Technical Product Owner

Client - Major Financial Firm
Duration - 6 + Months (potential for extension)
Location - Long Island City, NY 11101
Rate - $57.69/hr on W2 (OT past 40 hours = $86.54/hr)

Job Description:

The Services team for client's FinTech department drives our overall product offering. This team is the unifying force behind our product strategy, construction and delivery across those five client-need pillars of Borrow, Spend, Save, Invest and Protect. Guided by feedback from clients and prospects, by insights about competitors and about the FinTech ecosystem, and by our business objectives, this is the team that owns our evolving product roadmap and is responsible for the performance of each of our products. The Technical Product Owner is a member of the Services team responsible for defining user stories utilizing a big picture product view. This person serves as the liaison between customers, business stakeholders and technical teams to ensure common understanding of product needs.

Successful Candidates Are:
· Collaborators – strong partnering skills with others including fellow team members, peers, key stake holders; builds relationships & connects ideas across silos including, high-grade diplomatic skills to effectively negotiate for harmony
· Curious – willing to take calculated risks, challenges traditional approaches, inquisitive with a penchant for seeking new experiences, knowledge; asks questions; demonstrates an appetite to learn new things
· Adaptable – remains calm and optimistic under pressure and adapts well to unexpected situations; comfortable dealing with ambiguity and uncertainty; solicits & embraces feedback from others to make changes to improve impact and effectiveness
· Courageous/Bold – not afraid to make quick decisions with limited info, decisive; sets direction and priorities without fear; has the guts to make difficult business and people decisions; takes initiative and publicly tests limits; is not afraid to fail or go against popular opinion; acts with a real sense of urgency to move others to action; sets a high bar
· Determined – achievement oriented; optimistic about what can be; persistent, can persevere, resilient to setbacks; seeks high levels of activity, fast-paced environment; demonstrates a fierce commitment to challenging goals; a strong bias for action
· Authentic leaders and open, genuine communicators able to create an environment of excitement and positive motivation that leads to an emotional connection with the team, not just the task
· Well equipped to interface at any level of the organization in a context of major cultural change

What You'll Do:
· Work closely with different stakeholders to understand their needs and priorities in defining product features
· Collect customer and stakeholder input for the development of technical requirements and product priorities
· Write product requirements, user stories and manage a product roadmap
· Leads user acceptance testing sessions to ensure product design meets requirements
· Collaborate closely with engineering teams to ensure requirements are prioritized, implemented and validated
· Analyze, manage, iterate and track the continued success of features in production
· Identify and perform gap analysis
· Assess cross-project impacts and take steps to resolve issues, particularly those standing in the way of progress, escalating when appropriate.
· Participate in process and quality improvement activities, and end of sprint and release retrospectives.

Experience:
· Experience in customer journey mapping, user research, and user stories.
· Experience in building and launching consumer digital products on web and mobile platforms – ideally in a regulated industry in which privacy and security are paramount
· Prior experience working as a product owner, product manager, designer or business analyst and known for rolling up your sleeves and getting the work done
· Strong ability to make trade-off decisions between possible and desirable, which requires a good sense of what is technically feasible
· Experience working in an Agile environment, ensuring user stories and acceptance criteria are captured correctly
· Understanding of how to use data and analytics to create a personalized experience and attract customers
· Knowledge of consumer products and passion around emerging technologies (e.g., Internet of Things, wearables, Beacons, NFC, big data) and how they will change consumer experiences
· Past experience in a role that required collaboration, influencing others and required building trust
· Bachelor's Degree in Business, Marketing, Computer Science or Information Systems