IT Product Owner

Job Description:

JOB SUMMARY:

This position is responsible for ensuring alignment of the continuous improvement of business application solutions with business goals and priorities for one or more IT Products.

IT Products support the needs of Vertex internal business processes and the users through integrated business application solutions. 

The individual in this position will focus on the IT Products that serve our Finance and Procurement functions. These include the solutions that support General Accounting, Budgeting and Planning, Procurement, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Asset Management, Expense Management, Project Accounting, and other financially relevant process areas. The IT Product Owner will work as part of an agile team to implement solutions leveraging SaaS applications such as Workday, Vertex O-Series and other integrated applications, and end to end solutions and innovations that improve and support our Finance and Procurement processes.

The individual in this position is responsible for delivering high quality solutions that meet Vertex needs in their area of responsibility from the point of intake and requirements development through transition to support upon implementation, relying on their deep expertise in business processes, best practices, and IT Products. 

This individual collaborates with cross-functional teams of IT Product Managers, IT Product Owners, Enterprise and Solution Architects, Compliance, development and support teams, and various stakeholders to accomplish objectives. 

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Product Discovery, Development and Lifecycle Methodology:

• Develops understanding of the business processes supported by the team’s products.
• Ensures the product vision is well-defined.
• Creates and refines user stories by articulating the business problem and value, defining acceptance criteria, and effectively prioritizing and managing the product backlog.
• Works with development team to review requirements, provide clarification and guidance during implementation.
• Provides transparency into product roadmaps and release plans.
• Manages change to the product and assists with assessing impacts to value, releases, budget, and schedules from evolving scope.
• Defines test plans and scenarios and collaborates across IT and the business to define and execute test plans to ensure product quality.
• Supports production implementation of new products and features, including participation in knowledge transfer to the support team.
• Adopts agile methods and tools within the SAFe agile framework as implemented within Vertex.
• Participates in Agile ceremonies as appropriate.

Stakeholder Collaboration and Adoption:

• Engages with key stakeholders to gather and prioritize needs.
• Maintains open communication and fosters strong relationships with business stakeholders and IT colleagues to support effective collaboration in service to Vertex objectives and priorities.
• Drive the adoption of new products and features by supporting user training and change management efforts.

Optimize Product Performance:

• Continuously monitors and evaluates performance and stability of our business application solutions, in partnership with the Operations and Support team, to identify areas of improvement.
• Regularly analyzes user feedback, usage data, and support and performance trends to identify opportunities and recommendations for product enhancement and optimization.
• In partnership with Enterprise Architecture, ensures that the business application portfolio for their product area is fit for purpose and rationalized to eliminate redundant or unneeded applications and functionality, to attain greater efficiency, reduce cost and unnecessary technical complexity.

Optimize IT Performance:

• Provides input on or develops delivery processes, and procedures in coordination with other leaders to deliver improved service and greater cost efficiency.

• Provides input to forecasting, planning, and budgeting processes for their area of responsibility.
• Participates in other projects or duties as assigned.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

• Demonstrates business acumen, understanding of business processes, and knowledge of IT processes and standards.
• Understands how to support Vertex business strategy through appropriately prioritizing, planning, and delivering on business application needs.
• Ability to elicit, influence and gather clear requirements and work jointly with the business to document in specifications or user stories.
• Possesses clear communication skills both written and verbal and is comfortable facilitating effective meetings and presenting to various stakeholder audiences.
• Strong analytical skills and passion for analyzing IT products, trends and new technologies, and the ongoing evolution of application capabilities of Vertex’ SaaS applications.
• Ability to develop relationships across business and IT stakeholders as needed to accomplish objectives.
• Strong knowledge of the functionality of Salesforce, Workday, integrated business applications and integrations as applicable to area of responsibility, at a level sufficient to enable defining and designing effective, high-quality solutions to business needs.
• Proven ability to stay on task, overcome obstacles, meet deadlines and milestones, and deliver work by agreed upon dates.
• Ability to drive results virtually with distributed global teams.
• Pursues continuous learning in areas critical to success in the job role, learning from subject matter experts, colleagues, and formal training.
• Collaborates across IT and business in a transparent way, exhibiting willingness to share information, and ability to connect people within and across teams.
• Knowledge of Kanban, Scrum, and SAFe Agile framework and ways of working.
• Proficiency in JIRA, Smartsheet, Microsoft Office products, Confluence, and other tools used to support analysis, create deliverables, and track status.

EDUCATION AND TRAINING:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Information Systems, Computer Science, Finance, Business Administration or related field.
• Two (2) plus years of experience in IT or business role responsible for application and product strategy, design, and delivery
• Two (2) plus years of experience in business applications relevant to the Vertex application landscape (Salesforce, Workday, integrated business applications).
• Or equivalent combination of education and/or experience

Other Qualifications
The Winning Way behaviors that all Vertex employees need in order to meet the expectations of each other, our customers, and our partners.

• Communicate with Clarity - Be clear, concise and actionable. Be relentlessly constructive. Seek and provide meaningful feedback.
• Act with Urgency - Adopt an agile mentality - frequent iterations, improved speed, resilience. 80/20 rule – better is the enemy of done. Don’t spend hours when minutes are enough.
• Work with Purpose - Exhibit a “We Can” mindset. Results outweigh effort. Everyone understands how their role contributes. Set aside personal objectives for team results.
• Drive to Decision - Cut the swirl with defined deadlines and decision points. Be clear on individual accountability and decision authority. Guided by a commitment to and accountability for customer outcomes.
• Own the Outcome - Defined milestones, commitments and intended results. Assess your work in context, if you’re unsure, ask. Demonstrate unwavering support for decisions.

COMMENTS:

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by individuals in this position. Other functions may be assigned, and management retains the right to add or change the duties at any time.