Product Owner

UFG is currently hiring for a PolicyCenter - Product Owner who is accountable for Run-the-Business objectives within the PolicyCenter application. This role oversees all critical functionality to keep the business moving towards its objectives, such-as but not limited to: Rate & Form Updates, user issues, defects and other usability enhancements for the application. The Product Owner creates a Product roadmap and defines the strategic vision for their team driven by the overall organization vision.  He/she will have a deep understanding of Commercial Insurance and building close relationships with key stakeholders across the organization like LOB Leads, Underwriting, Support and technology teams to ensure that the roadmap is aligned with overall strategy.  A Product Owner manages dependencies with other team's functions while identifying, building and managing strategic partnerships across the different areas.  They work closely within their team to ensure business value and user feedback is translated into new development.  The Product Owner must also continually engage with customers and stakeholders on a regular basis and leverage new information to maintain and prioritize the product backlog.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities: 

• Prioritize user issues, Defects, Rate & Form Updates and usability enhancements across entire Commercial Insurance portfolio.
• Collaborate across multiple business and technology teams to resolve critical issues.
• Facilitate the gathering of requirements, development and testing activities across PolicyCenter team.
• Partner with other PolicyCenter Product Owners to ensure alignment of objectives, dependencies and deliverables.
• Investigate issues as they arise and identify solutions for consideration.
• Work in an extremely fast paced environment while managing multiple deliverables simultaneously.
• Act as Voice of the Customer
• Drive Incremental Delivery, manage product development in Agile environment, facilitating sprint planning, reviews and retrospectives.
• Define the business value for the Product and support messaging, communication and customer outreach as necessary
• Build Product Backlog (user stories), prioritize the backlog based on business value, and continuously keep the backlog up to date
• Accept sprint results at sprint review and ensure the appropriate stakeholders are involved
• Ensure team members understand the stories in the backlog and the business value they deliver
• Collaborate with Tech Leads to define the technical roadmap for the Product (several sprints ahead of them)
• Engage with customers and stakeholders on a regular basis to gather feedback and refine the future of the Product as a result and adjust the backlog as needed
• Raise dependencies and roadblocks to Management to help resolve them if needed
• Conduct/ participate in sprint ceremonies as needed and work to support the team on a daily basis

Job Specifications: 

Education: 

• Four-year college degree preferred
• Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Certified Scrum Practitioner (CSP) or Certified Scrum Coach (CSC) preferred
• Employees are expected to participate in Agile training, in-house training programs, and insurance coursework throughout their careers.

Experience: 

• 3-5+ years' experience in IT Operations, DevOps, Systems Engineering, or Technical Product Ownership
• Product Management or similar work experience preferred
• Experience working in an iterative delivery environment (Agile, Scrum, etc.) preferred
• Experience with business analysis, requirements writing, or technical documentation preferred
• Project management experience preferred
• Experience in backlog development (e.g., prioritization and grooming, writing stories)
• Experience with basic development and technology concepts preferred
• Experience in the business domain aligned to the product backlog they are Product Owner of preferred
• Experience with Atlassian products preferred (i.e. Jira, JSM, Confluence)

Knowledge, skills & abilities: 

• Proven knowledge of standard concepts, practices and procedures within the relevant business function
• Understanding and knowledge of various internal roles (both business and technology) and how they interact with their product
• Strong network and ability to influence decisions within the business function
• Strong business mindset covering skills around data driven decision-making, managing up, financial impacts of decisions, and being able to say no to requests that do not align with product and company vision
• Strong collaborator with cross-functional teams from tech, delivery, and business
• Strong leader, team player and individual contributor
• Strong communication skills with comfort in speaking with business stakeholders
• Strong organizational skills managing requests from various sources and apply them to a continuously refined backlog
• Effective problem solver with ability to manage and lead the team to push the solution
• Strategic thinker capable of envisioning the future of the product
• Passion to challenge the status quo and find new solutions, drives outside the box thinking, embraces change
• Empowers others to fail, learn, and grow
• Experimental mindset to drive innovation

Working Conditions: 

• General office environment

Pay Transparency Statement:

UFG Insurance is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. The base salary range for this position is $103,222 - $136,105 annually, which represents the typical range for new hires in this role. Individual pay within this range will be determined based on a variety of factors, including relevant experience, education, certifications, skills, internal equity, geography and market data. 

In addition to base salary, UFG Insurance offers a comprehensive total rewards package that includes:

• Annual incentive compensation
• Medical, dental, vision & life insurance
• Accident, critical Illness & short-term disability insurance
• Retirement plans with employer contributions
• Generous time-off program
• Programs designed to support the employee well-being and financial security.

This pay range disclosure is provided in accordance with applicable state and local pay transparency laws.