Product Owner (IGEN)

U.S. Venture, Inc.•Appleton, WI

9d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Product Owner is an individual contributor role within IGEN’s Technology organization, working in close partnership with the VP of Product and the Scrum development team. This role is the primary decision-making authority for the product backlog of one or more of IGEN’s critical products. The Product Owner translates client needs, compliance requirements, and strategic priorities into precise, engineering-ready work items, ensuring the development team has clear, well-defined work and that every sprint delivers measurable value toward IGEN’s product and compliance goals. IGEN operates multiple Product Owner roles, each assigned ownership of one or more critical products or product areas. Product and domain assignments are determined by the Chief Technologist based on business priorities and candidate strengths. Boundaries of ownership and decision authority are formally documented in the PM/PO operating model. The ideal location for this role is on-site in Appleton, WI for 4 days per week (Monday - Thursday). Hybrid candidates in other areas of Wisconsin with a schedule of 1-2 days per week on-site in Appleton may be considered.

Requirements

2-4 years of experience in a product ownership, business analysis, or product management role in a software development environment.
Demonstrated experience owning and maintaining a product backlog in an Agile/Scrum environment — writing user stories, acceptance criteria, and managing sprint-level prioritization.
Strong analytical and communication skills — able to synthesize complex requirements into clear, precise, engineering-ready specifications.
Experience participating in Scrum ceremonies as an active contributor — sprint planning, backlog refinement, sprint review, and retrospective.
Ability to make confident, well-reasoned product decisions independently — serving as the daily authority for assigned products without requiring escalation for routine questions.
Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO I) or Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) certification required — or commitment to obtain within 90 days of start date.
Bachelor’s degree in Business, Information Systems, Computer Science, or a related field — or equivalent professional experience.

Nice To Haves

Experience in product management or product design — familiarity with product discovery, user research, journey mapping, or design thinking approaches that inform how features are conceived and prioritized before they enter the backlog.
Exposure to product design principles and UX thinking — ability to evaluate wireframes, participate in design reviews, and contribute to decisions about how features are presented and experienced by end users.
Experience working in a product organization that is formalizing or maturing its product ownership practices — comfort operating in a role that is being defined and established alongside daily delivery.
Acceptance criteria writing experience using structured formats such as Given/When/Then (BDD) or equivalent testable specification standards.
Familiarity with data and reporting requirements — ability to contribute to KPI definitions and evaluate whether analytics outputs accurately reflect product behavior.
Experience working alongside a Scrum Master and Engineering team in a delivery-focused Scrum organization — understanding of how the PO role interfaces with the Scrum framework in practice.
Experience working with Azure DevOps or Atlassian Jira for backlog management, sprint planning, and work item tracking in an Agile delivery environment.
PSPO-AI Essentials (Professional Scrum Product Owner AI Essentials, Scrum.org) — certification for Product Owners working in AI-enabled product environments; aligned with IGEN’s technology transformation direction and GenAI tooling roadmap.

Responsibilities

Own, maintain, and continuously prioritize the product backlog for assigned IGEN products — ensuring the backlog is groomed, sequenced, and at least three sprints ahead at all times.
Write clear, testable acceptance criteria for every user story before it enters a sprint — using structured formats (Given/When/Then or equivalent) that leave no ambiguity for the engineering team.
Make all product-level decisions for assigned products during the sprint — serving as the daily decision authority so engineers are never blocked waiting for direction.
Accept or reject completed work at sprint review based on whether it meets the agreed acceptance criteria — maintaining the quality standard for what “done” means.
Lead backlog refinement sessions — collaborating with engineers, the Software Architect, and the Chief Technologist to decompose epics into well-sized, clearly scoped stories.
Participate actively in all Scrum ceremonies — sprint planning, daily standups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives — as a full member of the Scrum team.
Partner with the Scrum Master to maintain sprint health — flagging scope changes, surfacing impediments early, and protecting the team’s ability to meet sprint goals.
Ensure the Definition of Done is understood, applied consistently, and evolves as the team matures.
Develop and maintain deep expertise in the software development process — understanding how product decisions translate into engineering work, how to write requirements that are unambiguous and buildable, and how to partner effectively with architects, engineers, and QA throughout the delivery lifecycle.
Translate complex compliance requirements into engineering specifications that are accurate, testable, and implementation-ready — bridging the gap between regulatory intent and software behavior.
Apply best practices in product delivery — including story mapping, incremental value delivery, hypothesis-driven development, and continuous feedback loops — to ensure that every sprint produces working software that advances the product toward its goals.
Develop a working understanding of IGEN’s product areas — learning the workflows, client expectations, and business logic that define how the platform operates — and use that understanding to make well-informed, confident product decisions without requiring subject matter escalation for day-to-day questions.
Collaborate with the Chief Technologist and VP of Product on the product roadmap — providing product-level input on feasibility, sequencing, and trade-offs that inform strategic prioritization decisions.
Represent the voice of the client and the needs of the product in all decisions for assigned products — grounding backlog choices in real user value, client feedback, and business outcomes rather than technical preference or internal assumptions.
Communicate sprint outcomes and backlog priorities to business stakeholders clearly — translating technical delivery into business language that non-engineering audiences can evaluate and act on.
Partner with the Director, Data & Analytics on KPI definitions and data product requirements for assigned products — ensuring analytics outputs reflect actual platform behavior.
Operate within and help establish IGEN’s PM/PO operating model — including the backlog governance framework, product ownership boundary documentation, and decision authority standards being introduced as part of the FY2027 transformation.
Contribute to the continuous improvement of product delivery practices at IGEN — bringing retrospective insights, tooling improvements, and process refinements that make the team more effective over time.
Maintain clear documentation of product ownership scope, active decisions, and backlog rationale — ensuring continuity and institutional knowledge as the product organization matures.
Live our values of High Performance, Caring Relationships, Strategic Foresight, and Entrepreneurial Spirit.
Find A Better Way by championing continuous improvement and quality control efforts to identify opportunities to innovate and improve efficiency, accuracy, and standardization.
Continuously learn and develop self professionally.
Support corporate efforts for safety, government compliance, and all other company policies and procedures.
Perform other related duties as required and assigned.