Product Owner Practice Lead Job

In 2020, senior management presented to the Board of Directors an integrated digital strategy and transformation roadmap to meet the long-term corporate aspirations of EDC. The strategy has been approved by the Board of Directors and is now in start-up mode. Most recently, a centralized Transformation Office (TO) has been created which incorporates all orchestration, change, culture and technology teams. TO employees are empowered to deliver impactful solutions and sustainable change to our exporter platforms and employee experience, while evolving ways of working and bringing the exporter at the center of the design cycle.

EDC now seeks an individual with extensive Product Ownership experience to lead our Product Owner Practice. By promoting new ways of working, you’ll help optimize our client experience by introducing ways to motivate and focus teams on the most important work. Are you passionate about ensuring the customer view comes first when developing business solutions? Are you a highly experienced Agile Product Owner looking for the next step in your career? Then come join our Agile Center of Excellence team as a Product Owner Practice Lead, reporting to the Vice-President, Agile Center of Excellence (CoE). 

This is a role that entails the following:
• Product Owner Role ownership – the PO Practice Lead will own the definition of the PO role and manage change across the organization to ensure consistency of practices no matter where the role is being utilized including supporting recruitment of new employees
• Establish & maintain standards – Collaborate amongst all Product Owners at EDC to align on, implement, and continuously improve tools, techniques, and standard ways of working for the PO role including product delivery prioritization, road mapping, stakeholder management, user story writing, and business value measurement

• Coaching and Building Agile expertise – The PO Practice Lead should have advanced Agile knowledge and proven coaching skills. They will be responsible for building Agile expertise and increasing efficiencies within their practice, working closely with others in the Agile CoE.

Strong partnership with lines of business and Chapter Leads will be imperative as you will play a key role deploying skilled team members that will enable agility within teams.  As someone who is deeply passionate about Agile and a proven change agent, you thrive in ambiguity and look to build a great team, acting as a servant leader.

Key Responsibilities 

• Builds the product ownership practice and develops employees into a high caliber group of Product Owners  
• Contributes to building Agile standards and ensures consistency of practices across all Product Owners at EDC
• Support hires, evaluates, and provides guidance and training as necessary to develop team members
• Coaches team members and supports with hands on execution to mentor/coach as required
• Supports Product Owners in their journey to develop the skills and mindsets required to be effective in the role
• Enables a continuous learning environment, identifying ways to strengthen understanding of Agile/Scrum/Kanban concepts and principles
• Acts as a key stakeholder and champion of the broader EDC Agile transformation journey

Screening Criteria  

• Undergraduate degree or equivalent combination of training and experience required
• Minimum of ten years related work experience working as part of Agile teams and at least five years acting as a senior level Product Owner
• Advanced agile certification required, such as:
• DA Coach (DAC)
• Professional Scrum Product Owner III – PSPO III(Scrum.org)
• Certified Scrum Professional Product Owner – Level 3 (Scrum Alliance)
• Minimum 5 years leadership and change management experience 
• Exceptional collaboration, communication and influencing skills 
• Bilingualism in both official languages (French and English). However, in the event a qualified bilingual candidate is not found, a qualified unilingual candidate will be considered. Both bilingual and unilingual candidates are encouraged to apply.

Assets

• Experience leading or playing an active role in a large Agile Transformation
• Leadership experience
• Computer Science / engineering experience coupled with Product Management preferred. Graduate degree preferred
• Financial Services and technical experience preferred

Salary Range

• $106,500-159,700 , plus performance-based incentive.