AVP BSI Agile Product Lead

Travelers • Hartford, CT

2d

About The Position

The AVP, Agile Product Lead for Bond & Specialty Insurance (BSI) supports the software product management discipline across the business. In collaboration with business stakeholders and technology leaders, this role drives the product vision, multi-year roadmap, and operating model connecting business strategy to technology delivery. The position serves as the primary BSI business-side interface to Technology and enterprise program leaders, promoting outcome-oriented prioritization across product circles and ensuring delivery investments produce measurable business results.

The role advances modern software product management and Agile practices, develops Agile Product Owners (APOs), and helps align product governance, discovery, requirements, and delivery with a product operating model. It also leads the evolution of requirements and discovery for AI-assisted software development, setting standards for AI-generated artifacts and supporting AI adoption across backlog development, user stories, acceptance tests, and dependency analysis. The AVP contributes to OKR-based prioritization and funding, budget preparation and management, talent development, and the BSI product community of practice.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• At least seven years of experience in software product management, product ownership, or a closely related discipline.
• At least four years of people management or team leadership experience.

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field; a Master’s degree or MBA is preferred.
• Eight or more years in software product management or product ownership, with at least five years in a leadership role in a large, matrixed organization.
• Experience in a commercial lines or specialty insurance environment; familiarity with underwriting workflows, policy lifecycle, or distribution systems is a plus.
• Demonstrated experience with scaled Agile frameworks such as SAFe, LeSS, or equivalent, including OKR-based prioritization and outcome-oriented delivery across multiple concurrent product teams.
• Exceptional communication, collaboration, and influencing skills, including the ability to present complex information and interact with all levels of the organization.
• Knowledge of emerging AI tools and their application in the software product management lifecycle.

Responsibilities

• Promote modern software product management principles and practices across BSI to improve customer outcomes and achieve measurable business results, including establishing role expectations and performance standards for Agile Product Owners.
• Support and develop the product discipline by managing or matrix-managing APOs across BSI, partnering with value stream and circle leads, and ensuring APOs own their product vision, roadmap, and outcome measurement.
• Work with SP&E and technology leadership to review operating rhythms, ceremonies, and governance so the software development process supports a product operating model.
• Develop the product vision and multi-year roadmap across BSI business circles with business stakeholders, Value Stream Leaders, and the Senior Leadership Team, providing an integrated view of objectives and key results (OKRs).
• Evolve requirements and discovery practices for the AI era by establishing repeatable approaches to capture business intent, acceptance criteria, and outcome hypotheses for use by AI tooling.
• Drive adoption of AI-assisted techniques for backlog development, user story generation, acceptance test creation, and dependency analysis, while ensuring AI-generated artifacts are business-validated, traceable, and production-ready.
• Drive outcome-oriented prioritization and funding with SP&E colleagues, Value Stream Leaders, and Circle Leaders; lead budget preparation and management, including OKR definition, prioritization, and initiative scoping.
• Serve as the primary business leader interfacing with Enterprise Tech & Ops on product or business initiatives, partnering with the technology PMO on broader SDLC+ work.
• Foster a performance-based culture through coaching, mentoring, and feedback for matrixed associates.
• Execute the BSI Software Product Management community of practice with Enterprise SDLC+ leaders, defining roles, standards, and development resources.
• Build Agile product capability across BSI by identifying gaps, developing an upskilling plan, and contributing to talent strategy and career pathing for the product function.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Benefits

• Health insurance coverage for employees and eligible family members from the first day of employment.
• Dollar-for-dollar 401(k) match on contributions up to the first 5% of eligible pay, subject to an annual maximum.
• Paying it Forward Savings Program, through which Travelers makes an annual 401(k) contribution when an employee makes a payment toward student loan debt.
• Pension Plan funded 100% by Travelers.
• Minimum of 20 days of paid time off annually.
• Nine paid company holidays.
• Wellness program with tools, discounts, and resources for wellness goals and caregiving needs.
• Mental health program providing access to free professional counseling, health coaching, and other resources.
• Matching Gift and Volunteer Rewards program.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior