About the position
We’re motivated by the fact that educators take care of our children’s future, and we believe they deserve someone to look after theirs. We help educators identify their financial goals and develop plans to achieve them. This includes insurance to protect what they have today and financial products to help them prepare for their future. Our tailored offerings include special rates and benefits for educators. This position is hybrid out of the Springfield, IL office. It is not a remote position. We are seeking a Product Owner Specialist II who is passionate about delivering meaningful solutions that align with both business goals and user needs. In this role, you will guide the full lifecycle of system development, from idea conception through delivery, involving stakeholders and end-users every step of the way. You will be responsible for translating strategic business vision into actionable features, prioritizing assigned process defects/enhancements to be included coordinating product roadmaps, managing the backlog and participating in production and state rollout sprint work and releases.
Responsibilities
- Carry out tasks and product initiatives from start to finish, ensuring timely and high-quality delivery.
- Translate the organization’s business vision into specific, actionable system features and drive their implementation through regular road mapping and backlog prioritization.
- Prioritizing assigned process defects/enhancements to be included in the overall prioritization planning sessions.
- Enters in all potential defects/enhancements into the tracking system and comply with defined scrum processes.
- Actively take part in sprint events, including sprint planning, backlog refinement meetings, requirement sessions, design reviews, and retrospectives.
- Identify new process enhancement and system features to improve process optimization.
- Communicate with stakeholders and end-users throughout the development process to ensure alignment and transparency.
- Actively gather input and feedback to guide system improvements and validate product direction.
- Understand end to end processing with business processes/systems.
- Evaluate the goals of the system and ensure they are met based on the design of the system - understanding requirements of business and technical nature.
- Ability to discuss the goals and vision of the process/system with the users of the system.
- Discuss and define non-functional requirements with end users and IT.
- Perform user acceptance testing as assigned.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in business or equivalent experience preferred.
- 2+ years' business experience, insurance background preferred.
- Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail.
- Pursue designations to gain knowledge about subject matter and attend training courses.
- Continuously seeks personal and professional development.
- Drives collaboration and teamwork.
- Exemplifies engagement and accountability.
- Persistently works to develop knowledge of the industry and Horace Mann business processes.
