Product Owner

Job Title: Product Owner

Department Name: Technology Customer Engagement Portfolio

Job Summary

As part of the Customer Engagement Portfolio within Southern Company’s Technology organization, the Product Owner is responsible for managing and supporting system product enhancements, maintenance, and requests, maintain a well-groomed back log for the Online Customer Care (OCC) suite of solutions including web, batch, and middleware applications. This role will need to collaborate with stakeholders, development teams, vendors, architects, and other cross-functional teams to ensure the successful delivery of a high-quality, scalable, and efficient solutions. This role will involve every aspect of the product development process from discovery, delivery, and support while following SAFe Agile Framework and focusing on upholding a high standard of quality.

This role will report to the Customer Engagement Manger of Application Development in the Technology Organization’s Customer Engagement Portfolio.

Education

JOB REQUIREMENTS

• B.S. degree in preferably in business, IT, engineering, computer science, or another technology-focused field.
  
  

Experience/Knowledge/Skills

Required Skills:

• Strong analytical, root cause analysis, and problem-solving skills with ability to elicit and efficiently document business rules and research technical issues
• Ability to prioritize and maintain well-groomed backlogs comprising of new features, bugs, technical debt, and knowledge acquisition with good planning and organization skills
• Ability to define clear acceptance criteria, work with Developers, QA & UA testers to ensure the quality and accuracy of the assigned area in the OCC product.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and strong proactive communications skills including the ability to communicate complex concepts clearly across different audiences at varying levels
• Engage with key stakeholders, such as business owners, vendors, marketing teams, and leadership, to understand their needs and gather feedback. Communicate product updates, progress, and timelines to stakeholders
• Knowledge and familiarity with transactional web sites, batch processes, databases, APIs and integrated middleware applications
• Excellent presentation skills to facilitate demos and support the team to deliver high quality releases on schedule
• Experience working in a fast paced, highly collaborative environment with cross-disciplinary teams (Quality Analysts, Developers, Architects, and Analysts) and business groups (technical and non-technical) to shepherd products through the SDLC
• Ability to identify and quickly implement process improvements, sound decision making skills and to work with minimal supervision
  
  

Preferred Skills

• Working knowledge of utility operating company business unit rules and processes
• Prior experience in utility and/or large-scale complex customer facing web applications.
• Experience with Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
• Technical aptitude to understand web, batch, database, and middleware applications and architecture.
• Knowledge of current and relevant digital, mobile, and web best practices in design and implementation
• Skilled at leading software projects of varying sizes and degrees of complexity
  
  

Job Responsibilities

General Roles and Responsibilities

• Define and communicate the application vision, strategy, and roadmap for solutions owned. Align the product roadmap with the overall business goals and objectives
• Be primary resource and point of contact with other product teams, helping to coordinate testing and releases
• Develop, adapt and carry out product implementation plan throughout SDLC, supporting and championing the vision aligned with business goals
• Create, plan, and prioritize an effectively groomed backlog with clear acceptance criteria aligned with business objectives.
• Author epics, features and user story acceptance criteria and continuously refine and prioritize user stories based on business value, customer feedback, and market trends
• Obtain deep product and business knowledge to act as a subject matter expert for several roles including Dev and QA
• Define and instrument success criteria that is measured via qualitative and quantitative feedback and identify growth opportunities for the assigned functional area.
• Work with QA testers to ensure the quality and accuracy. Conduct user acceptance testing and validate that the product meets the specified requirements.
• Attend PI plannings, provide quality control, facilitate PI demos and review stories. Responsible for accepting stories as done.
• Be accountable for each stage of the development process and the final product while taking a primary role in inspecting and evaluating product progress & quality through each iteration.
• Manage business expectations, maintain communications, and bring issues to business’ attention proactively; offer solutions.
• Create and maintain product documentation, including user guides, release notes, and training materials. Ensure that documentation accurately reflects the features and functionalities of developed solutions
  
  

Other Requirements

• Occasional night and weekend work may be necessary.
• Occasional travel may be necessary.
  
  

Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is a leading energy provider serving 9 million residential and commercial customers across the Southeast and beyond through its family of companies. Providing clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy with excellent service is our mission. The company has electric operating companies in three states, natural gas distribution companies in four states, a competitive generation company, a leading distributed energy infrastructure company with national capabilities, a fiber optics network, and telecommunications services. Through an industry-leading commitment to innovation, resilience, and sustainability, we are taking action to meet our customers’ and communities’ needs while advancing our commitment to net zero emissions by 2050. Our uncompromising values ensure we put the needs of those we serve at the center of everything we do and are the key to our sustained success. We are transforming energy into economic, environmental and social progress for tomorrow. Our corporate culture and hiring practices have earned the company national awards and recognition from numerous organizations, including Forbes, Military Times, DiversityInc, Black Enterprise, J.D. Power, Fortune, Human Rights Campaign and more. To learn more, visit www.southerncompany.com .

Southern Company invests in the well-being of its employees and their families through a comprehensive total rewards strategy that includes competitive base salary, annual incentive awards for eligible employees and health, welfare and retirement benefits designed to support physical, financial, and emotional/social well-being. This position may also be eligible for additional compensation, such as an incentive program, with the amount of any bonus/awards subject to the terms and conditions of the applicable incentive plan(s). A summary of the benefits offered for this position can be found here https://seo.nlx.org/southernco/pdf/SOCO-Benefits.pdf . Additional and specific details about total compensation and benefits will also be provided during the hiring process.

Southern Company is an equal opportunity employer where an applicant's qualifications are considered without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other basis prohibited by law.

Job Identification: 7956

Job Category: Information Technology

Job Schedule: Full time

Company: Southern Company Services