Product Owner (Geospatial)

The Collaboration Centre is a critical component of the ITS Operating Model, and an enabler for the Technology Strategy in AMP8 and beyond. It brings together the historically separate worlds of change/project delivery and IT service and operations into one multidisciplinary team responsible for the complete end-to-end business service for a given technology platform or group of applications.

Working as a multidisciplined member of the Specialist Applications CC, you will report to the Senior Product Owner. While the product owner is likely to work across the specialist applications area, expertise in geospatial solutions would be advantageous (ideally within the Esri stack).

The Product Owner role is accountable for ensuring that SA CC initiatives continue to align with business strategy and best practices. You will also ensure that the SA CC team continually releases innovative products to relevant business areas to support the achievement of our AMP goals, drive efficiencies, and help our business areas provide excellent customer service.

To do this you will engage with all business areas, using your excellent communication and problem-solving skills to identify business problems that can be solved through enterprise-grade, specialist applications. This will require not only an in-depth knowledge of applications, technology, and concepts but a deep understanding of our business and the challenges we face. You will translate these problems into requirements aligning with SA CC best practice and standards which can be delivered by our technical teams. You will need to continually review and refine the SA CC demands to ensure the applications backlog remains aligned with business needs and offers DCWW the most return on value as priorities change. You will need to engage in negotiation with business areas and resolve conflict where there is a lack of clarity around the strategic priority of requirements to be delivered. You will be required to manage and lead by influence, rather than direct control.

You will need to work with stakeholders all over the business, from director level to front line staff, technical and non-technical, and be comfortable communicating confidently at all levels, facilitating discussion and negotiation priorities with restricted resources. You will be accountable and empowered to make quick, in-the-moment decisions which can have a significant impact on your colleagues and be able to quickly justify and explain the rationale for these decisions. This will require a significant amount of emotional intelligence when stakeholders perceive they have lost out, have been deprioritised, or we have failed to deliver on our commitments because of these decisions.

What you’ll be responsible for:

• Support the SA CC Lead and the Senior Product Owner in the development, implementation, and continual review of the Welsh Water specialist applications strategy by engaging with stakeholders from around the business and identifying and documenting business problems as well as potential solutions and business requirements to feed into the applications backlog.
• Through continuous engagement with stakeholders from Director level to front line staff, use your excellent communication and problem-solving skills to define business problems and translate these into requirements backlog which supports the SA CC and broader Welsh Water strategies for technology, digital and customer service, as well as AMP goals for efficiency savings.
• Define and implement stakeholder management strategies to ensure that all business stakeholders, from all areas of the business remain engaged and that they are continually informed of progress of products and features on the specialist applications backlog schedule.
• Develop a process by which to assess priority of demand based on forecast business benefit to ensure that we are delivering initiatives in the correct order, that delivers the most value for money for the business.
• Lead and challenge business stakeholders to define a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for initiatives so that we only deliver high-value requirements and minimise wasted effort.
• Act as a Subject Matter Expert across the business and lead the organisation in defining application principles and procedures and ensuring that these are adhered to.
• Represent the applications team at internal and external forums.
• Lead and coach others on Agile ways of working and principles to ensure that business value is delivered often and value for money is achieved.
• Challenge stakeholders on their behaviours when they do not align with these principles.
• Ensure that initiatives are delivered in adherence to the principles and governance established by SA CC Lead in the identification and definition of benefits associated with initiatives you are working on and work with the Senior Product Owner to ensure that these benefits are tracked and reported to support the continual improvement of products and services across the business.
• Challenge business stakeholders to ensure that benefits associated with initiatives and requirements are clearly defined and aligned with business objectives and strategy, rejecting any requirements which do not meet these requirements and providing rationale for this decision.
• Lead on implementation Go/No Go decisions during deployment to Production, and sign-off of Test Exit Reports.
• Managing all demands/requests through ServiceNow and Azure DevOps for the specialist applications backlog.
• Contribute to Scrum ceremonies and take ownership of Product Owner Scrum Artefacts.
• Work with the team to help resolve issues and impediments that would result in not delivering on the sprint commitments and customer expectations.

Who you’ll work with:

• Internal: Senior Product Owner, Technical Delivery Lead, Technical Architect, Solution Architect, Application Analysts, ITS Cyber Security Team, All other business areas and support functions.
• External: External bodies and stakeholders.

About you:

• SCRUM Certified Product Owner.
• Experience of working in agile teams.
• Experience of working in an application product base environment and managing requirements and product backlog.
• Experience of working with enterprise Geospatial technologies (Esri stack would be desirable).

Good to know:

This is a hybrid role and you will be expected to attend the office in Cardiff 2 days a week or as business requirements dictate. As well as a market competitive salary, 33 days annual leave (pro rata, including public holidays), we offer a range of employee benefits and rewards including:

• Variable pay schemes (your salary band will remain the same, but performance depending, you could receive an incremental within-band increase and a yearly incentive).
• Option to buy additional annual leave up to 5 days per year.
• Enhanced employer pension contributions – Up to 11% employer contributions.
• Free Mortgage Brokering Services.
• Enhanced family-friendly policies.
• Progression opportunities, including the ability to apply for funded training and coaching and mentoring programmes.
• Gym and fitness discounts as well as high street shopping.
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Discount off all Welsh Water visitor attraction centres and gift shops.
• Car-leasing scheme and free on-site parking at all sites.
• Health CashBack scheme and access to an online GP service.
• An employee assistance programme for employees and their immediate family.

Whilst also working for a not-for-profit company that truly cares about earning the trust of customers every day and about looking after our beautiful environment.

Please note, we may close this role sooner if required. We may also extend the original closing date depending on interest. Due to the nature of the industry, we require satisfactory references, post-offer medical clearance, and a criminal records Basic Disclosure check on all new employees joining the business. For some roles, there may be additional checks and security clearance required, and this offer is subject to all checks being satisfied. You will receive further information on how to complete these checks via email once you have accepted this offer.

Who we are:

Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water keeps 3 million people healthy each day with safe, reliable water, and takes away wastewater to clean, before returning it safely to our beautiful rivers and seas. To be able to deliver high-quality, essential services which help to protect the health of our customers, colleagues, and our environment, we need the right people to deliver on our vision. This is achieved by living our core values and demonstrating the core behaviours that underpin them. The security of our people, assets, and information is key to us, so we are looking for people who understand and comply with the company’s required security objectives. We know that the most successful teams are the most diverse teams. Equality, diversity, and inclusion provide the very foundation to our culture at Welsh Water. We want every individual to feel confident, proud, and able to bring their whole selves to work. To ensure an improved representation in our workforce, applications are particularly welcome from minority groups including Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people, Females, LGBT+, Non-binary and people with disabilities. Together we continue to build a workplace that not only celebrates the diverse voices of our colleagues but also represents each customer we serve. In essence, ours is a company based on trust, openness, respect, commitment, and honesty. A company that our colleagues are proud to work for.