Description
Requisition 40375: B4 Senior Product Owner
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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 Norfolk Southern's suite of digital platforms. The role bridges the gap between intermodal terminal operations and technology delivery by partnering with terminal managers, operational leaders, internal stakeholders, and gate/yard personnel to facilitate the collection of business needs. 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.
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.
Product Strategy & Roadmap Ownership
• Define and document the purpose, value, and benefit hypotheses for upcoming product features.
• Develop and maintain a strong understanding of business domain, objectives, and strategic goals.
• Define and communicate features, priorities, and associated Objectives & Key Results (OKRs) using the product roadmap for upcoming quarters.
• Assign and validate business value to features using data to inform prioritization decisions.
Backlog Management & Sprint Execution
• Refine and maintain a ready backlog of features and user stories for upcoming quarters.
• Ensure business needs are accurately translated into high-quality, clearly defined user stories.
• Accountable for the quality and readiness of user stories, with refinement and review completed at least one week prior to Sprint Planning.
• Commit user stories for the next two sprints during Sprint Planning in collaboration with the IT Scrum Team.
• Partner with Scrum Team members to address dependencies, escalate impediments as needed, and ensure in-sprint delivery.
Delivery, Release & Quality Accountability
• Coordinate and support product testing activities for the current sprint to meet quality expectations.
• Provide Go/No-Go recommendations and decisions for releases in collaboration with IT and business stakeholders.
• Coordinate release impacts, processes, and change delivery with business owners, including preparation and execution of Change Management Plans (e.g., Salesforce quarterly releases).
Stakeholder Engagement & Communication
• Collect, refine, and validate business needs through ongoing engagement with business owners and stakeholders.
• Facilitate sprint demos with business owners at the end of each sprint to review delivered outcomes.
• Facilitate sprint read-outs at the start of each sprint to align stakeholders on priorities and planned work resulting from Sprint Planning.
• Serve as a key liaison between business and technology teams, ensuring transparency, alignment, and shared accountability for outcomes.
• Minimum Level: 3-5 years
• Preferred Level: 5 years
Education Preferred:
• Bachelor's degree in business management, computer science or related field.
Skills Required:
• 3+ years of relevant product management, product owner or business analyst experience in an agile software product development environment.
Skills Preferred:
• 3+ years of experience delivering software with agile scrum methodologies and other commonly used tools.
• Experience with Jira, Confluence, and/or Jira Plan.
• NS experience within Intermodal or automative business units.
• 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.
o Demonstrated ability to use data, KPIs, and customer insights to inform prioritization and measure product success
o Comfortable making tradeoff decisions under ambiguity
Skills and Abilities:
• Oral & Written Communication
• Leadership
• Critical Thinking
• Prioritization
• Collaboration
• Analytical
• Candor
• Informed Risk-Taking
• Creativity
Work Conditions:
• Environment Hybrid (2-3 days in office; 2 days remote/week)
• On call: Yes
• Shift Work: No
• Travel Required: 0-3 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.
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