Sr. Product Owner - IPCO Strategy & Planning

Requisition 38840: B4 Sr. Product Owner - IPCO Strategy & Planning 

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Note for Safety-Sensitive Positions: Any safety-sensitive position with Norfolk Southern will require the following pre-employment screenings:

• FRA Drug and Alcohol Screen
• Medical Screening
• Background Check

Norfolk Southern offers a unique opportunity to be part of our proud legacy that spans nearly 200 years. We are a customer-centric, operations-driven team dedicated to advancing safety, serving communities, and driving innovation for tomorrow's rail.  As part of Norfolk Southern, you’ll join a collaborative team where there are opportunities for growth across the organization. We are building a culture where everyone can thrive by owning and driving exceptional results, being humble and leading with trust, serving our customers with excellence, and collaborating and coaching to win.

Job Description

Our Senior Product Owners are key members of an Agile Product Management team responsible for driving innovation and value to the Transportation Planning Systems product line. The role is responsible for facilitating the collection of business needs from business owners and serves to understand and translate those needs into solutions. The primary focus is forward-looking by defining and communicating features and associated Objective & Key Results (OKRs) for the upcoming quarters using a product roadmap. The Senior Product Owner is also accountable for in-sprint delivery with close collaboration with the team Product Owner(s), when applicable. Additionally, the position tracks feature progress against the OKRs after releases.

The Senior Product Owner works with the IT scrum team to refine the features in the backlog for the next quarter, define and communicate priorities, and ensures the business needs are incorporated in the creation of user stories. The role commits user stories to the next 2 sprints during Sprint Planning and facilitates sprint demos to the business owners at the end of each sprint.

Principal Duties:

• Documents the purpose and benefit hypothesis for upcoming features in a charter
• Develops understanding and expertise of business area domain knowledge, objectives, and goals in order to facilitate solution requirements from business owners
• Collects business needs from the business owners
• Defines features and associated OKRs for the next quarter using the roadmap
• Refines features in the backlog for the next quarter
• Assigns business value in order to prioritize features based on data for the next quarter
• Accountable for quality of user stories to be completed and reviewed up to one week prior to Sprint Planning
• Accountable for the development of user stories for the next 2 sprints in Sprint Planning
• Escalates impediments as appropriate
• Coordinates and completes product testing for current sprint
• Facilitates sprint demos to business owners at the end of each sprint
• Facilitates sprint read-out/review to business owners at the start of each sprint to share outcome of Sprint Planning
• Coordinates change impacts, process, and change delivery with the business owners for a Change Management Plan for that release
• Provides Go/No Go decision for that release
• Tracks progress against OKRs for a 30-, 60-, and 90-day intervals after release
• Responsible for hiring process including candidate screening, interviewing, and hiring recommendations, when applicable
• Responsible for employee development including performance monitoring and evaluation, coaching, training, and mentoring

Job Related Experience:

•    Minimum Level: 1-3 years

•    Preferred Level: 2-5 years

Education:

•    Preferred Level: Bachelor’s degree in business management, computer science or related field

Technical Skills:

•    2+ years of relevant product management, product owner or business analyst experience in an agile software product development environment

•    2+ years of experience delivering software with agile scrum methodologies and other commonly used tools

•    Strong requirement facilitation skills and proven ability to write concisely and clearly for different audiences

•    Strong business analytical skills with the capability of identifying, analyzing, and synthesizing product use data

•    Ability to connect with leadership and technical and non-technical audiences effectively and efficiently while employing a high degree of collaboration and influence

Skills and Abilities:

-    Oral & Written Communication

-    Leadership

-    Critical Thinking

-    Prioritization

-    Collaboration

-    Analytical

-    Candor

-    Informed Risk-Taking

-    Creativity

Work Conditions:

• Environment Hybrid (4 days in office; 1 day remote/week)

• Oncall: Yes

• Shift Work: No

• Travel Required: 0-2 days per Month

Company Overview

Since 1827, Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE: NSC) and its predecessor companies have safely moved the goods and materials that drive the U.S. economy. Today, it operates a customer-centric and operations-driven freight transportation network. Committed to furthering sustainability, Norfolk Southern helps its customers avoid 15 million tons of yearly carbon emissions by shipping via rail. Its dedicated team members deliver more than 7 million carloads annually, from agriculture to consumer goods, and is the largest rail shipper of auto products and metals in North America. Norfolk Southern also has the most extensive intermodal network in the eastern U.S., serving a majority of the country’s population and manufacturing base, with connections to every major container port on the Atlantic coast as well as the Gulf of Mexico and Great Lakes. Learn more by visiting www.NorfolkSouthern.com.

At Norfolk Southern, we believe in celebrating our individuality. By leveraging the unique backgrounds and viewpoints of our employees, we can create a culture of innovation, respect, and inclusion. We know that employees thrive in a workplace where differing viewpoints, ideas, and experiences are freely shared and valued. As such, we encourage all employees to contribute their distinctive skills and capabilities to our organization.

Equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants regardless of race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetic information, veteran status, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Together, we power progress.