Details
Posted: 01-Jul-22
Location: Los Angeles, California
Salary: Open
Internal Number: REQ20119053
The University of Southern Californiaâs Information Technology Services (ITS) is seeking a talented Product Owner with an exceptional commitment to service excellence to join its team. As the Product Owner, you will be an integral member of the Business Development team, collaborating with diverse and talented team members to help solve multidimensional information technology problems, improve customer experience, and generate value for our campus stakeholders across a broad base of departments and constituencies.
THE TEAM
ITS has embarked on a major digital transformation initiative to continually improve services for faculty, staff, and students in support of USCâs ascent as a leading institution of higher education. The ITS vision aligns strategy, business, and services; affirms ITS cultural values; empowers cross-functional teamwork; embraces world-class best practices; and promotes innovation, excellence, agility, and efficiency. To achieve this vision, ITS is committed to providing a modern technology infrastructure that is resilient and delivers the performance necessary to meet the demands of a growing customer base, training in the latest technologies for its highly productive and motivated workforce, outstanding customer experience, and technology services that are aligned with the universityâs mission to provide exceptional learning opportunities for students. ITS is creating a workplace where employees can develop cutting- edge skills, take pride in the services they provide, and have access to the roles and career paths that align to their abilities and potential.
We are looking for top talent to join us on our journey.
ITS CULTURE
USCâs ITS organization represents a diverse and talented team, committed to supporting a collaborative culture and delivering secure and innovative IT services, core to the mission of USC. ITS values accountability, excellence, and commitment to exceptional customer experience. ITS strives for a supportive and inclusive culture that encourages employees to do their best work every day and where individuals are recognized and celebrated for their contributions.
ABOUT USC
USC is the leading private research university in Los Angelesâa global center for arts, technology, and international business. With more than 47,500 students, we are located primarily in Los Angeles but also in various US and global satellite locations. As the largest private employer in Los Angeles, responsible for $8 billion annually in economic activity in the region, we offer the opportunity to work in a dynamic and diverse environment, in careers that span a broad spectrum of talents and skills across a variety of academic and professional schools and administrative units. As a USC employee and member of the Trojan Familyâthe faculty, staff, students, and alumni who make USC a great place to workâyou will enjoy excellent benefits, including a variety of well-being programs designed to help individuals achieve work-life balance.
Come join the ITS team and work as a trusted partner in shaping an environment of innovation and excellence for the university.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
The candidate for the position of Product Owner must meet the following qualifications:
- Bachelorâs Degree
- Minimum 5 years in information technology, product management, product development, consulting, or another relevant role.
- Proven experience establishing strong working relationships with diverse groups of team members and clients.
- Experience designing user-centered products that produce measurable results against documented problem statements.
- Proven record of defining and delivering end-to-end, user-centered products considering user research, market analysis, data, customer feedback, and both technical opportunities and constraints.
- Experience working in project-based environments using Lean and Agile methodologies and developing and maintaining product roadmaps.
- Excellent written and oral communication skills, with experience presenting technical topics to non-technical audiences.
- Experience authoring detailed functional specifications to drive effective technical solutions, with demonstrated analytical, organizational, project planning, and product strategy skills.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
The ideal candidate for the position of Product Owner has the following qualifications:
- Minimum 8 years in information technology, product management, product development, consulting, or another relevant role.
- Demonstrated knowledge of scrum or agile process development, and direct, hands-on experience with release management teams and processes.
- Experience in higher education or product ownership.
- Experience working with and supporting Workday especially HCM and Payroll
THE WORK YOU WILL DO
As the Product Owner, you are responsible for prioritizing delivery plans, developing acceptance criteria, and facilitating continuous improvement to support the growth of operational effectiveness. You work closely with the cross-functional delivery teams to ensure products meet business and user requirements, and with product managers and business stakeholders to iterate on and improve the product over time.
Job Accountabilities
- Enables the delivery team to deliver excellence in new products and iterations to existing products, by creating and maintaining the product backlog. Prioritizes multiple incoming requests and user feedback against the product strategy and roadmap, fostering ROI and trade-off conversations with the business.
- Ensures sound product decisions are made by evaluating product capabilities, features, and functionality and by thoroughly understanding and defining the needs of a broad range of campus users and stakeholders by leveraging user research. Helps translate business objectives and stakeholder needs into user stories and defines acceptance criteria for the product team.
- Owns implementations and drives the timely development and delivery of reliable solutions to business requirements and user needs by managing supporting timelines and planning and directing activities. Remediates risks and challenges by monitoring the delivery process, identifying warning signs, and providing a decisive response.
- Communicate vision, opportunities, and strategies to support product decision-making, and measure success. Utilizes best practices regarding customer research, competitive analysis, and stakeholder goals. Maintains balance between user needs, business goals, and technical realities for diverse audiences.
- Defines product strategy, processes, and approaches to deliver a broad range of USC products. Participates in research to gain insights into user pain points, challenges, and needs, and builds and delivers solutions that meet new requirements and expectations.
- Supports continuous improvement, effective troubleshooting, and problem-solving, utilizing the latest industry technology and knowledge. Works collaboratively with designers, researchers, developers, business analysts, and other key stakeholders to deliver engaging experiences. Develops skills and abilities on an ongoing basis, maintaining currency on emerging technologies and product-strategy approaches.
- Authors' compliance and business requirements through complex, advanced analysis of products. Collaborates with stakeholders and vendors to identify and prioritize roadmap elements and build consensus on product solutions. Coordinates with business, data, and IT architects, aligning product and platform architectures and capabilities according to agreed goals for requirements.
- Aids the cultivation of an inclusive environment and a culture of trust and transparency, sharing information broadly, openly, and deliberately. Builds and maintains collaborative relationships with diverse team members, peers, and leaders. Actively embodies ITS values and behaviors (e.g., accountability, ethics, best-in-class customer service).
- Collaborates with team members and management, implementing effective solutions to support the ITS product strategy and design vision. Maintains currency with technology, standards, and best practices. Supports process improvement efforts within the team and across the ITS organization. Performs other related duties as assigned or requested. The university reserves the right to add or change duties at any time.
Come join the USC ITS team and work as a trusted partner in shaping an environment of innovation and excellence.
Minimum Education: Bachelor's degree, Combined experience/education as substitute for minimum education Minimum Experience: 5 years Minimum Field of Expertise: Proven experience establishing strong working relationships with diverse groups of team members and clients. Experience designing user-centered products that produce measurable results against documented problem statements. Proven record of defining and delivering end-to-end, user-centered products considering user research, market analysis, data, customer feedback, and both technical opportunities and constraints. Experience working in project-based environments using Lean and Agile methodologies, and developing and maintaining product roadmaps. Excellent written and oral communication skills, with experience presenting technical topics to non-technical audiences. Experience authoring detailed functional specifications to drive effective technical solutions, with demonstrated analytical, organizational, project planning and product strategy skills.
