Product Owner - FACTS Financial Aid

Nelnet•Lincoln, NE

11d•$85,000 - $90,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Product Owner coordinates product development, release planning, and manages the overall successful delivery of new and existing products. This position supports FACTS Financial Aid, working with financial aid stakeholders (the schools and administrators who assess and award aid, the families who apply for it, and the internal teams who support the process) to translate their needs into product solutions. This position focuses on developing skills and abilities under the guidance of both management and experienced members of the product team.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.
1+ years related experience or existing product knowledge.
Ability to prioritize and manage multiple concurrent projects.
Flexibility to adapt quickly to new requirements, situations, programs, and services.
Ability to read and interpret technical specifications and business rules and translate them into clear requirements for development teams.
Comfort working with data, including understanding data elements, relationships, and validation concepts, without needing to be a developer.
Ability to analyze manual, document-heavy workflows and identify opportunities to streamline and automate them, reducing effort for client support teams and administrators.
Ability to communicate effectively with both technical audiences (developers, data teams) and non-technical audiences (school administrators, families, support and delivery teams).
Strong attention to detail and comfort operating under externally imposed, non-negotiable deadlines.
Strong customer focus.
Ability to be a team player.
Good time management and organizational skills.
Strong written and oral communication skills.
Strong problem solving skills.
Demonstrated respect, collaboration, and pride in ownership and accountability.
Focus on delivering value.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with financial aid, tuition management, or K-12 school operations preferred.
Exposure to structured or financial data, or to data exchange (APIs, file-based submissions, data schemas), preferred.

Responsibilities

Works very closely with agile development teams to create use cases, requirements, estimates, and low-fidelity prototypes in support of company objectives.
Serves as a liaison across FACTS Financial Aid stakeholders, including schools and administrators, families and applicants, state programs and scholarship granting organizations (SGOs), and internal and external delivery teams. Gathers, prioritizes, and translates their needs into actionable requirements and user stories.
Intakes and probes stakeholder feedback, looking past the stated problem to uncover the deeper, often unspoken need beneath it, and shapes solutions that solve the real problem.
Creates, modifies, and validates UX mockups and functional prototypes with internal and external stakeholders, using their feedback to shape the product.
Develops working familiarity with the data and technical specifications behind financial aid workflows, and partners with engineering and data teams on requirements, validation rules, and how information moves through the product.
Documents release notes and manages the analytics behind the customer's journey through products.
Works with development teams to ensure solutions meet market expectations.
Works with sales, technical sales, marketing and product management to provide content for sales, user training and documentation tools.
Ensures client documentation is updated and effective including release notes and roadmaps.
Works with clients directly and manages client feedback to ensure voice of the customer is heard and felt in each product.