Lead Product Owner

The Lead Product Owner, Fixed Ops will be responsible for developing and executing a comprehensive approach to deliver one or more large and/or complex products, capabilities, services, or enhancements in accordance with the product roadmap. Integral member of the team that contributes to the organizational strategy. Works with Product Managers, Business Leaders, and a cross-functional Scrum team to deliver the product to the Client. Manage the overall effort to deliver products, capabilities, services and enhancements using the strategic vision as well as established key performance indicators. Understand the functionality, determine the release sequence and budget to maximize customer satisfaction and ROI. Prioritize and maintain the product backlog and performing just-in-time story elaboration with the development team. Recognized as an expert within the company and requires in-depth and/or breadth of expertise in Product Management along with other job disciplines within the organization in order to successfully manage the product.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Planning:

Support Release Train and scrum team(s) via Product Increment (PI) planning, managing the product backlog and software development details, and maintaining velocity.
Prioritize and manage backlog and implementation, ensure product execution meets strategy and requirements, and refine features into user stories and story acceptance criteria.
Partner with Product Managers to understand and influence product strategy and roadmaps, aggregate and conceive ideas for enhancing product performance and achieving product success/KPIs.
Development:

Lead multiple scrum teams to build, enhance and manage one or more products, capabilities or services.
Coordinate with other Agile Product Managers to deliver on a vision that crosses multiple delivery streams or release trains.

Sales and Client Engagement:

Engage with Clients as a Subject Matter Expert to understand performance and needs of the Client for in-market products.
Advise sales, sales operations, client solutions, and client marketing teams to communicate product performance and value for in-market products.
Evaluation:

Assess product performance against KPIs and make corrections to improve performance and regularly communicate performance of the product/experience to stakeholders and the organization.
TECHNICAL/FUNCTIONAL SKILLS
Relationship Management – Identifies the communications and relationship needs of stakeholder groups. Translates communications/stakeholder engagement strategies into specific activities and deliverables. Facilitates open communication and discussion between stakeholders, acting as a single point of contact by developing, maintaining and working to stakeholder engagement strategies and plans. Provides informed feedback to assess and promote understanding. Facilitates business decision-making processes. Captures and disseminates technical and business information.
Requirements Definition & Management – Plans and drives scoping, requirements definition and prioritization activities for large, complex initiatives. Selects, adopts and adapts appropriate requirements definition and management methods, tools, and techniques selecting appropriately from predictive (plan-driven) approaches or adaptive (iterative/agile) approaches. Obtains input from, and formal agreement to, requirements from a diverse range of stakeholders. Negotiates with stakeholders to manage competing priorities and conflicts. Establishes requirements baselines. Ensures changes to requirements are investigated and managed. Contributes to the development of organizational methods and standards.
Project Management – Takes full responsibility for the definition, documentation and successful completion of complex projects (typically with significant business, political, or high profile impact, and high-risk dependencies). Adopts and adapts project management methods and tools, selecting appropriately from plan-driven/predictive approaches or more adaptive (iterative and agile) approaches. Ensures that effective project control, change control, risk management and testing processes are maintained. Monitors and controls resources, revenue and capital costs against the project budget and manages expectations of all project stakeholders.
Product Management – Acts as owner/champion for one or more established products or services. Contributes to product propositions and product positioning and variants for established products for which they are responsible. Prioritizes product requirements and owns the product backlog. Responsible for one or more products, depending upon the product’s complexity.
Qualifications:
BA/BS in related field (Business, Marketing, Engineering, Communications), and 7 years related experience; or equivalent combination of education and work-related experience.
Requires and applies comprehensive knowledge of business, product performance, and industry principles, practices, and procedures.
Working knowledge for SAFe Agile Methodology.
Using expertise, resolves a wide range of issues in creative ways. Is fully familiar with recognized industry bodies of knowledge both generic and specific.
Actively seeks out new knowledge for own personal development and the mentoring or coaching of others.
Develops a wider breadth of knowledge across the industry or business.
Applies knowledge to help to define the standards which others will apply.
Work experience in design, development and implementation of product plans.
Working experience in full product lifecycle methodologies.
Working experience in creating, prioritizing and recommending epics and features.
Working experience in a collaborative, cross-functional team environment.
Who We Are

About Cox Automotive

There’s nothing ordinary about Cox Automotive. We are people of every background driven by our passion for mobility, innovation, client success and community outreach. We make buying, selling and owning (or simply using) cars easier for everyone. Touching more than 40,000 clients across five continents, we bring together the best brands and the best teams to propel the automotive industry forward. Some of those team members work for our iconic consumer brands like Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book, while others are creating the future of automotive at industry-facing brands like Dealer.com, Manheim and vAuto.