Product Owner, Technology

Guild Mortgage Company, closing loans and opening doors since 1960. As a mortgage banking firm, we are dedicated to serving the homeowner/buyer. Our goal is to provide affordable home financing for our customers, utilizing the best terms available while providing a level of professionalism and service unsurpassed in the lending industry.

Position Summary

The Technology Product Owner is responsible for managing the development and delivery of various initiatives in support of an IT Roadmap, specifically for the Enterprise reporting team, and its internal business partners across the organization. The Technology Product Owner works closely with the product team, which consists of business analysts, developers, testers, and other cross-functional teams (both internally to IT as well as the business), to define the product vision, a business and technology roadmap, features, and user stories. The Technology Product Owner also oversees the product backlog, which is a list of tasks and requirements for the product, and prioritizes the tasks according to the business value and customer feedback. The technology product owner ensures that the product meets the quality standards and business objectives and delivers value to the customers and stakeholders within the resource and budgetary constraints determined by the executive team (ITSC) and executive sponsor. This role primarily supports enterprise reporting, analytics, dashboards, and data delivery solutions that enable operational, financial, compliance, and decision making. The Product Owner will partner closely with internal business stakeholders to ensure reporting products are accurate, scalable, and aligned to evolving business needs.

Compensation 

This role is an exempt position with a Targeted Salary Range of $124,000 to $181,000 annually.

Compensation at Guild is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to local and federal minimum wage requirements, education, level of experience, and applicant’s geographical location.

Essential Functions

• Partner with Enterprise Reporting leadership and internal business stakeholders to define and prioritize reporting, dashboard, and data delivery initiatives.
• Ensure reporting solutions meet business requirements for accuracy, timeliness, compliance, and usability across supported departments.
• Define and validate the product requirements, features/epics, and user stories and ensure that they are clear, concise, and testable.
• Manage and prioritize the product backlog and ensure that it aligns with the product vision and roadmap, and reflects the customer needs and expectations.
• Work with the members of the product team and business owners to plan and execute the product development sprints and releases, and provide them with the necessary guidance and support.
• Review and accept the product deliverables and provide feedback and guidance to the development team, and ensure that they meet the acceptance criteria and quality standards.
• Manage the product lifecycle and ensure that the product meets the quality standards, compliance requirements, and business objectives, and delivers value to the customers and stakeholders.
• Responsible for the successful execution of the current sprint and prepping for the upcoming sprint.
• Accountable for consistently delivering product sprint goals.
• Establishing velocity of the team to provide insights on forecasting future efforts.
• Working with BA/Dev/QA Leads to ensure all disciplines are acting cohesively to meet sprint goals.
• Manages sprint priorities in accordance with product roadmap.
• Proactively engage with business stakeholders to support new feature rollouts.
• Breaking down work in consumable parts to ensure regular demos are conducted with key stakeholders.
• Ability to identify future dependencies and plan for those dependencies.
• Manages sprint planning, reviews, and retros.
• Responsible for actively communicating to key stakeholders when sprint goals are in jeopardy.
• Proactively taking steps to remove blockers.
• Create facts-based, metrics-driven project dashboards for all technology workstreams to provide visibility on progress week over week.
• Partner with EPMO reporting team to improve how we use JIRA as our source of truth.
• Perform other duties, as assigned.

Qualifications

• Bachelors or Master's Degree in computer science, business, logistics or related field to the position, preferred.
• A combination of education and experience may be considered in lieu of the Bachelor’s degree.
• Minimum five years' experience as a product owner, product manager, business analyst, or similar role in a digital product development environment.
• PMI, PMP, PMI ACP; or CSM certification or equivalent preferred. ITIL knowledge preferred.
• Experience supporting enterprise reporting, business intelligence, analytics platforms or data-focused technology teams.
• Strong knowledge of agile methodologies, tools, and best practices, such as Scrum, Kanban, Jira, Trello, etc.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and leadership skills, and ability to work effectively with multiple stakeholders and manage conflicting expectations and priorities.
• Ability to think strategically, creatively, and analytically, and to translate customer needs and expectations into product requirements, features, and user stories.
• Ability to deliver high-quality products that meet the customer needs, expectations and provide value to the customers and stakeholders.
• Solid understanding of software development life cycle models as well as expert knowledge of Agile and traditional Waterfall project management principles and practices.
• Extensive experience working with vendors and offshore resources.
• Proficient level of technical background to provide leadership to development teams and to be able to accurately and objectively evaluate complex product risks and issues.
• Experience with Release Management and ensuring the business is fully engaged when releasing new features.
• Proactive in ensuring the business is aware of upcoming deployments and features.
• Strong Jira knowledge preferred.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills required.
• Highly organized and detail-oriented; ability to work in a fast-paced, metrics-driven environment required.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, Word, Excel, Wiki, collaborative cloud-based programs, and third-party software applications required.
• Commitment to company values.
• Customer Service - Proactive attention to each person
• Integrity - Do and say what's right
• Respect - Treat others with dignity
• Collaboration - Listen and work together
• Learning - Seek knowledge and strive for improvement
• Excellence – Deliver the unexpected

Supervision

• Job Scope: Plays a key role in area by generating insights and ideas on policies, processes, procedures, and efficiency; contributes ideas to strategic and operational plans to ensure alignment

• Complexity: Problems are often complex and specialized and may involve unprecedented circumstances; resolution requires investigation, analysis and review of professional/organizational standards

• Impact: Decisions and actions have an impact on the smooth operation and timeframes of the department, programs/projects; impact on the broader organization is generally indirect

• Interaction/Supervision: Acts as a mentor/guide to less experienced professional contributor staff in a similar role; works independently and only under general direction; guided by professional standards, desired outcomes, and project plan specifications

• Number of Indirect Reports: 10-15

Requirements

Physical: Work is primarily sedentary; mobility in an office setting.

Manual Dexterity: Ability to operate standard office equipment and keyboards

Audio/Visual: Ability to accurately interpret sounds and associated meanings at a volume consistent with interpersonal conversation. Regularly required to accurately perceive, distinguish and interpret information received visually and through audio, e.g., words, numbers and other data broadcasted aloud/viewed on a screen, as well as print and other media.

Environmental: Office environment – moderate noise, no substantial exposure to adverse environmental conditions.

Mental: Learn new tasks, remember processes, maintain focus, complete tasks independently, and make timely decisions in the context of a workflow. This role requires effective adaptation to workplace stressors, including customer service complaints, security responsibilities, and competing priorities. Must be able to adhere to process protocol. Must be able to apply established protocols in a timely manner.

Schedules: Work is primarily performed during the business week, Monday - Friday

Guild offers a pleasant work environment, competitive compensation and excellent benefits package, including medical, dental, vision, life insurance, AD&D, LTD and 401(k) with employer match.

Guild Mortgage Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

REQ#: PRODU017864