Product Owner

Consumers Energy is Michigan's largest energy provider, providing natural gas and/or electricity to 6.8 million of the state's 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties. Consumers Energy knows job number one is to keep the lights on for customers. We are committed to delivering reliable, clean, and affordable energy to our customers 24/7.

This position is not eligible for immigration sponsorship, e.g., H-1B, TN, etc. Please do not apply if you will need immigration sponsorship for a work visa now or in the future, including sponsorship for H-1B, TN, etc., now or in the future. We are unable to hire individuals with CPT, OPT, or STEM OPT for this position as the position is not eligible for participation in the H-1B lottery program and is not eligible for current or future immigration sponsorship for a work visa.

Location

This is a hybrid (virtual/onsite) position with required onsite days on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday assigned to Parnall Office located in Jackson, MI. The selected candidate must be within a commutable distance or willing to relocate (relocation package is available for those that qualify).

General Summary of Job Responsibilities

The Product Owner will collect and consider product input from research, stakeholders, past experiences, and Agile team members so that potential work can be evaluated based on its value. The Product Owner is accountable for defining new work and visions into a product backlog (a list of new or changing features for a product) for Agile delivery teams, ensuring that each product backlog item has clearly defined business value. Additionally, the Product Owner will develop and/or contribute to business cases and justification for product backlogs, including justification for annual or ongoing product funding as required for financial planning or regulatory approvals. The Product Owner takes ownership of a product, continually analyzing the product's current state, potential new work, and completing work in order to determine the next steps for improving the product and meeting business objectives.

This Product Owner specifically focuses on the digital tools and automation used in the life cycle of Electric Supply delivery - from energy/capacity planning & modeling to prospecting, solicitation, & project execution, to operating power generation units. They will ensure we are maximizing the value we get out of our current tools and build the most impactful roadmap for future enhancements and tools.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Approve work for release and identify release timing needs with stakeholder input to ensure customer needs are met. Align with stakeholders to ensure they are expecting the release and are prepared for new functionality as needed.
• Communicate the overall product vision as needed, with a strong focus on what and why regarding product work. This includes developing and/or contributing to presentations, business cases, justification for product backlogs, and justification for annual or ongoing product funding.
• Elicit and express customer and stakeholder needs into a product backlog. This involves gathering and analyzing input from research, stakeholders, past experience, and Agile team members so that need and value can be clearly documented in product backlog items (Agile team's list of work). This should be done with the goal of defining the backlog in a manner that allows for sequential and incremental delivery to realize business value frequently.
• Include technical debt in all priority considerations; focus on reducing technical debt and understanding the results of approaches that expedite work to achieve value faster at the expense of creating complexity or issues for future work. Focus on improving the flow of work and reducing overall technical debt in the product.
• Make decisions on when items are "done" and in a state to begin realizing value or objectives, including validating that the completed increment of work is done according to the team's "definition of done" (an agreed list of items that must be complete before considering work done), stakeholder feedback, risks and issues, and unique defined acceptance criteria (specific objectives unique to that work item) are met.
• Manage customer and stakeholder expectations, including resolving ambiguous business priority conflicts. Evaluate expectations against all work in a product backlog, then clearly set expectations with all known work in mind. This may include saying "no" in many cases.
• Manage, prioritize, and clarify backlog items according to evolving business and project conditions. This includes continually analyzing, changing, and reprioritizing the current product backlog and adjusting based on feedback, new input, questions, new learnings, or other changing circumstances that provide new insight on achieving business outcomes and value for the product.
• Lead Agile team events. Attend, represent customers and stakeholders, and make decisions around product priorities and conflicts that arise in Agile team events. Requires being prepared to clarify and communicate the vision and known details around value and objectives of product backlog items.
• Perform other duties as assigned or as may be necessary.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Business area and product knowledge.
• Analytical skills.
• Verbal, written, and facilitation skills.
• Conflict resolution and negotiation skills.
• Ability to define a vision based on input from multiple stakeholders.
• Ability to quantify, evaluate, and communicate product progress.
• Ability to navigate ambiguity.
• Ability to manage and prioritize the product backlog.
• Ability to understand, analyze, and anticipate stakeholder needs.
• Ability to act as the primary liaison with decision-making authority.

Education and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in product management, engineering, or information technology, and at least two (2) years of experience as a subject matter expert in a product, industry, or business area as well as direct experience working with products and stakeholders, and prior roles as a business analyst or product owner.
• (OR) Associate's degree in product management, engineering, or information technology, and at least four (4) years of experience as a subject matter expert in a product, industry, or business area as well as direct experience working with products and stakeholders, and prior roles as a business analyst or product owner.
• (OR) High school diploma and at least six (6) years of experience as a subject matter expert in a product, industry, or business area as well as direct experience working with products and stakeholders, and prior roles as a business analyst or product owner.
• Proven ability to analyze, assess value, and prioritize potential improvements to products or areas.
• Strong experience in communicating, negotiating, and managing stakeholder expectations.

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Why should you join our team?

At Consumers Energy, we offer more than just a place to work. We foster a culture that supports career development, growth, and stability, and we take pride in offering our co-workers excellent benefits and compensation packages. We are deliberately creating an inclusive culture that makes our diverse team of co-workers feel valued, supported, and empowered every day. We're a company made up of thousands of people, all with different stories to share and work to do, but we stand united in our company purpose: world class performance delivering hometown service.

What we offer:

• Competitive compensation packages
• Medical, Dental and Vision
• 401k with company match
• Paid parental leave
• Up to 13 paid Holidays
• Paid time off
• Educational Assistance Program

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion:

We, at CMS Energy, value Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion. It is part of our DNA. We treat our employees with respect, we treat each other fairly and we value the opinions of others. We are passionate about building and nurturing an environment where everyone feels included. We don't discriminate. We seek to learn about each other and better understand our unique differences. Our uniqueness makes us authentic. We create safe spaces where everyone can be who they truly are. We invite difficult conversations and uncomfortable topics. We value diverse perspectives; this is what makes us great together. We harbor an inclusive environment where employees feel empowered to share their backgrounds, experiences, and ideas. Our Employee Resource Groups, Women in Energy (WE), Minority Advisory Panel (MAP), Pride Alliance of Consumers Energy (PACE), GENERGY, capABLE, Interfaith and Veterans Advisory Panel (VAP) are key enablers to living the values of our company culture: Caring, Empowered, Deliberate, Agility, and Ownership.

All qualified applicants will not be discriminated against and will receive consideration for employment without regard to protected veteran status, disability, race, color, religion, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin.