Product Owner

Sphera is a leading global provider of enterprise software and services that enables companies to manage and optimize their environmental, health, safety and sustainability. Our mission is to create a safer, more sustainable and productive world.

Sphera is a portfolio company of Blackstone, a U.S.-based alternative asset investment company that focuses on private equity, technology and innovation, and more. Blackstone businesses succeed through strong partnerships, a personalized approach and a commitment to exceptional performance with uncompromising integrity. Sphera and Blackstone are leaders in the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) space.

We are guided by our core values of Customer Centricity, Accountability, Bias to Action, Innovation, and Collaboration. These values help us recruit the right talent to join our rapidly expanding team around the globe. It is important to us that each and every Spherion is not only eager to challenge themselves and knows how to get work done but is an awesome addition to our company culture.

Key Requirements:

• U.S. Citizen

• Ability to verify U.S. employment eligibility using Form I-9

• Ability to obtain a U.S. Government security clearance and Common Access Card

• Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a technology related field. Equivalent work experience may be substituted for education. 

• Minimum 5+ years’ experience working as a BA or PO for a software organization, preferably in software development.

• Ability to travel 2-4 weeks per year

Qualifications:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the levels of knowledge, skill, and/or ability necessary to perform the job at acceptable standards. 

• Communicate excellently with diverse groups of people inside and outside of the organization.

• Ability to envision, gather requirements, document, and clearly communicate end-to-end solutions.

• Skilled in creating process flows and swim lane diagrams.

• Ability to forge relationships with various business and technical team members and managers.

• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.

• Strong sense of ownership and accountability to deliver planned results

• Detail-oriented

• Ability to thrive and make decisions in a dynamic, fast paced, rapidly changing environment.

• Ability to analyze and document complex business processes.

• Knowledge of SDLC processes and methodology including Agile and Scrum techniques

• Aptitude to understand business impact and business value of technical solutions.

• Experience with projects involving APIs, EDIs and Data Warehouses is strong advantage is needed for this role.

• Experience working with Department of Defense is a plus.

• Experience and knowledge of HMMS is a plus

• Knowledge of Environmental and/or Logistics Processes is a plus.

• Experience working with DevOps is a plus

• SQL skills is a strong advantage

Product Summary:

• The HMMS Suite of products is used to perform cradle to grave tracking on hazardous material inventory and hazardous waste management.

Major Duties:

• Work with key project stakeholders and the customer to understand the overall business vision for a project and translate that into actionable objectives.

• Provide a communication conduit between the business and technical community by interpreting and translating business needs into technical requirements.

• Comprehend and document requirements from multiple stakeholders and conceptualize solutions.

• Develop deep understanding of current systems and processes and analyze impact of changes as new solutions are introduced to the environment.

• Collaborate directly with internal management, sales, QA, and development teams.

• Collaborate with other product owners to manage inter-dependencies across the product suite.

• Assist in developing and validating test plans.

• Develop and provide product presentations and/or training to existing customer, and potential customers.

• Manage the product or project throughout its lifecycle from concept to end-of-life.

• Collect, manage, and maintain traceability of requirements from all stakeholders across product releases.

• Perform product demos to customers and develop relationships in key clients (if B2B)

• Lead the virtual product team to ensure delivery of agreed objectives

Specific Job Duties:

• Actively work directly with the development team

  • Serve as the customer representative in all team meetings

  • Develop personas and related product capabilities

  • Write Epics, Features and User Stories

  • Design preliminary mock-ups and work closely with the team UX Designer

  • Lead Grooming and Story Pointing Sessions

  • Participate in product planning and forecasts with the product management team

  • Attend daily stand-ups and other status meetings

  • Maintain and report product status such as burn up/burn down and velocity charts

  • Participate in sprint retrospectives with the agile team

  • Maintain a release backlog and focus on product deliverables

• Actively engage with product team and management

  • Take direction from management on roadmap priorities

  • Provide status updates and report any blockers or concerns

  • Prepare and present project status slides

  • Collaborate with other product team members and customer care unit

  • Participate in daily production support calls

  • Help to troubleshoot and triage production related tickets

• Other duties as assigned

Client Services Capabilities:

• Strong customer service orientation

• Ability to learn client specific processes, terminology, systems, and unique requirements by various business groups.

• Sense of urgency due to cross functional and fast-moving nature of operations, Big picture thinking, prioritization (comfortable with multi-tasking)

• Ability to work independently as well as cross-functionally, with technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Working Conditions:

Work is generally performed inside an office environment or remotely.

Training:

The individual may be required to complete training courses identified by Sphera and/or the government site as essential to job performance and may include (but not limited to) the following:

• HMMS Suite Training

• Sphera Corporation Training

• Government Required Training

Pay:

Commensurate with relevant qualifications and experience

Benefits:

• Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance

• Health Savings Account

• Flexible Spending Account

• 401(k) Retirement Plan with Company Match

• Life and Disability Insurance

• Critical Illness Insurance

• Accident Insurance

• Hospital Indemnity Insurance

• Paid Time Off and Holidays

• Flexible Working Schedule

Sphera is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

This job description is intended to convey information essential to understanding the scope of the job and the general nature and level of work performed by job holders within this job. This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of qualifications, skills, efforts, duties, responsibilities or working conditions associated with the position.