Technical Product Owner

Onsite - Cleveland, OH

3-6 month Contract to Hire

The API Product Owner is responsible for leading the definition of success for digital platform products, Domain APIs. This role ensures the highest value features are in line with the consumers initiatives, are identified, defined, and prioritized, while ensuring the expectations around cost are being managed.

In this role, you will be responsible for defining and executing the strategy for one or more API platform products. You will work closely with cross-functional teams to understand consumer needs, align with enterprise trends, and bring new API platform product features to market.

Essential Functions:

Strategy & Planning

• Works closely with cross-functional teams to understand consumer needs.
• Maintains alignment with the portfolio vision, solution vision, budget, and other guardrails.
• Identifies value and outcomes desired by consumers, seeking to optimize enterprise value.
• Translates new and existing capabilities into actionable requirements for delivery.
• Works with the delivery team to plan product feature releases.

Acquisition & Deployment

• Responsible for Product Ownership role within the product portfolio assigned.
• Provide product oversight for multiple product capabilities.
• Manage multiple projects, assignments, and priorities simultaneously.
• Facilitate meetings and follow up with resulting action items.
• Develop business cases, make recommendations, and define success factors for enhancements.

Operational Management

• Responsible for contributing to the product backlog.
• Ensures stories contain clear consumer success statements and acceptance criteria.
• Recommends features for program increment planning sessions.
• Accepts stories, evaluating for completeness as implemented by the delivery teams.
• Negotiates capacity balancing the need for enhancements, technical & tech debt work items.
• Provides delivery team with accurate business and platform context.
• Understand business processes and answers questions on relationships between source system, data warehouse and API services.
• Ensures API products are delivering value to consumers by defining & measuring indicators.

Position Requirements:

Formal Education & Certification

Bachelor’s Degree (or foreign equivalent) or in lieu of a degree, at least 12 years in experience in the field of Product Management or Business (work experience or a combination of education and work experience in the field of Product Management or Business).

Knowledge & Experience

• 10+ years of Product Owner, Product Management/Business experience
• 3+ years of experience including business analysis, a focus on API products preferred.
• Knowledge of API design, development, and management best practices.
• Experience with Agile Methodologies and roles.
• Strong experience working with effective cross-functional teams.
• Exceptional writing, editing, presentation and public speaking skills.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience designing API platform or similar products.

Experience working in an agile software development environment.

Understanding of OpenAPI specification.

Personal Attributes

• Strong communication and presentation skills, to effectively communicate technical concepts to a non-technical audience.
• Excellent systems/process orientation with demonstrated critical thinking, organization and problem solving skills.
• Excels in research and enjoys identifying new opportunities.
• Proven ability and initiative to learn and research new concepts, ideas, and technologies quickly, especially in the area of API and platform products.
• Proven ability to lead and work in a team-oriented, collaborative environment.
• Willingness and proven ability to train and teach others.
• Proven ability to facilitate meetings and follow up with resulting action items.
• Proven ability to prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment.
• Proven ability to work effectively in a multi-cultural environment, and to lead and influence cross-organizationally with and without direct authority.
• Excellent ability to effectively move forward on tasks even with ambiguous or changing requirements.
• Strong commitment to inclusion and diversity.

ABOUT EIGHT ELEVEN:

At Eight Eleven, our business is people. Relationships are at the center of what we do. A successful partnership is only as strong as the relationship built. We’re your trusted partner for IT hiring, recruiting and staffing needs.

For over 16 years, Eight Eleven has established and maintained relationships that are designed to meet your IT staffing needs. Whether it’s contract, contract-to-hire, or permanent placement work, we customize our search based upon your company's unique initiatives, culture and technologies. With our national team of recruiters placed at 21 major hubs around the nation, Eight Eleven finds the people best-suited for your business. When you work with us, we work with you. That’s the Eight Eleven promise.

Eight Eleven Group provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, citizenship, disability, genetic information, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, amnesty or status as a covered veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws.