Product Owner

**Technical Product Owner - Plan & Buy**:
The Technical Product Owner works as part of the business facing Delivery Team for the IT function, leading engagement and collaboration activity at every stage in the Software Development Lifecycle to assist in the delivery of technology led change with a broad range of stakeholders from across every department within the organisation.

**Key Accountabilities**:

- Working in partnership with stakeholders and Delivery Leads during the initiation of an IT initiative and provide the necessary support that enables stakeholders to shape business strategy and complete the request process for new initiatives.
- Plan and monitor the development of projects and new features.
- Acting as the primary contact for IT & business teams, providing clarification including:

- Support the developers when discussing architectural considerations.
- Work with developers and other team members to estimate work.
- Delivery and release planning and associated monitoring and reporting.
- Coordinate releases with the broader delivery team.
- Assist in the removal of impediments or blockers
- Contribute to the design of complex customer journeys from a technical point of view
- Plan in the reduction of tech debt where appropriate and justify it to the wider business
- Creation of product roadmaps, identifying key milestones in a technologies lifecycle to shape future IT delivery plans
- Identifying potential solutions using existing technologies and new technologies in the market and assess for technical and business suitability.
- Defining elements of systems design, including business rules, data migration rules and other detailed deliverables
- Working with the architecture function to create solution design diagrams that are aligned to captured requirements.
- Co-ordinating testing activity as required, encompassing self-testing, stakeholder testing and third-party testing activity.
- Engaging with supporting third parties as required at any stage in the SDLC and acting as the link between third parties, stakeholders, and other members of the project team.
- Producing any relevant materials that can be used to educate stakeholders on how to use and get value from delivered solutions, including demos, user manuals and work instructions.
- Driving a continuous improvement mindset into business processes, ensuring maximum efficiency as processes are reviewed and developed.
- Producing any relevant materials to enable the smooth transition of delivered solutions into business-as-usual support services, maintaining the quality of IT services and products.
- Facilitating training sessions with end users on new solutions, leading delivery as appropriate.

**Knowledge**:

- Knowledgeable in end-to-end general merchandise Retail functions such as Supply Chain, Finance, Marketing, Trading, Retail & Digital.
- Knowledgeable about technologies such as EPOS, SCO, HHT, MMS, DWH, Dispatcher, ASR/AWR, SQL, Oracle Retail & Fusion

**Experience**:

- Experience of working in Retail organisations or similar in terms of size, scale and culture, including retailers with an international presence
- Experience as a Project Manager / Product Owner / Delivery Manager
- Experience of working in fast paced, unstructured and ambiguous environments
- Experience of working on the end-to-end Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)
- Technical expertise showing that you have a good understanding of technology and how it works.
- Experience of supporting the production of business/ benefits cases in support of IT initiatives
- Experience of working in cross functional project teams to deliver technology led solutions
- Experience of working with third parties to deliver technology led solutions
- Experience of managing stakeholders in challenging and demanding environments