Product Owner/Portfolio Manager

Job Title-Product Owner/Portfolio Manager (773928)
Client:The Department of Management(DOM) (State of Iowa)
Location:Grand Avenue Des Moines, IA 50309

NOTE:Either Web Cam or In Person Interview

The Department of Management (DOM), Division of Information Technology (DoIT), is seeking a Product Owner/Portfolio Manager. The position involves close collaboration with business and IT management, oversight of cross-functional fusion teams, and a commitment to continuous improvement driven by performance data and user feedback.

This Product Portfolio Manager will be responsible for managing fusion teams, which typically consist of a QA, BA, PM, and a couple of developers. These teams represent the smallest functional unit for a project. The Product Owner is accountable for the overall product and serves as the central point of communication for all projects under that product. They will coordinate with the PMO, Application Development, and other stakeholders to communicate project needs, priorities, and resource requirements.

The IT Product Portfolio Manager oversees a collection of custom applications and vendor systems, will lead meetings, solve problems, facilitate and coordinate communication between the parties, manage product backlogs, document status, and ensure that the team members have the support needed to perform their work. This is an opportunity to work in a mission-driven environment supporting Iowa s public service agencies and citizen-facing services, such as those supporting the Department of Education, Department of Natural Resource, or others.

Key Responsibilities:
Manage a portfolio of IT products and applications, ensuring successful completion and alignment with business needs for both internal and external users.
Serve as a Product Owner to guide products through all lifecycle stages, ensuring efficiency, quality, and alignment with strategic goals.
Work with business SMEs, internal teams, external agencies, and vendors to define product scope, identify IT-enabled solutions, and support procurement and implementation processes.
Create and prioritize product backlogs and maintain roadmaps that align with long-term IT strategies and changing user and state needs.
Oversee product releases, ensure readiness for deployment, monitor performance, gather feedback, and manage risks affecting delivery or budget.
Collaborate with business and IT leadership to define and track performance metrics, ensuring all products and processes meet state, federal, and IT governance requirements.
Manage relationships with vendors and service providers, overseeing performance, resolving issues related to interoperability, and ensuring adherence to service level agreements (SLAs) and availability targets.
Oversee product IT financials, including budget planning and monitoring, while providing leadership with regular updates on product status, risks, and strategic roadmap progress.
Lead and manage cross-functional fusion teams, ensuring effective collaboration among IT, vendors, and business units to deliver solutions that align with business needs and budget constraints.
Partner with DoIT supervisors to allocate appropriate technical resources, monitor team performance, and provide ongoing support to fusion team staff.
Facilitate agile meetings and lead sprint reviews, user story development, ensuring team alignment on priorities and presenting outputs to stakeholders.
Use feedback and metrics to identify product needs and collaborate on acceptance criteria, testing, and feature delivery.
Collaborate with Executive Technology Officers (ETOs) and product teams to prioritize and manage product development efforts, ensuring alignment with agency needs and effectively transitioning products to enterprise services.
Build and maintain strong relationships with client/business teams, establishing regular communication and fostering trust to ensure successful collaboration and issue resolution.

Required Skills
Product ownership, portfolio management (2+ years)
Project management: planning/managing scope, budget, timeline, resources; coordinating project activities (5+ years)
Requirement elicitation, documentation and articulation between teams (5+ years)
Proficient understanding of the software development life cycle and related methodologies (5+ years)
Experience partnering with vendor project teams, managing relationships and vendor management (5+ years)
High quality documentation: project plans, status updates, presentations, requirements, user stories, process maps, instructions (5+ years)
Demonstrated strong communication skills across technical teams and business stakeholders, specifically to leadership - setting/resetting expectations (5+ years)
Guide stages of agile software development, including user story development, sprint planning, and prioritization of the product backlog. (3+) years
IT vendor management (3+ years)