Senior Product Owner

A senior product owner is a passionate ambassador for the portfolio within their family. They possess a profound understanding of our customer and end user needs and have expert awareness of the insurance marketplace, they support directly the product family Lead PO (PFL) in addition to being responsible for their own area of the product array, a key role in the portfolio management within a family.

About CDL:

CDL is one of the UK’s leading insurance software houses, employing over 600 people at its campus in Stockport. It has a strong track record in the high-volume retail insurance sector. As a result, the company’s robust and innovative technologies have enabled its customers to thrive in the highly competitive UK insurance marketplace.

We've built a collaborative and creative culture where we employ agile techniques to deliver our pace-setting applications. We like to work in small, focused groups so you're always learning from people around you and you feel a part of the success of each project you are involved with.

Key Responsibilities

Communication

• As a senior product owner, they will assist with the creation of a compelling vision for their family portfolio of products and assist with developing a strategy that helps deliver on the vision, enabling software delivery teams to understand how their work enables the execution of the Product Strategy
• Communicate effectively internally for squad, business and client communication, utilising internal business communication streams wherever possible
• Offer up information to enable strategic direction to be given to the family as a whole
• Promote their family by way of communication channels used by CDL
• Contribute and promote the business Portfolio Roadmap for all CDL Products as a valued member of the team
• Assist the PFL in the creation and promotion of product roadmaps for internal and external purpose
• Assess and communicate progress towards a goal or release to their PFL
• Provide demonstrations of new ideas and features to stakeholders and sponsors
• Work as a team
• Own and communicate their backlog effectively feeding into the product family backlog
• Assist the PFL with reporting out to the business on current developments status’s
• Assist the PFL with supporting any issues that may occur during the development phase’s

Financial Ownership

• They will play a supporting role to the PFL offering up information around Budgets set by the business for development and product viability
• Assist the PFL, by way of feeding information to enable them to report out to the business all aspects of current product P&L raising concerns to the PFL lead as and when discovered
• Collect interpret and improve objective, verifiable evidence to measure the value delivered through product deliverables.
• Own drive and contribute initiatives that sit within their family

Leadership

• Take ownership and be accountable as part of a team for the work produced
• Work directly with PFL, Exec, Software engineering team BDM, CRM Agile Leads, Team Managers and Squad members, building great relationships
• Be proactive
• Show leadership skills that their peers want to follow
• Create collaborative new initiatives within their family and promote them
• Empower others around them
• Mentor and coach team PO family members
• Work with and support the PFL, BDM and CRM teams in bringing revenue into the business
• Be available and engaged

Skills Knowledge and Expertise

• Recent track record in rapid delivery of ideas and innovations to market in an Agile / Lean Start-up environment
• Entrepreneurial spirit and excellent knowledge and experience in stakeholder involvement, customer engagement, servant leadership, situational awareness
• Knowledge of numerous well documented patterns and techniques for effective product backlog management and product planning in an agile environment.
• Experience of working in an Agile environment with an understanding of the Scrum framework
• Appreciation of self-organisation and experience in getting the work done without coercion, assigning, or dictating the work
• Track record of continued and recent education in Product Ownership, Scrum, through training, conferences, user groups, self-study
• Excellent Communication skills
• Leadership and motivational skills
• Innovate and communicate internally and externally effectively
• Be able to listen and learn

Required Qualifications:

• First level Scrum Product Owner certification (PSPO I, CSPO)
• Second or Third level Product Owner certification (PSPO II, PSPO III)
• Degree level education or equivalent experience
• Experience being a Product Owner in a scaled Scrum environment

Preferred Skills/Experience:

• Knowledge and/or experience with widely successful Agile and Lean techniques: Impact mapping, Customer segmentation and Customer journey mapping, Story mapping, Business Model Canvas, Empathy mapping, Value proposition canvas, etc.
• Considerable experience of the Insurance Industry business practice and Insurance trends

Benefits

• Remote working – occasional requirements to attend the office
• Flexible hours
• 25 days holiday to start, increasing by 1 day per 1 year of service up to 30 days.
• Top employer for 6th year running
• Excellent training and development platform
• Opportunities for career progression
• Health and Wellbeing programme
• Virtual activities, lunch and learns, coffee mornings and meetups.
• Life and health assurance
• Established Recognition Award System
• Great Maternity / Paternity Benefits
• Diversity and Inclusion network 
• Pension scheme
• Community projects and volunteer days 
• Refer a friend bonus 

Campus Benefits:

• On-site free parking
• Open plan modern offices
• Shuttle bus to and from the station
• Subsidised restaurant
• Games room and chill out zone
• Annual Hackathon Events
• Social activities, regular social events through our social group Xtra, including a summer BBQ, competitions, bowling, go-karting, football games, Winter party and much more!
• Car wash, barber, yoga classes, boot camp and massage services all on site
• Cycle to work scheme
• Shower and dry rooms