Job Description:

The Product Owner, Merchandising is responsible for establishing an effective business relationship based on deep knowledge of key business process and deep knowledge of applications/technologies that support the Merchandising business. The Product Owner enables the execution within Information technology through the IT Product Lifecycle, including gathering and prioritizing of business requirements, defining the product vision/direction, aligning master data management while working closely with the Merchandising Team. This role will work with and leverage the processes for Master Data business teams, IT DevOps team and other IT teams to ensure business goals are met. The Product Owner’s job also includes ensuring that the IT product supports the company’s overall strategy and goals.

The Product Owner, Merchandising is responsible for managing the merchandising systems through the Product Lifecycle (Strategic Vision, Implementation, and Care & Feeding of Production Systems).

Essential Duties

• Define product vision and strategy
• Create Product Roadmap
• Lead 3rd party product/vendor evaluation
• Create user stories
• Prioritize backlogs
• Partner with Business and Architect team to decide Buy vs Build
• Manage overall projects/Backlogs
• Responsible delivery deadline
• Oversee Azure DevOps
• Sprint Planning
• Retrospective Review
• Manage business relationship
• Regular update meeting on backlog prioritization and roadmap
• Regular meeting with business for in-take requirements/projects
• Regular update meeting on production support issues
• Demo newly developed/deployed product features to business leaders
• Manage vendor relationship for products acquired from 3rd party
• Manage vendor relationship for 3rd party implementation partners
• Contract Negotiation and Management (Renew, termination etc)
• Manage cost for any 3rd party engagement
• Lead team to support production issues
• Manage Tickets for the stream the PO is responsible
• Resource planning for delivery
• Team collaboration, coaching, empowerment

Experience, Education, Certifications (List minimum required to enter the role.)

• Bachelor’s Degree preferably in any Information Technologies (IT) discipline, but IT Management Information Systems or Computer Systems Analyst discipline is most preferred.
• 5 years as an IT Product Owner
• 10 years working in Merchandising applications as either a Solution Architect or Business Analyst
• 5 years of Retail Experience

Competencies

• Knowledge of base price/promo price systems a plus
• Knowledge of EDI a plus
• Knowledge of product onboarding a plus
• Demonstrate experience in defining product strategy and roadmaps
• Proven expertise in translating business strategy into product strategy
• Demonstrated experience in documenting Product Requirements with prioritized features and corresponding justification.
• Work with external third parties to assess partnerships and opportunities.
• Be a technical expert with respect to the merchandising systems at Pet Valu
• Be an expert as to market offerings and strategic direction for Merchandising solutions. Provide insight to stakeholders on the products and market.
• Write high-level requirements (L1)
• Document the Pet Valu core competencies and processes in partnership with the Architect, Business Analyst and development teams
• Develop deep product knowledge of existing IT Solutions and the integration between merchandising systems and other upstream and downstream applications.
• Act as a leader within Pet Valu
• Follow Standards of operation for Roadmap Development and Maintenance. Suggest and implement continuous improvement to the roadmap and prioritization process.
• Drive action throughout the organization to get IT Products adoption and optimization.
• Strong commitment and expertise to keeping IT Applications healthy through patching and life-cycle management.
• Ability to clearly communicate to stakeholders the status of IT Products
• Provide leadership to team members and peers by collaborating with others; articulating ideas and viewpoints to senior management, peers and others; identifying and initiating improvements in process, and systems; managing resources; driving the resolution of issues; and holding self and team accountable for results.
• Strong Vendor management skills
• Establish and continuously review key metrics and KPIs, analysis and trends to continuously improvement business performance.
• Identify ways to increase improvements to the applications that will lead to further business satisfaction.
• Understand and negotiate needs and expectations of multiple stakeholders.
• Strong relationship building skills & communication skills.
• Facilitate program reviews / status meetings to executives and senior managers.
• Other proficiencies: Communication / Technical Understanding / Leadership / Teamwork / Stakeholder Management / Multitask

Technical Skills

• 3 -5 years as an IT Product Owner
• 10 years working in Merchandising Applications
• 5 years of Retail Experience