Associate Product Owner
Description
Are you looking for an established and dynamic company where you are recognized for your efforts? Are you excited about an opportunity that encourages professional growth and development? Do you enjoy working at a company that develops effective and innovative software and has had 31 years of profitable growth? If you like playing with the latest technology, building new things, coming up with creative ways to solve problems and want to work with a fun and energetic group of people on a growing Products team, the Associate Product Owner role may be for you!
Company:
KPA Services LLC (www.kpaonline.com), based in Lafayette, CO was founded in 1986. KPA is a private equity-backed, highly profitable company with over 10,000 client locations across North America. KPA delivers Environmental Health & Safety, Risk Management, HR Management, and Sales & Finance Compliance programs that help clients achieve regulatory compliance, control risk, protect their assets, and effectively manage people through a combination of intuitive software, interactive training, and onsite compliance audit services. KPA’s clients can be found in the automotive dealership, insurance broker, light industrial, distribution, food & beverage, and manufacturing industries.
KPA has the advantage of 31 years of consistent profitability while having the backing of strong investors to create an entrepreneurial atmosphere built for growth. KPA has a major focus on core values and company culture to attract, retain and engage its 300 outstanding teammates which, in turn, drives our industry-leading 95% client retention, 29% revenue growth, industry leading EBITDA margin and excellent client collections (DSOs under 14).
KPA is known as the “trusted partner” with best-in-class professional consulting to complement premium SaaS solutions, providing high value to our clients and, in turn, driving unparalleled client retention.
Position Description:
You are the vital link between Product and Technology, ensuring the successful completion of analytical testing and deployment tasks of our software product’s features. You understand what the customer needs and know how to translate those criteria to a technical development team. You are invigorated by change and are excited about being a key participant in developing the functional and product requirements for a highly anticipated re-platform project of our Saas based products. You utilize your aptitude for analytics to perform detailed requirement analysis, document processes, perform user acceptance testing and present product demos.
Key Responsibilities:
• Influence product managers and software engineering in regard to functional decisions, technology choices and timelines.
• Show deep understanding of technical and industry trends and their impact on product future.
• Establish close partnership with software engineering teams to ensure successful releases for assigned products.
• Proactively identify and remove project obstacles or barriers to ensure successful releases.
• Clearly articulate and document business requirements and acceptance criteria for defect resolution and new feature development.
• Partner with Development teams to clarify, estimate, and prioritize software requirements.
• Incorporate lessons learned from user interface tracking tools when defining requirements.
• Perform User Acceptance Testing
• Query and analyze data to drive key product decisions and design successful solutions.
• Work with integration partners and other external parties to develop software and data integrations.
• Conduct meetings to share ideas and findings and gain acceptance of requirements.
• Conducts product demos to operations to ensure effective roll out of customer support to our clients.
Time Allocation
• 30% capturing business needs and shaping requirements working with product managers,
• 20% understanding end-user requirements,
• 25% working on solution design and communicating with technology team,
• 15% user acceptance testing
• 10% project management
In the first 2 weeks you will:
• Receive a demo of all software products.
• Review the current Roadmap and understand the projects you will be focused on.
In the first 30 days you will:
• Have a minimum of two features ready for delivery following the defined development process and deploy the features to production.
• Contribute towards the planning, tasking, execution and delivery as defined by an agile development environment that includes reporting time against tasks, estimation of effort, and commitment to delivery.
In the first 6 months you will:
• Collaborate with team members, project managers, product managers and other senior executives on identifying and documenting the technical features and user stories.
By the end of the first year you will have:
• Demonstrated functional knowledge of the SaaS product to the point of leading feature releases for that product.
Requirements
• BS degree in Computer Science/Computer Information Systems or equivalent;
• Strong knowledge of Object-Oriented Analysis and Design and Software Design Patterns
• Knowledge of web services (REST, SOAP, WSDL etc.)
• Experience with web platforms built with HTML, Java Script, jQuery.
• A working understanding of Windows Server Operating Systems and IIS
• Strong Data Analysis skills using MS SQL Server and SSRS
• Previous experience with Payroll, HRIS, Applicant Tracking software or Human Capital Management software
• Demonstrate superior persuasion and influencing skills that ensure alignment between customer, product manager and engineering team
• Creative and passionate about cutting edge technologies and continuous personal and team improvement
• Proven ability and desire to engage with Product Managers, understand their vision and objectives for their products, then translate those objectives into technical requirements
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
• Ability to organize and manage multiple projects simultaneously and adapt to changing deadlines and priorities.
• A commitment to KPA’s core values: Resourceful, Respectful, Accountable, Helpful, Teamwork, Excellence, Integrity.