Xero is a beautiful, easy-to-use platform that helps small businesses and their accounting and bookkeeping advisors grow and thrive.
At Xero, our purpose is to make life better for people in small business, their advisors, and communities around the world. This purpose sits at the centre of everything we do. We support our people to do the best work of their lives so that they can help small businesses succeed through better tools, information and connections. Because when they succeed they make a difference, and when millions of small businesses are making a difference, the world is a more beautiful place.
About the team
The Engineering Practice team works across the business to lead efforts to improve engineering practices and culture, and to help Xero to reach its audacious goals of being a world-class engineering powerhouse and opening up our product to global markets.
About the role
Please note that this is a 7 month fixed term opportunity (March - September 2022)
As a Product Owner you will be working with a talented engineering team and responsible for executing on our product vision and roadmap by creating and delivering innovative solutions that solve real world problems for our internal customers.
You will have a strong understanding of the technical details of the problem space and products, including a comprehensive understanding of software development practices. As the Product Owner you will be able to make clear decisions on prioritisation, minimum value, and help the team plan and operate accordingly.
What you’ll do
- Work closely with the Product Management to set priorities for delivery, based on overall vision and product objectives.
- You will help define a product backlog that focuses on achieving agreed product initiatives from the roadmap, and you will be able to guide and focus the delivery team on what problems need to be solved as priorities and why.
- You’ll keep your product backlog up-to-date and prioritised, working with the engineers and delivery teams to refine and provide estimation as needed.
- You’ll work with product management to help define the product roadmap and agree on the key goals, success measures and timeframes. You’ll discuss potential impacts with management and the team and be aligned on what’s needed and what you’re working towards.
- You’ll communicate and openly discuss any roadmap implications you identify to Product Management and work together to mitigate.
- Produce and monitor data to demonstrate and track delivery achievements and concerns.
- Collaborate with the development team on customer interactions to discover usability concerns and functional gaps.
- Practice ongoing product discovery together with the development team and the customers and foster a culture of short cycles of experiments..
- Proactively identify and facilitate the removal of impediments, protecting the team from disruption and helping them honour commitments.
- Ensure key collaboration and practices are followed in an efficient manner and continually evolved to suit the needs of the team.
- Foster a culture of collective ownership and accountability for the work completed within the team.
- Work closely with Product Management to ensure stakeholders are provided with the information they require in a timely manner.
- Provide input to the wider team for capability performance, growth and learning.
- Collaborative definition, management and scheduling of work with external teams, to unblock dependencies as required
What you’ll bring with you:
- Experience in aggregating complex data and presenting it in a more simplified way to help customers make informed decisions.
- Working knowledge of Agile development, LEAN methodology, and supporting tools
- Excellent business writing and communication.
- You'll build a product backlog that focuses on achieving agreed product initiatives from the roadmap, and you will be able to guide and focus the team on what problems need to be solved as priorities and why.
- You’ll keep your product backlog up-to-date and prioritised, working with the team to refine and provide estimation as needed
- Hands-on experience with managing large amount of data
- Good understanding of modern cloud architecture concepts, patterns, and technologies
- Good understanding of the complete software development lifecycle in a DevOps organization
- Ability to comprehend and have an understanding of the wider team’s portfolio of delivery and how you fit into that
- Proactive, ‘can-do’ attitude, exceptionally self-motivated and directed
- Ability to effectively prioritize and scope multiple channels of development
- Superior analytical, evaluative, and problem-solving abilities with a keen attention to detail.
Why you should become a Xero
It’s a diverse and inclusive environment, with people who will respect, challenge, support and mentor you to do the best work of your life. We’re a place where innovation and change are not only encouraged but also celebrated. We value our people and want them to enjoy and take pride in their work.
We’re very supportive of flexible working arrangements and offer a competitive remuneration package including shares and life insurance, in addition to your base salary. We have a culture we’re proud of. Whether you're after a workplace with a social vibe, or a workplace which understands your family is priority - Xero is all of that and more.
Xero is an NZ Immigration Accredited Employer and Rainbow Tick certified too.
Please note that we currently require all employees and contractors to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to work from a Xero office, or engage in any face-to-face Xero business. Xero will work with anyone who is not vaccinated, or prefers not to disclose their vaccination status, to determine if any reasonable accommodations can be provided to ensure their role can be performed safely whilst the restriction is in place.
Please include a cover letter in your application, telling us why you’re a great fit for this position.