Product Owner, AI

Guild Mortgage Company, closing loans and opening doors since 1960. As a mortgage banking firm we are dedicated to serving the home owner/buyer. Our goal is to provide affordable home financing for our customers, utilizing the best terms available while providing a level of professionalism and service unsurpassed in the lending industry.

Position Summary

The Artificial Intelligence Technology Product Owner is responsible for managing the development and delivery of various Artificial Intelligence products and services supporting IT and Business partner initiatives. The Artificial Intelligence Technology Product Owner works closely with the product team, which consists of AI Analysts, AI Engineers, Data Scientists, Data Architects, Front End Developers, and other cross-functional teams (both internally to IT as well as the business), to define the product vision, a business and technology roadmap, features, and user stories. The Technology Product Owner also oversees the product backlog, which is a list of tasks and requirements for the product, and prioritizes the tasks according to the business value and customer feedback. The technology product owner ensures the product meets quality standards, aligns with business goals, and delivers value to customers and stakeholders within executive resource and budget limits.

Compensation 

This role is an exempt position with a Targeted Salary Range of $120,000 - $160,000 annually.

Compensation at Guild is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to local and federal minimum wage requirements, education, level of experience, and applicant's geographical location.

Essential Functions

• Define and validate the product requirements, features/epics, and user stories and ensure that they are clear, concise, and testable.
• Oversee and prioritize the product backlog to ensure alignment with the product vision and roadmap, while accurately representing customer requirements and expectations.
• Work with the members of the product team and business owners to plan and execute the product development sprints and releases and provide them with the necessary guidance and support.
• Review and accept the product deliverables and provide feedback and guidance to the development team and ensure that they meet the acceptance criteria and quality standards.
• Manage the product lifecycle and ensure that the product meets the quality standards, compliance requirements, and business objectives, and delivers value to the customers and stakeholders.
• Responsible for the successful execution of the current sprint and prepping for the upcoming sprint.
• Accountable for consistently delivering product sprint goals.
• Establish velocity of the team to provide insights on forecasting future efforts.
• Work with BA/Dev/QA Leads and others to ensure all disciplines are acting cohesively to meet sprint goals.
• Manages sprint priorities in accordance with product roadmap.
• Proactively engage with business stakeholders to support new feature rollouts.
• Break down work in consumable parts to ensure regular demos are conducted with key stakeholders.
• Ability to identify future dependencies and plan for those dependencies.
• Manage sprint planning, reviews, and retros.
• Responsible for actively communicating to key stakeholders when sprint goals are in jeopardy.
• Proactively take steps to remove blockers.
• Create facts-based, metrics-driven project dashboards for all technology workstreams to provide visibility on progress week over week.
• Partner with EPMO reporting team to improve how we use JIRA as our source of truth.
• Perform other duties, as assigned.

Qualifications

• Bachelors Degree in BA, BS, or MS graduate in computer science, business, logistics or related field to the position or equivalent, preferred. A combination of education and experience may be considered in lieu of the Bachelor's degree.
• Minimum five years' experience as a product owner, product manager, business analyst, or similar role in a digital product development environment.
• Minimum five years supervisory or leadership experience managing at least 5 to 10 direct reports. 
• PMP or equivalent PMI, PMP, PMI ACP, or CSM certification or equivalent preferred.
• Strong knowledge of agile methodologies, tools, and best practices, such as Scrum, Kanban, Jira, Trello, etc.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and leadership skills, and ability to work effectively with multiple stakeholders and manage conflicting expectations and priorities.
• Ability to think strategically, creatively, and analytically, and to translate customer needs and expectations into product requirements, features, and user stories.
• Experience delivering high-quality products that satisfy customer needs and add value for stakeholders.
• Strong understanding of software development life cycle models as well as expert knowledge of Agile and traditional Waterfall project management principles and practices.
• Proficient level of technical background to provide leadership to development teams and to be able to accurately and objectively evaluate complex product risks and issues.
• Experience with Release Management and ensuring the business is fully engaged when releasing new features.
• Proactive in ensuring the business is aware of upcoming deployments and features.
• Experience with various Atlassian products, including Jira, Confluence, Jira Product Discovery.
• Minimum 10 years of experience in the mortgage industry or other financial services industry.
• Experience with various prioritization frameworks.
• Understanding of core AI concepts (LLMs, ML models, prompt engineering, data pipelines, evaluation metrics) and the ability to translate business needs into AI-driven features or automations preferred.
• Hands-on exposure to Azure OpenAI Services, Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT Enterprise, or other Enterprise services preferred, including the ability to identify use cases, evaluate feasibility, and support responsible AI deployment.
• Excellent interpersonal communication skills required.
• Highly organized and detail-oriented; ability to work in a fast-paced, metrics-driven environment required.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, Word, Excel, Wiki, collaborative cloud-based programs, and third-party software applications required.
• Commitment to company
• Customer Service - Proactive attention to each person
• Integrity - Do and say what's right
• Respect - Treat others with dignity
• Collaboration - Listen and work together
• Learning - Seek knowledge and strive for improvement
• Excellence – Deliver the unexpected

Supervision

• Job Scope: Responsible for understanding the department/functional area objectives and goals and how own job contributes to achievement of these goals with guidance/direction from more senior roles

• Complexity: Problems encountered may involve the entire organization and are often complex, broad in scope and implications, and unprecedented with no clear solution; often works cross-functionally with other leadership and C-Suite to solve problems and implement changes

• Impact: Decisions and actions have a direct impact on the strategic and operational outcomes of the area/unit and the organization as a whole.

• Interaction/Supervision: Work is monitored under general supervision of supervisor and by following established, specific procedures described by supervisor; May act as a guide to less experienced staff in similar role and/or student employees; generally does not have formal responsibility for overseeing others.

• Indirect Reports: 7-10

Requirements

• Physical: Work is primarily sedentary; occasionally walks and/or stands.
• Manual Dexterity: Ability to operate standard office equipment and keyboards
• Audio/Visual: Ability to accurately interpret sounds and associated meanings at a volume consistent with interpersonal conversation. Regularly required to accurately perceive, distinguish and interpret information received visually and through audio; e.g., words, numbers and other data broadcasted aloud/viewed on a screen, as well as print and other media.
• Environmental:  Office environment – moderate noise, no substantial exposure to adverse environmental conditions.
• Travel: 5% or less
• Mental: Learn new tasks, remember processes, maintain focus, complete tasks independently, and make timely decisions in the context of a workflow. Must be able to adhere to process protocol. Must be able to apply established protocols in a timely manner. This role requires effective adaptation to workplace stressors, including customer service complaints, security responsibilities, and competing priorities.
• Schedules: Work is primarily performed during the business week, Monday - Friday

Guild offers a pleasant work environment, competitive compensation and excellent benefits package; including medical, dental, vision, life insurance, AD&D, LTD and 401(k) with employer match.

Guild Mortgage Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

REQ#: PRODU017686