Forecast Automation Area Product Owner - Home Lending

Our vision is to improve employee experience and increase value to the Home Lending business by leveraging the power of our data and the best forecasting tools to analyze data, help generate forecasts, save time, improve processes & controls, and lead the organization in developing skills of the future. You are able to think beyond raw data and understand the underlying business context and opportunities for automation. Your passion lies in eliminating user tools and time intensive manual tasks and reimagine holistic end to end forecasting solutions tailored to customer needs. 

As an Area Product Owner (APO) in Consumer & Community Banking Forecast Automation and Execution, you will contribute to the Product transformation and modernization of our forecasting environment by understanding the existing landscape, diving into the pain points and delivering target state solutions. You will have proven success in prior finance and technology roles working closely with planning & analysis teams, with a special focus on Product, and need to have experience in developing and delivering new tools and solutions using cloud-based technologies (i.e., AWS, Databricks, etc.). You will have a keen understanding of the forecasting process, the various budgetary and regulatory cycles, and aim to improve forecast accuracy and efficiency. You will understand the need of Finance and through your ability and passion to think beyond existing data and processes, you will use both existing and cutting edge forecasting solutions to empower the team to create timely and accurate forecasts. 

Job Responsibilities   

• Executes on area roadmaps aligned to overall Product vision using careful analysis of customer needs, data/analytics, firm’s capabilities and financials 
• Leads software product development and tech build to create quality and scalable features/solutions including contributing to team through the writing of user stories
•  Direct area product workflow through JIRA, prioritize and sequence backlog considering customer needs, audit/controls, data landscape, forecast calendar, etc. and coordinate release dates. The APO is accountable for an area product backlog and the health of the area product.  
• Demonstrate solid understanding of underlying technology that drives product and ability to communicate to Finance stakeholders in layman terms
•  Facilitate collaboration with cross-functional product and area product leads. 
• Engages and leverages key product group partners (Design, Engineering, Data/Analytics etc.) early enough and often in the area product development strategy and provides access to customers to deliver value 
• Builds and maintains strong connections to product partners on meeting dept./functional product development objectives 
•  Defining a product roadmap, setting priorities, and executing against that roadmap to deliver value consistently.

Required qualifications, capabilities and skills

• Minimum 8 years' of broad product management, business management and operational roles 
• Strong track record of delivering challenging initiatives using expert-level program/product/function management skillset 
• Experience in managing complex processes leveraging complex data and financial calculators
• Proven leadership and influencing skills and ability to collaborate across a highly matrixed organization with excellent relationship skills, highly collaborative – can build rapport and credibility quickly with all levels of the organization, executive presence, comfortable interacting with, presenting to and influencing senior leaders.  
• Ability to set and manage accountabilities and expectations at all levels - team members, peers, business partners and senior management 
• Product Vision and Strategy: Passion for understanding the needs of the business, to set a clear vision and strategy for the Area Product. Structured approach to intake and prioritization of the change requests.
• Technical Acumen: Understanding agile software development processes and technologies, as well as being able to work closely with Financial modelers and Tech teams. Familiarity needed with Essbase, Databricks, hierarchy management and modern forecasting tools
• Data Analysis: Build an understanding of the data sets used for forecasting calculators, and manage the data migrations for those data sets to the data lake. 
• Domain Knowledge: Understanding of the HL business, and the common needs of Planning & Analysis and CFO teams to switch from repetitive manual tasks to insightful work to support business decisions
• Stakeholder Management: Being able to work with various stakeholders, including executives, business teams, and customers, to understand their needs and priorities and incorporate them into the product.
• Leadership and Team Management: Leadership and team management skills will be important for motivating and guiding cross functional stakeholders to achieve the product goals

Preferred qualifications, capabilities and skills

• Demonstrated senior leadership in terms of attitude, initiative, and inclusivity
• Agile backlog management tools (JIRA, Confluence)