Director, Agile Product Ownership - Great American Risk Solutions

Be Here. Be Great. Working for a leader in the insurance industry means opportunity for you. Great American Insurance Group's member companies are subsidiaries of American Financial Group. We combine a "small company" culture where your ideas will be heard with "big company" expertise to help you succeed. With over 30 specialty and property and casualty operations, there are always opportunities here to learn and grow.

At Great American, we value and recognize the benefits derived when people with different backgrounds and experiences work together to achieve business results. Our goal is to create a workplace where all employees feel included, empowered, and enabled to perform at their best.

Great American Risk Solutions is a dynamic and diverse operation within the Great American Insurance Group. We offer a wide range of commercial products designed to meet the unique needs of our clients, including property, casualty, and specialty insurance products. Our focus is on the wholesale brokerage market, where our partners specialize in placing complex and high-risk insurance policies, ensuring that our clients receive the best possible service and expertise. We foster a work environment that encourages the empowerment of product owners, respects diverse opinions and experiences, and promotes a culture of continuous growth, learning, and improvement.

The Director, Agile Product Ownership is accountable for the effectiveness, maturity, and outcomes of Agile Product Ownership across a portfolio of products and teams. This role provides strategic leadership, people leadership, and operating-model ownership to ensure Product Owners consistently translate business strategy into measurable customer and business value.

This position focuses on developing talent, aligning product outcomes to enterprise priorities, and strengthening agile product practices at scale, rather than serving as a Product Owner for individual teams.

Key Responsibilities

Organizational & People Leadership

• Lead and develop a team of Agile Product Owners, establishing clear expectations for product leadership, accountability, and outcomes.

• Build a strong talent bench through hiring, coaching, performance management, and succession planning.

• Create clarity around Product Owner career paths, readiness expectations, and development plans.

• Foster a high‑trust, high‑performance culture that emphasizes ownership, learning, and continuous improvement.

Product & Portfolio Leadership

• Ensure Product Owners define and execute product visions and roadmaps aligned to divisional and enterprise strategy.

• Partner with senior business and technology leaders to translate strategic priorities into outcome‑focused roadmaps.

• Guide prioritization across products and teams by balancing business value, risk, dependencies, capacity, and sequencing.

• Monitor portfolio health, delivery predictability, and value realization; proactively identify and address systemic risks.

• Act as an escalation point for complex product, prioritization, or stakeholder challenges.

Agile Practice Ownership & Maturity

• Own and evolve Agile Product Ownership practices, ensuring consistency and effectiveness across teams.

• Serve as a leader in GAIG’s agile maturity journey by modeling strong product leadership and customer‑centric thinking.

• Coach Product Owners and business partners on effective engagement in an agile delivery environment.

• Partner closely with Scrum Masters, engineering leaders, and delivery leadership to continuously improve flow, outcomes, and collaboration.

Executive & Stakeholder Partnership

• Build strong, trusted relationships with senior business and technology stakeholders.

• Enable Product Owners to communicate clearly and confidently with leadership about priorities, progress, risks, and outcomes.

• Synthesize portfolio‑level insights into clear, executive‑ready narratives that inform decision‑making.

• Influence without direct authority to drive alignment across teams and functions.

Desired Skills & Experience

• Demonstrated experience leading Agile Product Owners or product leaders in a complex, matrixed organization.

• Strong background as an Agile Product Owner or product leader within an agile delivery model.

• Proven ability to operate at both strategic and operational levels.

• Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to influence senior leaders and facilitate difficult trade‑off discussions.

• Demonstrated knowledge of and experience managing product development and agile development methodology, preferably Scrum and/or Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). 

• Experience supporting large‑scale system implementations or complex business domains.

• Highly desired experience in Insurance, Underwriting, Policy Administration, Binding Authority, Data & Analytics, or related areas.

• Certifications: CSPO (Certified Scrum Product Owner) or SAFe certifications are a plus.

Additional Information: 

• Travel may be required up to 15%. 

Business Unit:

Salary Range:

Benefits:

We offer competitive benefits packages for full-time and part-time employees*. Full-time employees have access to medical, dental, and vision coverage, wellness plans, parental leave, adoption assistance, and tuition reimbursement. Full-time and eligible part-time employees also enjoy Paid Time Off and paid holidays, a 401(k) plan with company match, an employee stock purchase plan, and commuter benefits.

Compensation varies by role, level, and location and is influenced by skills, experience, and business needs. Your recruiter will provide details about benefits and specific compensation ranges during the hiring process. Learn more at http://www.gaig.com/careers.

*Excludes seasonal employees and interns.