Senior Product Owner - IT Specialist V

State of Vermont•Waterbury, VT

7d•Hybrid

About The Position

We have an exciting opportunity for someone with strong skills in the areas of Agile Product Ownership, Business Analysis, and as Scrum Master to play a key role in supporting initiatives and services that improve health outcomes for Vermonters. As a member of the Agency of Digital Services (ADS) team assigned to the Vermont Department of Health (VDH), you will work with public health professionals and other ADS staff to develop or procure and maintain systems critical to the work of protecting and improving the health of Vermonters. This includes in-house and vendor-supported systems that address needs ranging from facilitating response and reporting related to outbreaks of infectious diseases, to collecting and facilitating access to documentation of Vermont births and deaths, to developing a modern data lake that supports analysis, planning, and reporting of data across the many programs of the Department of Health. As the primary liaison to multiple program areas within VDH, you will develop and maintain expert level knowledge of the business and the specific IT systems that support it. You will apply this knowledge to planning and managing projects, ongoing maintenance of systems, product lifecycle decisions, and planning solutions to support the program area in the future. A key responsibility of this position is to establish the vision for the products that support the area of business for which you are responsible and to ensure this is reflected on all levels of planning. This includes eliciting and confirming requirements for a product, as well as engaging with the development team to create and document design strategies. It also includes producing and updating deliverables that reflect and communicate this vision such as Context, Workflow, and Entity Relationship Diagrams, Product Roadmaps, and Product, Release and Sprint backlogs. When vendor-provided solutions are the most appropriate strategy, you will facilitate the development of RFPs and contracts to procure these systems, including eliciting functional requirements and ensuring input from other specialties within ADS. For systems developed in-house, you will lead teams in the roles of both Product Owner and Scrum Master, managing the backlog for both new products or features and ongoing maintenance and operations support. You will also facilitate release, sprint, and daily planning, product reviews, and team retrospectives. In all cases, you will be sure that regular security checks, version updates, user audits, and other key maintenance tasks are included in the backlog and acted upon throughout the life of the product. You will also be responsible for producing and maintaining feature level documentation such as data element specifications, use cases, report specifications, and business rules throughout the life of a system. You will be responsible for ensuring quality assurance testing based upon this documentation occurs both during initial development and during any future enhancements. This position is in Waterbury, VT. While regular (weekly) onsite work should be expected, a mixed telework/onsite schedule may be available upon approval by supervisor. A fingerprint-supported background check may be required based on the assigned job duties and location.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in computer science AND three (3) or more years of experience in computer or network support, programming or analysis, or database administration.
Associate's degree in computer science or college-level coursework that includes 15 computer science credits AND five (5) or more years of experience in computer or network support, programming or analysis, or database administration.
Eight (8) or more years of experience in computer or network support, programming or analysis, or database administration.
Strong skills in Agile Product Ownership, Business Analysis, and Scrum Master.

Responsibilities

Establish the vision for the products that support the area of business for which you are responsible and ensure this is reflected on all levels of planning.
Elicit and confirm requirements for a product.
Engage with the development team to create and document design strategies.
Produce and update deliverables that reflect and communicate this vision such as Context, Workflow, and Entity Relationship Diagrams, Product Roadmaps, and Product, Release and Sprint backlogs.
Facilitate the development of RFPs and contracts to procure systems when vendor-provided solutions are the most appropriate strategy, including eliciting functional requirements and ensuring input from other specialties within ADS.
Lead teams in the roles of both Product Owner and Scrum Master for systems developed in-house, managing the backlog for both new products or features and ongoing maintenance and operations support.
Facilitate release, sprint, and daily planning, product reviews, and team retrospectives.
Ensure regular security checks, version updates, user audits, and other key maintenance tasks are included in the backlog and acted upon throughout the life of the product.
Produce and maintain feature level documentation such as data element specifications, use cases, report specifications, and business rules throughout the life of a system.
Ensure quality assurance testing based upon this documentation occurs both during initial development and during any future enhancements.