Product Owner

Our OEM Client based in Gaydon is searching for a Product Owner to join their team, Inside IR35. This is a 12-month contract position initially until 31st March 2026, with the potential for further extensions. Umbrella Pay Rate: £33.64 per hour.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Product Owner in our Powertrain Software Control Group, working with our client's Agile framework. It is responsible for defining the Product Vision and Backlog for a squad, in order to co-ordinate the delivery (system design, software implementation and verification) of a number of significant propulsion features across parallel vehicle programmes. The feature set covers BEV driver modes and predictive features.

Essential Personal Profile:

• An individual who works independently, is value driven, demonstrating tenacity, drive and perseverance with the ability to deliver operational plans in a complex, highly demanding environment.
• An individual with an agile mindset, who views challenges as opportunities, gives and receives constructive feedback, driven to learn and improve, inspired by the success of others, persists in the face of sceptics and takes a setback as an opportunity to grow.
• An individual with the ability to challenge existing thinking in a positive way whilst building credibility and trust through experience and personal style.
• An effective team player, actively developing and supporting other team members.
• A good communicator with the ability to communicate and clearly lay out complex ideas.
• The ability to build and manage internal and external relationships in complex stakeholder environments.
• The ability to adapt to the demands of high priority work streams in support of engineering delivery priorities.

Key Accountabilities and Responsibilities:

• Become an expert in the squad’s feature content and act as the central point of contact within the business for the feature delivery status.
• Act as interface between squad and external customer/stakeholders.
• Communicate clear product goals and prioritised backlog to the squad.
• Maximise the value of the output that the squad works on by using iterative ways of working to deliver value quicker and minimise risk.
• Maintain a strong understanding of our client's systems engineering framework, software development processes and verification testing capabilities.
• Ensure upfront alignment and co-ordination with other interacting squads or groups.
• Establish/Facilitate/Participate in key agile ceremonies across co-located and virtual teams.
• Rapidly respond to changing customer needs through fast, regular feedback and reprioritisation.
• Support Scrum Master in the development, implementation and adherence of Agile project management processes.
• Confidently and clearly present issues and proposed feasibility solutions, as well as provide status on a regular basis to all stakeholder levels.
• Support the squad in resolving key technical issues.
• Undertake any other work as directed by their Line Manager in connection with their job as may be requested from time-to-time.

Essential Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

• Experience and knowledge of Agile/Scrum product delivery methodology, working as a Product Owner.
• Experience and knowledge of Systems Engineering methodologies and tools.
• Experience of delivering engineering and/or analytical projects.
• Experience of solving complex technical issues using a structured approach with the ability to identify areas for improvement.
• Relevant degree or equivalent experience preferred.

Desirable Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

• Experience within the Automotive Sector.
• Experience of managing projects and backlogs in tools such as Confluence and JIRA.
• Prior knowledge/experience of working on distributed control systems for automotive propulsion features.
• Experience of requirements management in Dassault TRM or IBM DOORS.
• Experience in system modelling using MBSE tools such as CATIA Magic or IBM Rhapsody.
• Experience in developing control systems using MATLAB/Simulink.