Product Owner

RESPONSIBILITIES:
Kforce is looking for a Product Owner for a hybrid-onsite, contract opportunity with a large organization in downtown Kansas City, MO. The Product Owner is a member of a Lean-Agile SAFe development team and ensures alignment to the Agile Release Train's (ART) program vision. Other primary responsibilities are to define and prioritize the product backlog in order to streamline the execution of business priorities of the ART.

Responsibilities:
* Liaise between technical and non-technical users, ensuring parties involved have an understanding and gain knowledge of the application and/or business considerations
* Articulate and translate the product vision from feature(s) into stories with clearly defined acceptance criteria
* Assist the team in story definition, estimation, and sequencing for PI Planning events; Verify stories are testable and can be used to generate testing objectives
* Own scrum team backlog (grooming, prioritization, and refinement) including delivery of MVP
* Work day-to-day with the scrum teams clarifying business requirements, removing roadblocks, identifying/coordinating dependencies and constantly communicating and gaining alignment around feature or product strategy
* Participate in validation and testing of features and stories prior to end user acceptance
* Set the quality standard for delivery; Develops test plans (user story acceptance criteria), accepts each story and potentially features and participates in team demos and retrospectives to validate quality, provide feedback to team and improve team processes
* Coordinate dependencies with other Product Owners when deliverables are dependent on another team for completion
* Create and maintain process flow maps and data/process documentation for critical workflows
* Serve as the knowledge resource for questions from the development team or business users

REQUIREMENTS:
* Bachelor's degree in relevant field (e.g. Economics, Finance, Computer Science, Mathematics) some combination of business and technology education is highly preferred or have related work experience
* SAFe Product Owner certification preferred
* 3+ years of experience in business, engineering, technology, and/or consulting
* Knowledge of Agile development methodologies and business/systems analysis
* Strong written and verbal communication skills
* Comfort and expertise with investment data sets (security master, holdings, portfolio analytics) and an ability to mine such data and produce analyses
* Experience with SQL for data analysis and validation, UI/UX design and knowledge of cloud architecture preferred
* Experience crafting and delivering solutions to investment management across research, portfolio analysis, risk analysis, portfolio construction, and trading
* Skill in analyzing data to find opportunities for technology to provide business value
* Strong experimental mindset to drive innovation amidst uncertainty
* Strong aptitude in learning new tools and technologies to be able to work effectively in a rapid growth environment
* Financial Services experience preferred
* Scaled Agile (SAFe) experience preferred

The pay range is the lowest to highest compensation we reasonably in good faith believe we would pay at posting for this role. We may ultimately pay more or less than this range. Employee pay is based on factors like relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, seniority, location, performance, union contract and business needs. This range may be modified in the future.

We offer comprehensive benefits including medical/dental/vision insurance, HSA, FSA, 401(k), and life, disability & ADD insurance to eligible employees. Salaried personnel receive paid time off. Hourly employees are not eligible for paid time off unless required by law. Hourly employees on a Service Contract Act project are eligible for paid sick leave.

Note: Pay is not considered compensation until it is earned, vested and determinable. The amount and availability of any compensation remains in Kforce's sole discretion unless and until paid and may be modified in its discretion consistent with the law.

This job is not eligible for bonuses, incentives or commissions.

Kforce is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran status, or disability status.

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