Junior Product Owner

The Junior Product Owner will lead efforts towards the successful launch and lifecycle of assigned products. You will own the Product Backlog of the assigned products, grooming it and prioritizing it in alignment with the corporate product portfolio strategy, sales, support, and engineering capability.

You are a creative and analytical leader who supports the product to grow, liaises with Product Managers and Development teams, and challenges their peers to deliver excellence.

Responsibilities

• Work with the Product Managers and key stakeholders to obtain well-defined user requirements and understand the product vision. Act as the primary point of contact for development teams, ensuring alignment between technical execution and business priorities.
• Document initiatives, epics, user stories, and acceptance criteria in JIRA, aimed at delivering solutions for the user requirements, while focused on the MVP (earliest acceptable version which we can sell).
• Using proposed design, mock-ups, prototypes, or demos, work with Product Manager to collect user feedback and adjust the technical requirements as necessary.
• Set product development priorities which align with the product strategy and technical capabilities.
• Keep your assigned development teams on track by maintain 90 days of work ready to develop in the backlog.
• Guide the engineering team to understand how to vertically divide work to continuously deliver value.
• Advocate for the voice of customer in Sprint Planning, Reviews, and Retrospectives
• Prepare Sprint Review materials and demonstrate sprint deliverables (with Scrum team support).
• Work with Quality Assurance to define beta test requirements and metrics to track.
• Any other related duties required for project or product success

Requirements

• You have experience with globally distributed software applications.
• You have knowledge of the dairy industry and the needs of small farm dairy producers.
• You understand the software development life cycle.
• You have a track record of working across teams to bring success to a product.
• You know how to execute these projects within a global and diverse organization within scope, time, and budget.
• You are an enthusiastic team player and great communicator with a can-do spirit and collaborative attitude.
• You know how to work in internationally distributed teams.
• Experience with setting clear priorities for you and your team.
• Experience with coordinating user testing and release cycles to ensure business objectives are met.
• Experience using Scrum or other Agile methodology and/or Test-Driven Development.

Education & Experience

• 2+ years of experience in a Junior Product Owner or similar role in software development.
• If you have less than 2 years hands-on experience as a Junior Product Owner, or no dairy experience, then a degree in computer science, dairy science, business, marketing, or related fields is preferred.
• Clear understanding of Scrum and Product Owner fundamentals is essential. Scrum certification is optional.

About Us

For the past 40 years we’ve woken up each day to support those that never stop feeding the world – and we have no plans to quit. We set the standard for farm management solutions and fix our eyes on raising the bar to meet the next generation of expectations.

Our software and information solutions help collect and connect a farm’s data – from herd management to feed performance, tracking and more. These insights are a source of truth, empowering producers and their trusted advisors to make profit-driven and sustainable management decisions.

Whether near or far, large or small, VAS is at the heart of your dairy.

VAS has deep roots in the industry through its origin within the URUS family of companies. URUS is a holding company with cooperative and private ownership and is positioned at the heart of the dairy and beef industry. Its family of companies include AgSource, Alta Genetics, GENEX, Genetics Australia, Leachman Cattle, Jetstream, PEAK, SCCL, Trans Ova Genetics and VAS , with each having its own unique identity, products, and services. These companies work globally to provide cutting-edge dairy and beef genetics, customized reproductive services, dairy management information to take producers to the frontline of progressive dairy farming, and an array of products and services to help bovines reach their full genetic potential. URUS Group has 26 operating companies in 15 countries and employs approximately 2,400 people.