Ascend Learning is a national leader in data driven, online educational solutions for learners, educators and employers in high-growth, licensure-driven professions spanning healthcare, fitness and wellness, skilled trades, insurance and financial services. We are passionate about accelerating learning while impacting job readiness, employment success and employee retention with the belief that our work changes lives.
Our culture is intentionally results-driven and selfless with a relentless focus on our customers. We believe in trust, transparency, freedom and responsibility with a commitment to meritocracy, inclusion and diversity of thought. Continual investment in our over 1400 employees is also a core principal realized through ongoing professional development and providing opportunities to grow, develop and lead. Ascend Learning is headquartered in Burlington, MA with additional office locations and remote workers in cities across the U.S. and in the U.K.
Job Overview
Ascend is seeking several experienced individuals who are passionate about creating and delivering exceptional experiences for our Shared Services platforms and services. The Shared Services Product Owner will collaboratively set the vision, strategy, and roadmap for their platforms and services. The Product Owner works cross-functionally on all stages of the lifecycle, focused on the execution of design, build, testing, and launch. The Product Owner will work with various stakeholders to design concepts, determine priorities based on business value, document requirements, and represent the users and business during build, testing, and implementation of solutions. These solutions will be a combination of new services and enhancements to existing services.
Responsibilities
Responsible for product launch operations, ongoing enhancements, and driving best in class customer experience
Develop the roadmap in collaboration with product, technology, and business partners considering the enterprise shared services vision, each business vision, market trends, and vendor roadmaps.
Collaborate with and motivate a cross-functional team of designers, developers, testers and others to develop, execute, and release in alignment with product roadmaps.
Collaborate with User Experience (UX) team to apply UX and design-thinking concepts to products and services that will be used by non-technical internal and external users
Serve as liaison between business teams and development teams, representing and advocating for the perspective of the other party.
Gather and document detailed requirements, user stories, and acceptance criteria for product and process enhancements.
Actively support design and prototype work. Solicit user and other stakeholder feedback on concepts and prototypes.
Manage, prioritize, and assess the impact of all work items, such as new features, defects, non-functional requirements, product backlog, etc., including providing the decision to create, fix or defer at the release level.
Assist with release level plans related to schedule, scope and resources. Attend scrum meetings including standups, retrospectives, and demos, working in partnership with agile teams on execution.
Assist with functional testing for assigned projects, including reviewing and accepting or declining output of development to ensure specified acceptance criteria have been completed.
Develop change management and internal communication plans and supporting materials.
Work with the stakeholders to develop metrics to manage and track benefits, adoption and risks to operations.
Drive ongoing improvements and efficiencies in product health, operational practices, tools and processes.
Skills and Abilities
Proven ability to build partnerships and work collaboratively with others to meet shared objectives.
Strong business acumen and affinity for using data to drive decisions.
Strong empathy for users, business partners, and stakeholders.
Natural leader in a matrix organization.
Ability to function effectively during ambiguous tasks.
Ability to own tasks outside of immediate scope of responsibility.
Ability to make good and timely decisions that keep the organization moving forward.
Technical aptitude to partner with development teams.
Analytical thinker and problem solver.
Proven history of gathering requirements for technical projects.
Detail oriented with a strong focus on quality.
Excellent communication skills to adapt to the unique needs of different audiences.
Requirements
Required 4+ years of demonstrated success as Product Owner, Platform Analyst, or similar role.
Required 4+ years of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software experience (e.g. Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce).
Proven success gaining a deep understanding of stakeholder and user experience to improve stakeholder satisfaction.
Experience writing user stories and using product management and development tracking tools (e.g. Jira, Jira Align).
Education and Experience
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent industry experience.
Experience working with software development teams, preferably in a scaled agile framework (SAFe) environment. Certified Scrum Product Owner® or Certified SAFe® Product Owner / Product Manager, preferred.
Ascend Learning, LLC is proud to be an equal opportunity employer (M/F/Vets/Disabled). No agency or search firm submissions will be accepted. Applications for U.S. based positions with Ascend Learning, LLC must be legally authorized to work in the United States and verification of employment eligibility will be required at the time of hire.
