Product Owner

Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois • Springfield, IL

4d • $86,257 - $134,561 • Onsite

About The Position

The Product Owner is the voice of the business, representing internal stakeholders and delivering maximum value. This role involves creating, prioritizing, managing, and executing the product backlog, collaborating cross-functionally to focus development teams on a clear product vision, goals, and delivery. The Product Owner possesses deep customer knowledge and the ability to translate strategic intent into detailed requirements like user stories, feature specifications, and acceptance criteria. They ensure stakeholders and team members understand current functionality, its value, and future product goals. The Product Owner drives product value through agile ceremonies (sprint planning, backlog refinement, daily stand-ups, demos, retrospectives) and may serve on IT audit and compliance committees, acting as a voting member of the Change Advisory Board (CAB). This role also involves mentoring team members on production support, serving as an escalation point, and participating in new software project initiatives. A working knowledge of Agile Principles and preferably Scrum Methodology is expected, along with skilled interaction with agile teams and business stakeholders. Key characteristics include openness to new ideas, positive interactions, ownership, acting in the team's interest, multitasking in a fast-paced environment, communicating technical ideas in business terms, strong communication skills, emotional intelligence, humility, drive, and self-direction.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in business, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field; or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• 2+ years of experience as a Product Owner, or 3+ years as a Business Analyst, or similar role within an Agile environment.
• Solid understanding of Agile frameworks (Scrum, Kanban) and Product Management principles.
• Proven ability to translate business needs into clear, actionable user stories, acceptance criteria, and product backlog items.
• Experience working with cross-functional teams, including developers, QA, and stakeholders.
• Strong prioritization, organization, and decision-making skills.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and interpersonal skills.
• Proficiency with Agile project management tools (e.g., Jira, Azure DevOps, etc).

Nice To Haves

• Relevant Agile/Product Owner certifications such as Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner (A-CSPO), or Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO)
• Background in user experience (UX) design principles or customer journey mapping.
• Experience in data-driven decision-making and product analytics.
• Familiarity with API-driven product development or technical integrations.

Responsibilities

• Proactively supports stakeholders by providing solutions to system application needs.
• Educates team members, stakeholders, and leaders on core product foundations, software development lifecycle (SDLC) practices, feature functionality, business processes, and product goals.
• Stays updated with legislative changes and conducts job shadowing to ensure business value and alignment with the product vision.
• Collaborates with the leadership team to establish product vision and create roadmaps.
• Participates in IT audit and compliance committees, including reviewing policies, procedures, and risk assessments.
• Presents product changes to CAB and may serve as a voting member.
• Develops deep functional product knowledge to assess business value of requested changes based on ROI, risk, time criticality, and effort.
• Performs data-driven analytical research using tools like PowerBI and SQL to provide insights and recommendations for product design, scope definition, and prioritization.
• Conducts in-depth analysis of software code and/or data to identify root causes of production incidents and informs stakeholders of resolution outcomes.
• Assists with documenting product initiatives and defining scope.
• Prioritizes the product backlog based on initiatives.
• Plans release cycles in line with the product roadmap, highlighting and managing risks and constraints.
• Empowers decision-making based on current information and keeps stakeholders informed through various communication channels, including progress reports and demos.
• Coordinates with product delivery teams and design colleagues to ensure timely and quality delivery of product enhancements and maintenance.
• Identifies, creates, and maintains mapping documents for business processes.
• Acts as the voice of the end-users, ensuring IT understands and meets user needs.
• Synchronizes with other Product Owners to ensure new work is backlog and prioritized appropriately.
• Works with System Architecture/Engineering to understand database structures, define standards, maintain data dictionaries, and communicate these to end users.
• Creates and modifies UI/UX designs representing user requirements, data structure, and product design standards.

Benefits

• Medical coverage
• Dental coverage
• Vision coverage
• TRS retirement pension plan
• Option to contribute to additional State of Illinois deferred compensation plans

What This Job Offers

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