Technical Product Owner/ Engineer

Guardian Life Insurance•Holmdel Township, NJ

About The Position

Technical Product Owner/ Engineer Description The Technical Product Owner/ Engineer supports strategic modernization initiatives within the Financial Protection and Retirement Services Technology organization. The role partners closely with engineering teams to translate business needs into clear technical specifications, features, and system designs. This individual contributes hands‑on to technical discussions, solution design, and implementation support to ensure high-quality delivery. This individual collaborates with product managers, business partners, and cross‑functional technical teams to shape technical solution. Strong knowledge of Agile is required to manage the backlog and drive iterative development. The individual will be deeply involved in hands-on technical activities such as development, supporting design decisions, creating technical requirements, and ensuring high‑quality implementation. You Are A self-starter, continuous learner and hands-on technical engineer who can translate vision from the Platform / Product D&T leader into development by partnering across the engineers, product managers, business partners and executive stakeholders. You Will Lead the efforts of development team(s) consisting of resources spread across multiple time zones and countries. Work with offshore counterparts to coordinate completion of all team assignments, ensuring deadlines and milestones are met. Work with the development team(s) to ensure consistent software architecture and coding practices are used in all applications. Look for opportunities to create shared code modules to use across applications. Take a leadership and mentoring role when working with less experienced staff, always raising the bar of technical expertise within the organization. Inform project stakeholders on progress and potential problems that jeopardize deadlines and milestones. Make recommendations and modifications; remove obstacles. Help define roles and responsibilities within the development team. Be agile and flexible, shifting resources to align with changing priorities. As a Technical Product Owner/Engineer in a Product Operating Model: Partner closely with the Product Manager to shape and execute the product vision, roadmap, and prioritization based on customer and business value. Co-own backlog refinement by defining, writing, and prioritizing technical stories, spikes, and enablers; write clear Jira stories with acceptance criteria that reflect functional and technical needs. Align technical solutions with product strategy, long-term architecture, and non-functional requirements (security, performance, scalability, reliability). Drive an outcome-focused delivery approach using measurable objectives (e.g., OKRs) and product health metrics (e.g., reliability, cycle time, defect trends). Work with Business Product Owners and Agile Coaches on feasibility analysis, cost, and resource projections; facilitate architects and teams to generate technical design plans; ensure product specifications and quality standards are met. Operate across the full product lifecycle (build → release → run → improve): Collaborate with Production Support and Product teams to ensure seamless transition of features into production, maintain comprehensive documentation, and provide support for critical incidents as part of the product lifecycle. Establish and monitor product SLIs/SLOs, error budgets, and observability practices; use telemetry and customer feedback to inform prioritization and continuous improvement. Work with architects to determine the best technical solutions and applications for overall use in company products. Provide technical consultation to executive staff in determining competitive strategies. Lead implementation efforts for new applications and code updates. Work with enterprise and shared service teams on infrastructure setup, review board approvals, and deployment coordination. Stay abreast of new technology trends and advantages. Make recommendations for the direction of new and existing products. Define application roadmaps, including a strategy for minimizing technical debt and advancing modernization. Review and approve coding and documentation, user manuals, testing documentation, and procedures for existing and future applications. Ensure compliance with security, privacy, legal, infrastructure, and administrative/corporate processes and policies. Work with Production Support and other Shared Services teams in support of our products and customers.

Requirements

self-starter
continuous learner
hands-on technical engineer
translate vision from the Platform / Product D&T leader into development by partnering across the engineers, product managers, business partners and executive stakeholders
Strong knowledge of Agile

Responsibilities

Lead the efforts of development team(s) consisting of resources spread across multiple time zones and countries.
Work with offshore counterparts to coordinate completion of all team assignments, ensuring deadlines and milestones are met.
Work with the development team(s) to ensure consistent software architecture and coding practices are used in all applications.
Look for opportunities to create shared code modules to use across applications.
Take a leadership and mentoring role when working with less experienced staff, always raising the bar of technical expertise within the organization.
Inform project stakeholders on progress and potential problems that jeopardize deadlines and milestones.
Make recommendations and modifications; remove obstacles.
Help define roles and responsibilities within the development team.
Be agile and flexible, shifting resources to align with changing priorities.
Partner closely with the Product Manager to shape and execute the product vision, roadmap, and prioritization based on customer and business value.
Co-own backlog refinement by defining, writing, and prioritizing technical stories, spikes, and enablers; write clear Jira stories with acceptance criteria that reflect functional and technical needs.
Align technical solutions with product strategy, long-term architecture, and non-functional requirements (security, performance, scalability, reliability).
Drive an outcome-focused delivery approach using measurable objectives (e.g., OKRs) and product health metrics (e.g., reliability, cycle time, defect trends).
Work with Business Product Owners and Agile Coaches on feasibility analysis, cost, and resource projections; facilitate architects and teams to generate technical design plans; ensure product specifications and quality standards are met.
Operate across the full product lifecycle (build → release → run → improve): Collaborate with Production Support and Product teams to ensure seamless transition of features into production, maintain comprehensive documentation, and provide support for critical incidents as part of the product lifecycle.
Establish and monitor product SLIs/SLOs, error budgets, and observability practices; use telemetry and customer feedback to inform prioritization and continuous improvement.
Work with architects to determine the best technical solutions and applications for overall use in company products.
Provide technical consultation to executive staff in determining competitive strategies.
Lead implementation efforts for new applications and code updates.
Work with enterprise and shared service teams on infrastructure setup, review board approvals, and deployment coordination.
Stay abreast of new technology trends and advantages.
Make recommendations for the direction of new and existing products.
Define application roadmaps, including a strategy for minimizing technical debt and advancing modernization.
Review and approve coding and documentation, user manuals, testing documentation, and procedures for existing and future applications.
Ensure compliance with security, privacy, legal, infrastructure, and administrative/corporate processes and policies.
Work with Production Support and other Shared Services teams in support of our products and customers.