THECB - IT Product Manager (ITS)

Job Description

Your job application must be completely filled out. Resumes do not take the place of the requirement to include this information on the application

About the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) works to ensure that all Texans have access to highquality, affordable higher education opportunities that prepare students for successful careers and strengthen the state's workforce and economy. Through collaboration with colleges, universities, policymakers, and education partners across Texas, THECB advances initiatives that expand educational opportunity, promote student success, and support the future of higher education.

About Information Technology Services

The Information Technology Services (ITS) Division advances THECB's mission by delivering secure, reliable, and customerfocused technology services that enable agency staff to effectively serve Texas students, institutions, and communities.

Our organization is committed to operational excellence through modern technology, strong governance, strategic partnerships, and continuous improvement. We are modernizing how technology services are delivered by strengthening infrastructure and operational resilience, advancing cloudfirst and hybrid infrastructure, improving platform reliability and security, and building a culture centered on accountability, collaboration, innovation, and service excellence.

At THECB, we believe technology is more than infrastructure and support. It is a strategic business partner that enables our agency to better serve students, institutions, and the State of Texas.

About the Role

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board is seeking an experienced and collaborative product professional to serve as a Senior Product Owner within the Information Technology Services (ITS) Division.

This position is responsible for providing strategic product leadership for technology products and digital services of varying scope, complexity, and organizational impact. The Senior Product Owner guides product direction through discovery, prioritization, delivery, implementation, adoption, and continuous improvement while maintaining focus on business outcomes, user needs, product performance, dependencies, and organizational priorities.

The Senior Product Owner serves as a senior product resource, working closely with business stakeholders, Product Owners, Business Analysts, Project Managers, engineering teams, ITS leadership, vendors, and external partners to define product direction and maintain alignment around priorities and expected outcomes. The role requires sufficient technical fluency to understand systems, integrations, dependencies, architectural considerations, and operational constraints and to facilitate productive discussions between technical and nontechnical stakeholders.

Responsibilities include defining and maintaining product vision, strategy, and roadmaps; leading discovery and stakeholder alignment; governing complex product backlogs; evaluating priorities and tradeoffs; coordinating dependencies across teams and initiatives; using performance measures, adoption data, and user feedback to assess outcomes; and ensuring product decisions remain aligned with business needs and organizational priorities.

This position does not have formal supervisory responsibility but operates with considerable independence and may provide informal guidance and coaching to Product Owners, Business Analysts, and peers while helping strengthen consistent product ownership and delivery practices across ITS.

Why Join Our Team

This is an exciting opportunity to help shape how technology products and digital services are defined, prioritized, and improved across the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

As a Senior Product Owner, you'll work closely with agency leaders, business stakeholders, Product Owners, Business Analysts, Project Managers, and technical teams to turn organizational priorities and user needs into clear product direction and measurable outcomes.

In this role, you'll have the opportunity to:

• Lead product vision, strategy, and roadmap development for important technology products and services.
• Partner with executive and business stakeholders to clarify priorities, outcomes, and tradeoffs.
• Guide complex backlogs and delivery decisions while balancing business value, user needs, technical considerations, risk, and organizational priorities.
• Help strengthen product ownership and business analysis practices across ITS through coaching, collaboration, and shared standards.
• Use data, customer feedback, adoption measures, and operational insights to evaluate product performance and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Work across business and technology teams to improve alignment, decisionmaking, and accountability throughout the product lifecycle.
• Make a meaningful impact by helping technology enable THECB's mission of expanding educational opportunity and strengthening higher education across Texas.
• Enterprise Product Vision & Strategy Defines, communicates, and governs product vision, strategy, and roadmaps to ensure alignment with agency priorities, enterprise direction, architecture, and customer needs. Evaluates business needs, user outcomes, technology considerations, and organizational priorities to establish clear product direction. Ensures products and services advance strategic outcomes and deliver measurable value at an agencywide level.
• Executive Stakeholder Leadership & Alignment Serves as the primary point of accountability between executive stakeholders, business leadership, end users, and technical teams for assigned products and services. Leads strategic discussions, facilitates alignment across competing priorities, clarifies product objectives and expected outcomes, and ensures shared understanding of business needs, risks, tradeoffs, dependencies, and delivery expectations.
• Advisory Leadership, Coaching & Continuous Improvement Provides advanced informal leadership by advancing continuous improvement through effective communication, transparency, documentation, and disciplined product practices. Serves in an advisory capacity by delivering strategic guidance and coaching to Product Owners and Business Analysts, strengthening product ownership, business analysis practices, and delivery consistency across ITS. Defines and monitors product performance indicators, adoption trends, user feedback, and other measures of product effectiveness; prepares and presents datadriven product insights, recommendations, and strategic guidance to executive leadership and stakeholders to guide prioritization, recommend enhancements, promote alignment and accountability, and ensure sustained value delivery.
• Enterprise Architecture, Risk & Compliance Alignment Partners with architecture, security, compliance, data, accessibility, and other relevant stakeholders to ensure product solutions align with enterprise standards, integration principles, regulatory requirements, and longterm technology direction. Supports feasibility assessments, risk analysis, solution evaluation, lifecycle planning, and sustainability decisions to ensure products remain secure, supportable, scalable, and aligned with organizational requirements.
• Strategic Backlog Governance & Prioritization Translates strategic objectives, business needs, user feedback, technical considerations, and organizational priorities into actionable product direction and prioritized backlog items. Establishes and maintains governance over product backlogs to ensure sequencing, investment, and delivery decisions align with enterprise priorities, available capacity, dependencies, risk, and value realization. Maintains clear acceptance criteria and ensures backlog items are sufficiently defined to support effective delivery.
• Delivery Alignment & Outcome Assurance Provides strategic oversight to ensure delivery activities remain aligned with defined product direction, customer needs, and intended business outcomes. Collaborates with Project Managers, Business Analysts, engineering teams, vendors, and other stakeholders to resolve barriers, clarify priorities, manage dependencies, and support informed delivery decisions. Ensures delivered solutions meet quality, usability, performance, and acceptance expectations and evaluates whether implemented capabilities are achieving intended outcomes.
• Performs other duties as assigned.
• Product management, product ownership, product strategy, product lifecycle management, and digital service management principles and practices.
• Product visioning, roadmap development, backlog management, prioritization, discovery, requirements development, and acceptance practices.
• Usercentered design, customer experience, user research, feedback collection, adoption, and product performance measurement.
• Agile, iterative, and productoriented delivery models and the roles and responsibilities of Product Owners, Business Analysts, Project Managers, and engineering teams.
• Enterprise architecture, integration principles, security, data, accessibility, compliance, and technology lifecycle considerations relevant to product delivery.
• Business analysis practices, including elicitation, process analysis, requirements development, stakeholder analysis, and solution evaluation.
• Product performance indicators, adoption measures, value realization, benefits tracking, and datadriven decisionmaking practices.
• Technology governance, portfolio prioritization, investment planning, resource capacity, risk management, and organizational decisionmaking.

If you are an experienced product professional who enjoys bringing clarity to complex problems, influencing across organizational boundaries, and helping teams focus on outcomes rather than outputs, we encourage you to apply.

General Description:

Performs highly advanced (seniorlevel) product ownership and digital service management work for the Information Technology Services (ITS) Division of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB). Serving as a Product Owner, this position leads the definition, prioritization, and delivery of IT products and services that align with agency strategy, enterprise direction, and user needs.

Work involves planning, coordinating, and executing product strategies that drive business value and enhance digital experiences across the agency. Responsibilities include translating strategic and organizational objectives into actionable product direction; defining and prioritizing product requirements; managing and governing backlogs; and ensuring sustained alignment between executive stakeholders, customers, and technical teams to deliver highquality, usercentered solutions.

Responsibilities include defining product vision, strategy, and roadmaps; leading executive and stakeholder alignment; establishing and governing product backlogs and prioritization practices; monitoring product performance, adoption, and user feedback; providing strategic guidance and coaching to Product Owners and Business Analysts; partnering with architecture, security, compliance, and technical teams; and ensuring delivery activities remain aligned with intended business outcomes and longterm product value.

Works under minimal supervision, with extensive latitude for the use of initiative and independent judgment. This position provides strategic leadership in guiding product direction, influencing organizational outcomes, and advancing ITS and agencywide objectives, rather than formal supervisory authority. This position reports to the Director of Portfolio Management. Performs other duties as assigned.

General Duties and Responsibilities:

Knowledge Skills and Abilities

The successful candidate will possess the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to provide strategic product leadership, translate business needs and organizational priorities into clear product direction, guide complex product delivery, and effectively collaborate with executive stakeholders, business partners, and technical teams.

Knowledge

• Product management, product ownership, product strategy, product lifecycle management, and digital service management principles and practices.
• Product visioning, roadmap development, backlog management, prioritization, discovery, requirements development, and acceptance practices.
• Usercentered design, customer experience, user research, feedback collection, adoption, and product performance measurement.
• Agile, iterative, and productoriented delivery models and the roles and responsibilities of Product Owners, Business Analysts, Project Managers, and engineering teams.
• Enterprise architecture, integration principles, security, data, accessibility, compliance, and technology lifecycle considerations relevant to product delivery.
• Business analysis practices, including elicitation, process analysis, requirements development, stakeholder analysis, and solution evaluation.
• Product performance indicators, adoption measures, value realization, benefits tracking, and datadriven decisionmaking practices.
• Technology governance, portfolio prioritization, investment planning, resource capacity, risk management, and organizational decisionmaking.

Skills

• Defining and communicating product vision, strategy, roadmaps, priorities, and expected outcomes.
• Translating strategic objectives, business needs, user feedback, and technical considerations into actionable product requirements and prioritized backlog items.
• Managing and governing product backlogs, including sequencing work, clarifying requirements, developing acceptance criteria, and balancing competing priorities.
• Leading executive and stakeholder discussions, facilitating alignment, and resolving competing priorities or differing expectations.
• Analyzing product performance, adoption, user feedback, business outcomes, and other data to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Preparing and presenting product recommendations, roadmaps, performance information, business cases, and decisionsupport materials to leadership and stakeholders.
• Coaching and advising Product Owners, Business Analysts, and crossfunctional team members on product ownership, business analysis, and delivery practices.
• Collaborating with architecture, security, compliance, data, engineering, project management, vendors, and business stakeholders.
• Identifying product risks, dependencies, delivery barriers, and sustainability concerns and developing appropriate recommendations or mitigation strategies.
• Communicating complex product, business, and technical information in clear terms to technical and nontechnical audiences.

Abilities

• Provide strategic product leadership without formal supervisory authority and influence outcomes across organizational boundaries.
• Translate agency strategy and organizational priorities into clear product direction, roadmaps, priorities, and measurable outcomes.
• Balance business value, customer needs, technical considerations, risk, capacity, dependencies, and longterm sustainability when making product decisions.
• Establish and maintain effective product governance and prioritization practices.
• Work with executive stakeholders and facilitate difficult discussions involving competing priorities, tradeoffs, or investment decisions.
• Evaluate whether products and services are delivering intended business and user outcomes and recommend appropriate changes.
• Guide crossfunctional teams through ambiguity by establishing clear objectives, priorities, requirements, and decision points.
• Work independently with extensive latitude for initiative and judgment while operating within established governance, architecture, security, and organizational standards.
• Provide informal leadership, coaching, and strategic guidance to Product Owners, Business Analysts, and other delivery professionals.
• Communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, with technical and nontechnical audiences, including executive leadership.
• Establish and maintain effective working relationships with agency leadership, staff, vendors, business partners, and external stakeholders.
• Demonstrate professionalism, sound judgment, accountability, integrity, and a strong commitment to public service and customer outcomes.
• Attend work regularly and reliably.

Required InOffice Days:

This position is authorized for a hybrid telework schedule. Employees are required to work in the office two (2) days per week, with the remaining three (3) days eligible for telework. Specific inoffice days may be determined by the department to meet business needs.

Military Crosswalk: Military Crosswalk for Occupational Category Information Technology

Qualifications

Required Minimum Education and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited fouryear college or university with major coursework in Business Administration, Public Administration, Information Systems, Computer Science, Product Management, Management, or a related field.
• Five (5) years of progressively responsible professional experience in product management, product ownership, business analysis, project delivery, information technology, digital services, or a related field.
• Three (3) years of experience serving in a Product Owner, Product Manager, senior Business Analyst, or comparable role with responsibility for defining priorities, managing backlogs, translating business needs into actionable work, or guiding delivery of technology products or services.
• Experience working with executive or senior business stakeholders, technical teams, and crossfunctional delivery teams.
• Additional related work experience may substitute for the required education on a yearforyear basis.

Preferred Experience and Education:

Preference will be given to candidates who possess one or more of the following:

• Extensive experience serving as a Product Owner, Product Manager, or comparable product leadership role for complex enterprise technology products or digital services.
• Experience defining and managing product vision, strategy, roadmaps, lifecycle decisions, and measurable business outcomes.
• Experience managing complex product backlogs involving multiple stakeholder groups, technical teams, dependencies, and competing priorities.
• Experience working directly with executive leaders and senior business stakeholders to establish product priorities, investment decisions, or strategic direction.
• Experience operating within a productoriented delivery model and collaborating closely with Project Managers, Business Analysts, engineering teams, architects, security professionals, and business stakeholders.
• Experience developing or mentoring Product Owners and Business Analysts and strengthening product ownership or business analysis practices.
• Experience using product performance indicators, adoption metrics, customer feedback, analytics, or benefits measures to guide product decisions and continuous improvement.
• Experience supporting enterprise application modernization, digital transformation, SaaS, cloud, lowcode, COTS, or other technology product initiatives.
• Experience evaluating product feasibility, technical dependencies, architecture alignment, security considerations, compliance requirements, and longterm supportability.
• Experience with Agile product delivery, backlog management, discovery, usercentered design, and iterative development practices.
• Experience working within portfolio governance, technology investment, demand management, or prioritization processes.
• Experience working in Texas state government, higher education, public sector, or another complex or regulated environment.
• Professional certification or training related to product management, Agile, Scrum, business analysis, project management, or organizational change management, such as Certified Scrum Product Owner, SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager, PMIPBA, PMP, Prosci, or equivalent credential.

Physical Requirements and/or Working Conditions:

Work is performed in a standard office environment and requires:

• Regular, reliable, and punctual attendance at work.
• Frequent use of personal computers, copiers, printers, telephones, and other standard office equipment.
• Frequent sitting, with occasional standing, walking, and movement throughout the office.
• Frequent interaction with agency leadership, staff, vendors, and external stakeholders.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and meet established deadlines in a fastpaced environment.
• Ability to travel up to 5% for meetings, training, or other assigned business needs.

Workforce:

Must be able to:

• Demonstrate a strong commitment to customer service and the agency's mission.
• Support collaboration, accountability, customer service, and continuous improvement through reliable program execution.
• Build and maintain effective working relationships with agency leadership, staff, vendors, and external stakeholders.
• Show flexibility and adaptability to changing priorities, assignments, and organizational needs, including working extended hours when necessary.
• Adhere to the agency's internal management policies, procedures, and applicable federal and state requirements.
• Contribute to the agency's strategic goals, organizational performance measures, and mission.

Application Requirements:

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board is an Equal Opportunity Employer. A State of Texas application is required to apply. For more information on how to apply for this position, go to the Coordinating Board's employment opportunities website at

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board participates in EVerify for each new employees Form I9 to confirm work authorization. For questions, please call the HR Department at . For vocal and/or hearing assistance call 711.

Notes to Applicant:

If you require any reasonable accommodation for the interview process, please inform the hiring representative who calls to schedule your interview. This position has been designated as a security sensitive position. A criminal background investigation will be conducted on the final candidate for this position.

Your job application must be completely filled out. Your application must contain dates of employment, job titles, name of employer and a description of duties performed in a way that demonstrates you meet the minimum qualifications for the position for which you are applying. Resumes do not take the place of the requirement to include this information on the application. If this information is not submitted, your application may be rejected because it is incomplete.

Veterans Information: THECB is committed to hiring Veterans. To receive Veteran s Preference, a copy of the FORM DD214 member #4, must be attached when submitting your application.

AN EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER: THECB does not discriminate on the basis, of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, or disability in employment or the provision of services.

Job offer and continuation of employment with THECB is contingent upon:

Proof of education and experience listed on the application.

Eligibility/authorization to work in the U.S.

Satisfactory results from a preemployment criminal history background check.

Compliance with the Selective Service Law for males ages 1825. Please be advised that under Texas law, names and other information concerning applicants or nominees may be subject to disclosure upon request.

THECB does not allow dual employment with other state of Texas agencies or institutions.

Skills assessment may be conducted at time of interview.

Salary for this position will be commensurate with experience and qualifications.

No phone calls or emails, please. Due to the high volume of applications, we do not accept telephone calls and cannot reply to all email inquiries. Only candidates selected for interview will be contacted.