Product Owner - Property (Guidewire)

Product Owner

Company: NICO National Indemnity Company

Want to work for a company with unparalleled financial strength and stability that offers "large company" benefits with an exciting, friendly, and "small company" atmosphere? Our companies, as members of the Berkshire Hathaway group of Insurance Companies, provides opportunities for professionals interested in just that.

A Brief Overview This position is responsible for identifying, organizing, prioritizing, and assessing work for a software delivery team. The Product Owner's responsibilities include gathering feature requests, scheduling releases and coordinating sprints. Abilities include identifying user needs and working with cross-functional teams to manage product releases. Responsible for facilitating communication between stakeholders and delivery team(s), as well as helping clearly define what should be built on behalf of the relevant business team(s) and why. Expected to interact with subject matter experts across multiple departments and to support the BA/QA professionals on the team in creating users stories and developing test plans built around the product and project requirements.

This position will be with National Indemnity Company in Omaha, Nebraska and will be a hybrid work schedule of 50% in the office at our Corporate Headquarters. Sponsorship is not available for this position.

What Will You Do?

• Identify Product Team Goals: Collaborates with key stakeholders to define goals and create an execution plan for development projects, focusing on outcomes rather than solutions
• User Stories and Release Planning: Translates product initiative requirements to functional team members by defining user stories for the team. Maintains and applies understanding of work process dependencies into functional requirements.
• Product Team Guidance and Direction: Provides overall leadership, guidance, and support of software product delivery team(s). Works with Scrum Masters and Technical Leads to help direct, motivate, and guide the delivery team(s). Works with BA/QA professionals to support the development of project test plans, test scripts, and the organization of the testing efforts for the team.
• Agile Ceremonies: Along with Scrum Master, leads various Agile activities and ceremonies including daily stand-ups, story review, release and sprint planning sessions, status meetings, sprint reviews, demos, and retrospectives.
• Communication and Collaboration: Works closely with and ensures regular communication with Program and Portfolio Managers, internal stakeholders, project sponsors, and other technology teams to ensure smooth on-boarding of work.

What Are We Looking For?

• Bachelor's Degree in related field or equivalent work experience required.
• Five or more years' related work experience.

Required Knowledge:

• Knowledge of Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, etc.)
• Knowledge of software development practices and procedures
• Experience working in application lifecycle management tools such as DevOps, JIRA, or Rally
• Professional experience as a Business Analyst, Business Team Manager, Project Manager, or Scrum Master

Preferred Knowledge:

• Experience with business analysis or project management
• Familiarity with continuous delivery and continuous integration
• Insurance industry and product knowledge

Who Would Excel In This Role?

• Strong team facilitation skills
• Strong interpersonal skills including conflict resolution skills
• Strong sense of ownership and accountability
• Excellent oral and written communication skills with all levels of the organization
• Ability to explain and defend a viewpoint and persuade others to a defined position

We want you to be involved! We offer Employee Resource Groups for volunteering, connecting with others, social gatherings, and professional development. We also regularly seek employees input through companywide surveys.

We care about your health and wellbeing! Our Wellness program is integrated into the Company culture with an online wellness portal that offers a year-round, one-stop-shop to manage and track all areas of health, our Omaha office boasts a complimentary state-of-the-art onsite fitness center, and a robust wellness program.

Benefits, Perks and more! We offer retirement and savings plan with immediate enrollment with 100% employer match up to 5%, Medical, Dental and Vision for regular, full-time employees and eligible dependents, a dedicated Learning & Development program for employees to grow personally and professionally, 100% upfront Educational Reimbursement program, subsidized downtown parking, competitive time off policies including parental leave, an Employee Assistance program and much more!