Senior Product Owner, Finance & Accounting

Equity Residential • Chicago, IL

15d • $169,000 - $20,600 • Hybrid

About The Position

At Equity Residential, we are embarking on an exciting transformation journey to revolutionize our technology capabilities to drive operational excellence and fuel digital innovation across our company. Our Product Owners serve pivotal roles in shaping this future, acting as the dynamic force to ensure we are meeting our evolving business needs and delivering groundbreaking value. As visionary leaders, Product Owners are responsible for the entire lifecycle of applications and platforms for their business teams, driving strategic innovation, architectural breakthroughs, and operational excellence. Product Owners serve as the essential link between technology and business, championing bold execution, igniting innovation, and spearheading digital evolution across their spheres. Fueled by Agile principles, they bring a collaborative and solutions-driven spirit to every endeavor, pursuing continuous improvement, forging powerful cross-functional alliances, and cultivating a vibrant culture of innovation, agility, and operational excellence. Please Note: This role is a hybrid opportunity. WHO YOU ARE: A Strong Leader: You effectively lead cross-functional teams, providing clear direction to help both direct and indirect team members achieve goals and collaborate cohesively. Intellectually Curious: You are driven by a natural curiosity, always seeking to understand the "why" behind challenges in order to uncover unconventional solutions. Detail-Oriented and Process-Focused: You excel at enhancing and enforcing control processes to ensure operational efficiency and consistency. A Trusted Team Player: You thrive in collaborative environments, building constructive relationships that foster teamwork and deliver outstanding results. You take ownership of your commitments and hold yourself accountable to your colleagues. Organized and Composed: You are adaptable, confident, and able to prioritize multiple tasks and deadlines while maintaining composure in high-pressure situations, interacting seamlessly with individuals at all levels of the organization. A Strong Communicator: You are articulate, persuasive, and effective in both verbal and written communication, enabling you to connect with and influence others with ease. WHAT YOU’LL DO:

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in related field or equivalent work experience required.
• 10+ years of experience in technology project management or similar IT management roles.
• 8+ years of experience in Program or Product Management with experience working across cross-functional teams and managing project timelines and deliverables to successful completion.
• Proven work experience with Agile methodologies and tools, with a demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects and adapt to changing priorities in large, complex organizations.
• Influential change agent that can influence across all levels of organization to achieve needed outcomes.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to create clear and concise documentation.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills and abilities with experience developing innovative solutions and making data-driven decisions.
• Demonstrated ability to identify, assess, and mitigate risks associated with projects for assigned business area(s) to ensure they remain on track and within scope.
• Capable people manager with a track record of leading high performing teams and growing individuals.
• Extensive experience in managing large-scale ERP and finance systems replacements and implementations.
• In-depth knowledge of industry-standard ERP and finance software solutions such as SAP, Oracle, Workday, NetSuite.
• Strong understanding of key finance and accounting processes, including general ledger, accounts payable, procurement, accounts receivable, financial reporting, and budgeting.
• Experience with data migration and system integration in complex ERP/finance system implementations.
• Proven results leveraging AI and/or financial automation solutions to improve financial processing and overall company performance, leveraging Blackline or similar solutions.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with leading BI and reporting tools preferred, such as PowerBI.
• Real estate specific finance and accounting expertise is a plus.
• Expertise in multi-family leading property management software (MRI, Yardi, or similar) is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Collaborates, influences and partners with leadership across all Finance related & Accounting teams to align business strategy, technology priorities and roadmap, both near and long-term.
• Serves as hybrid team member, effectively positioned in both IT and with their assigned team(s) as a key technical and business domain team member.
• Leads ERP/finance system replacements, manages full lifecycle implementations, develops expertise in relevant software platforms, and collaborates with finance teams to understand and document key financial processes.
• Develop and maintain expertise in real estate specific and industry-standard ERP, finance, treasury management and other related software platforms (e.g., MRI, Oracle, Blackline, Quantum).
• Serves as the ultimate single-point-of-contact and/or escalation point to major technology related priorities for the assigned business area(s).
• Helps to navigate questions or concerns for assigned business area(s) across IT domains (including applications, infrastructure, hardware, etc.) and implements continuous improvements for the applications and end-to-end technology platforms.
• Delivers on the technology roadmap.
• Executes on projects.
• Accountable for project charter, deliverables, and overall project delivery and success and communicate key milestones and metrics to all stakeholders
• Drives innovation, stays current on industry trends, and researches and pilots new technologies.
• Owns the application suite for assigned business areas, key business, and vendor relationships; develops RFPs and negotiates contracts.
• Has budget accountability for technology operating costs and projects (capital and operating) within assigned business area(s).
• Serves as a technical expert on important regulations that impact the Product Owner’s assigned business area(s) and that may also relate to broader compliance implications in the multifamily industry or for the company.
• Manages (either directly or indirectly) the team responsible for delivery of technology capabilities, including project team members and development resources.
• Oversees project work, ongoing product configurations, and setup.
• Coordinates support with IT application operations and services teams.
• Ensures compliance with cybersecurity requirements, manages third-party vendor risk, and adheres to corporate IT standards for projects, governance, architecture, security, and infrastructure.
• Influences external software vendor features and roadmap.
• External influencer.
• Advocate for our needs and build strong relationships with our software partners and vendors to improve performance and generate maximum value
• Represents the Company in a professional manner at all times.
• Consistently maintains a professional courteous attitude when dealing with residents, coworkers and the general public.
• Performs other duties as necessary.

Benefits

• in addition to base salary, a discretionary annual bonus & LTC is provided.
• Physical Wellbeing: Medical, dental, vision care and wellness programs
• Social Wellbeing: Paid holidays, annual vacation time, paid sick leave, new parent benefits, adoption assistance
• Financial Wellbeing: Competitive Compensation, 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan, Rent Discounts, FSA/HSA, and company-paid life & disability insurance
• Community Wellbeing: Paid Community Service Hours
• Career Wellbeing: Leadership Development, Tuition Assistance

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees