Associate Product Owner - Claims

Company Description

Why Wellmark: We are a mutual insurance company owned by our policy holders across Iowa and South Dakota, and we’ve built our reputation on over 80 years’ worth of trust. We are not motivated by profits. We are motivated by the well-being of our friends, family, and neighbors–our members. If you’re passionate about joining an organization working hard to put its members first, to provide best-in-class service, and one that is committed to sustainability and innovation, consider applying today! 

Job Description

The Associate Product Owner is responsible for maximizing the product's value and the agile team's work by ensuring the team’s backlog is prioritized and aligned with customer needs and approved business cases. Builds strong partnerships with stakeholders through continuous communication and feedback to ensure their needs are represented, and the product outcomes are achieved. Develops and conveys the product’s vision to the agile team, outlining and prioritizing work based on business value realization metrics.  

This opportunity has one opening and will support the Claims product team. This includes complex systems and business processes used to ensure all value streams are able to run effectively and efficiently. Success in this role will require strong cross-functional collaboration and strategic partnerships across the organization. The role will work closely with various business and agile teams and will need to effectively collaborate, build consensus, and drive initiatives with key support teams across multiple departments, including Operations and Technology as well as partner with various Product teams and ARTs. The ideal candidate will prioritize high-value work and align with our program's performance objectives to maximize impact and efficiency. 

Qualifications

Preferred Qualifications:  

• Prior experience supporting cross-functional teams (either formal or informal). Ability to coach and mentor others through guidance or feedback.  
• Executive presence and comfortability influencing and gaining consensus among executive stakeholders.   
• Product development, product management, or similar experience that reflects general knowledge of the product development lifecycle (including measurement and management), strategic planning, and ability to collaborate with multi-disciplinary teams to create innovative, data-driven solutions. Understanding of customer (client and member) needs and ability to translate these into competitive products and services.  
• Prior experience in a Product Owner role (either formal or informal) operating within a SAFe organization, including demonstrated experience with agile and/or lean product management competencies of value measurement, optimization, and eliminating waste. Experience using agile requirements management tools (e.g., Jira or Azure DevOps).  
• Experience with agile business analysis, including documentation of features, user stories, and acceptance criteria. Ability to perform, document, and/or guide others through a series of related steps and take action to improve existing systems and processes. Flexible and adaptable to change.  
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to articulate complex information or solutions to stakeholders. Exposure to negotiation skills and techniques.  
• Ability to identify issues or inconsistencies; obtains relevant information, relates and compares data from different sources and identifies alternative solutions.  
• Demonstrated critical thinking, problem solving/troubleshooting and continuous process improvement skills.  
• Proactive self-starter with effective time management skills and the ability to independently organize and prioritize based on value.   
• Analytical problem-solving skills and attention to detail; ability to identify and approach complex problems from different angles and apply technical knowledge to policies/procedures.  

Required:  

• Bachelor's degree or direct and applicable work experience.  
• Minimum 3+ years’ experience in a combination of:  
• Proven project management experience including managing project scope and schedule, utilizing industry standard project management methodologies.  
• Eliciting detailed business requirements.  
• Experience in a change management capacity aligned to an industry standard methodology.  
• Exposure to the development and execution of user acceptance test plans, scenarios, and cases utilizing industry standard testing methodologies.  
• Wellmark business acumen for specific product or division of this role.  
• Demonstrates ownership and commitment to projects; drives tasks and milestones toward successful completion and holds themselves accountable for project performance.