

Education & Experience Requirements:

Experience:

• 6+ years' combined experience as a Product Owner, Business Analyst or Consultant

• 4+ year's experience working in Higher Education

• Effective communication skills (written and verbal), including:

• Concisely communicate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders

• Develop widely consumed written deliverables

• Present confidently to large groups

• Take an empathetic approach by knowing your audience, and tailoring your approach accordingly 

• Proficient in Microsoft Teams, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Excel

• 2+ years' experience working in an Agile environment.

• Experience managing features though the full product lifecycle.

• Experience with Agile tools, specifically Azure Dev Ops (ADO) 

• Certified Product Owner certification

• Previous experience working in Higher Education and/or Nonprofit with a focus of recruiting, admissions, student success and advancement/alumni relations

• Experience with common Higher Education products: CRM, SIS (), LMS, HCM/ERP

• Experience with at least one of PeopleSoft, Desire2Leaern, Workday and Salesforce.

• Experience in managing large global enterprise/or institutional customer relationships. 

• Experience in working with technical and business internal stakeholders. 

• Experience in coaching and mentoring team members. 

Preferred Experience Requirements:

Education:

• Bachelor's Degree

Experience:

• Experience in enterprise application integrations and ETL's

• Experience in leading scrum teams, engaging multiple product and engineering leaders across the organization

All submissions should include a cover letter and resume.

The University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) is an equal opportunity employer and complies with all applicable federal and state laws regarding nondiscrimination. UMGC is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, religion, ancestry, political affiliation or veteran status in employment, educational programs and activities, and admissions.

Workplace Accommodations:

The University of Maryland Global Campus Global Campus (UMGC) is committed to creating and maintaining a welcoming and inclusive working environment for people of all abilities. UMGC is dedicated to the principle that no qualified individual with a disability shall, based on disability, be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of the services, programs, or activities of the University, or be subjected to discrimination. For information about UMGC's Reasonable Workplace Accommodation Policy or to request an accommodation, applicants/candidates can contact Employee Accommodations via email at employee-accommodations@umgc.edu. 

Benefits Package Highlights:

• Generous Time Off: Enjoy 22 days of paid vacation, 15 days of sick leave, 3 personal days, and 15 paid holidays (16 during general election years). For part-time employees, time off rates will be prorated based on the number of hours worked.
• Comprehensive Health Coverage: Access to health care, medical with vision, dental, and prescription plans for both individuals and families, effective from the 1st of the month following your hire date.
• Insurance Options: Term Life Insurance, Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance, and Long-Term Disability (LTD) Insurance. Part-time employees working less than 0.5 FTE are not eligible for LTD.
• Flexible Spending Accounts: Available for medical and dependent care expenses.
• Retirement Plans: Choose between the Optional Retirement Program (ORP) or the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System (MSRPS).
• Supplemental Retirement Plans: include 401(k), 403(b), 457(b), and various Roth options. The university does not provide matching funds.
• Tuition Remission: Immediate availability for Regular Exempt Staff. Spouses and dependent children are eligible for undergraduate tuition remission after two years of service. NOTE: For part-time employees (at least 50 percent of the time), tuition remission benefits are prorated.

Hiring Range:

$118,000.00 - $128,700.00