Product Owner Lead

Discover your future at Citi

Working at Citi is far more than just a job. A career with us means joining a team of more than 230,000 dedicated people from around the globe. At Citi, you’ll have the opportunity to grow your career, give back to your community and make a real impact.

Job Overview

Job Purpose:

This is Product SME role responsible for participation in the establishment and implementation of new or revised application systems and programs in coordination with the Technology team. To ensure success as a technical Product owner, you should demonstrate experience and creativity in system development and application design. The Agile Product Owner is a crucial member of the agile development team, responsible for defining and prioritizing the product backlog to maximize the value of the product and the work of the Development Team. This role requires a deep understanding of the customer's needs, market trends, and business objectives to translate them into clear, actionable user stories and acceptance criteria. The Product Owner acts as the primary liaison between stakeholders and the development team, ensuring that the team builds the right product at the right time

Responsibilities

Product Vision & Strategy

• Define and Communicate Product Vision: Clearly articulate the product vision, strategy, and roadmap to the development team and stakeholders, ensuring alignment with company goals and market opportunities.
• Market and Customer Research: Conduct thorough market research, competitive analysis, and customer interviews to identify needs, pain points, and opportunities for product improvement and innovation.
• Business Case Development: Collaborate with stakeholders to develop and validate business cases for new features or product enhancements, quantifying potential value and return on investment (ROI).

Backlog Management

• Product Backlog Ownership: Own, define, and maintain the product backlog, ensuring it is transparent, visible, and understood by all.
• Prioritization: Continuously prioritize backlog items based on business value, technical feasibility, customer needs, and strategic alignment
• User Story Creation: Write clear, concise, and actionable user stories with well-defined acceptance criteria, ensuring they are ready for development.
• Refinement and Grooming: Lead product backlog refinement sessions with the development team to ensure a shared understanding of features and requirements.
• Release Planning: Collaborate with the Scrum Master and Development Team to define release content and release dates, managing stakeholder expectations.

Stakeholder Collaboration & Communication

• Stakeholder Liaison: Act as the primary point of contact for stakeholders (e.g., customers, sales, marketing, support, leadership) regarding product requirements and priorities.
• Expectation Management: Effectively manage stakeholder expectations, communicating progress, challenges, and changes in the product roadmap.
• Feedback Integration: Gather and incorporate feedback from stakeholders and users throughout the product development lifecycle.

Team Enablement & Support

• Availability to Team: Be readily available to the development team to answer questions, clarify requirements, and provide guidance on user stories.
• Acceptance of Work: Inspect the increment at the end of each Sprint and accept or reject completed work based on defined acceptance criteria and the Definition of Done.
• Team Collaboration: Foster a collaborative and transparent environment within the agile team.

Product Performance & Optimization

• Measure and Analyze Performance: Define, track, and analyze key product metrics (e.g., usage, adoption, satisfaction, ROI) to inform product decisions and identify areas for optimization.
• Iterative Improvement: Drive continuous product improvement based on data, user feedback, and market changes.

Required Skills and Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Business, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field. Master’s degree or MBA preferred.
• Experience: 8+ years of experience as an Agile Product Owner, Business Analyst, or similar role in a software development environment.
• Agile Methodologies: Strong understanding and practical experience with Agile frameworks (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, etc.).
• Certifications (Preferred): Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager (POPM), or equivalent certification.
• Analytical Skills: Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills, with the ability to translate complex business needs into technical requirements.
• Communication: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex concepts clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Interpersonal Skills: Strong leadership, negotiation, and influencing skills. Ability to build strong relationships with diverse stakeholders.
• Technical Aptitude: Understanding of software development processes, technologies, and system architecture.
• Tools: Proficiency with product management and agile tools (e.g., Jira, Azure DevOps, Trello, Confluence).
• Domain Knowledge: Banking and Finance, Client Communication

• Expertise in JIRA Tools and managing end to end Dashboard for Program/ Project Deliverables
• Expert in Agile Methodology and able to Run Daily Scrum Calls
• Hands on preparing Quality Project Document BRD, FRD, TDD 
• Strong Verbal and written Communication
• Conduct Productive Meetings with Senior Stakeholders
• Conduct User Trainings and Product Demo’s
• Expertise in one of the database Mongo Db, Oracle Server, SQL
• Banking & financial domain, Markets.

Desired Attributes

• Customer-centric mindset with a passion for delivering exceptional user experiences.
• Proactive, self-motivated, and able to work independently as well as collaboratively.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.
• Strong sense of ownership and accountability

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree/University degree or equivalent experience
• Master’s degree preferred