Product Owner III

Position Summary

The Product Owner III (PO III) serves as a liaison between our customers, business units and Tech to define and prioritize work for development teams by aligning features and user stories with business value. The product owner is the voice of the customer, stakeholder, and end user. The product owner works closely with developers and analysts to create executable stories and provides final approval that ensures delivered stories meet user acceptance criteria. This individual is responsible for building and maintaining a prioritized Product Backlog, based on stakeholder feedback. They are also responsible for participating in the development and execution of the product roadmap. Product Owners will participate in all scrum ceremonies.

The Product Owner III is a trusted partner and has a strong relationship with all stakeholders. A PO III serves as a mentor to others. They should be an active participant in the Product Owner Community of Practice meetings and capable of leading the meetings. A PO III is expected to be a champion of Agile within the organization. Typically, a PO III will be able to independently support multiple teams and multiple projects.

About the Team

Corporate and Enterprise Services (CES) is a fun and diverse team that supports a variety of mission critical platforms that span and connect the entire Clayton organization. We partner with and are solution providers for business stakeholders such as Legal, Accounting, HR, Loan Originations and Servicing, Communications, Internal Audit and more. We value our team members, heavily invest in their work-life balance and skillset development and find creative ways to celebrate our wins as a group. We support multiple different tech stacks from SaaS platforms (Workday, OnBase, etc.) to custom development both on-premises and in the cloud. 

Primary Responsibilities

• Collaborate with prospective users and clients to understand their needs and translate them into product requirements.

• Define the product vision and strategy.

• Develop, own, and execute the product roadmap.

• Translates product roadmap features into well-defined product requirements that include user stories, features, and acceptance criteria.

• Work with cross-functional teams and various stakeholders.

• Manage the product backlog and prioritize it based on changing requirements.

• Participate in Scrum meetings and product sprints.

• Monitor and evaluate product progress throughout each stage of the process.

• Utilize optimization techniques to improve or refine the product based on feedback received after products or features are released to production.

• Risk Management – Identify, understand, and address risks.

• Translate stakeholder requirements into technical specifications that can be used for development and break down technical complexities so that they can be easily understood by business units and end users.

Primary Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent technical or business experience

• Minimum 2 years’ experience with Agile development methodologies or 2 years’ experience as a Product Owner

• Experience in Agile product ownership, software development, Scrum, and phases of the project life cycle.

• Standard industry certifications such as CSPO or PSPO, preferred.

• Experience in project management, group facilitation, data gathering, or phases of software life cycle (requirements gathering, design, development, deployment, training, or measuring effectiveness)

• Experience in JIRA and Agile methodology preferred, not required.

Desired Skills

• Strong analytical, problem solving, and project management skills.

• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint)

• Excellent interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills and the ability to interact with a diverse group of team members, including Executives, Managers, IT professionals, and Subject Matter Experts.

• Knowledge of the assigned product or product line.

• Strong ability to work effectively within time constraints, changing priorities, and independently.

• Proactive, self-starter with excellent project management skills.

• Ability to manage multiple complex tasks effectively.

Behavioral Competencies

• Collaboration and Teamwork

• Business Acumen

• Relationship Building

• Composure and Resiliency

• Planning and Priority Setting

• Service Focus

• Communicating

• Deliberate Decision Making

• Interpersonal Dynamics

• Coaching and Developing Others

Why Clayton Homes?

Founded in 1956, Clayton is a Ber