The opportunity
We are looking for an experienced and results-oriented Product Owner. The Product Owner will be responsible for owning and shaping a specific Product Domain at Openwork at an early stage of our transformational journey. The role focuses on understanding Openwork's strategic and business requirements and developing the assigned Domain to fulfil those strategies. This includes managing product development, overseeing vendor relationships, and supporting Openwork to develop a competitive digital proposition in the market which meets the needs of advisers and end clients.
The successful candidate will be a highly effective communicator and collaborator, a believer in servant leadership who seeks to empower and give voice to all team members across all disciplines and work with tech and change peers as part of a collaborative “three amigo’s” leadership approach.
The successful candidate will be passionate about the user and show deep empathy with their needs – whether that be advisers, clients or colleagues and believe in the value of advice to clients and be able to inspire teams as to the “why” of Openwork.
The benefits:
1. Salary – up to £60,000
2. Bonus scheme - on target bonus –10%
3. Pension scheme - contribute up to 5% of your salary and Openwork will match you and put in an extra 5%
4. Critical illness cover
5. Income protection - 1x salary
6. Death in service - 4x salary
7. 27 days holiday + bank holidays, with the opportunity to buy up to an additional 10 days
8. A range of other flexible benefits to include private medical insurance, dental insurance and much more.
Key Accountabilities:
9. Domain Ownership: Manage your specific Domain of the Adviser toolkit, ensuring that it meets the needs of users and remains competitive in the market.
10. Product Development: Collaborate with cross-functional delivery teams (both external and internal), to integrate, develop and maintain specified features and capabilities in the Adviser toolkit.
11. Voice of Adviser & Client: Act as the primary advocate, and ultimate escalation point, for clients and advisers throughout the product lifecycle, ensuring their needs, feedback, and expectations are accurately represented in all decisions.
12. UX/UI Delivery: Ensure an exceptional user experience and intuitive interface by taking full responsibility for UX/UI outcomes. This includes directly managing design and usability activities or coordinating with third-party partners to ensure a high-quality user-centred design.
13. Requirements Ownership: Supported by Business Analysts from the Business Change Function, define the requirements for a given project within the owned Domain & sign off related acceptance criteria - incorporating the needs of business stakeholders, advisers and end-clients.
14. Benefit Realisation: Track and analyse the performance of the Adviser toolkit Domain, including user experience feedback, operational insights, or commercial KPIs related to the relevant Domain to ensure the product is realising maximum benefit and to inform future developments.
15. Market Monitoring: Monitor market trends, emerging vendor technology and regulatory changes that could impact the Adviser toolkit Domain.
16. Strategic Roadmap Development: Contribute to strategic roadmap for overall Adviser toolkit and own roadmap for specific domain, aligned to the overall strategy, that reflects market trends, adviser needs, and end-client needs.
17. Prioritisation: Inform the overall prioritisation process, informing decisions around Adviser toolkit development for the responsible Domain in collaboration with relevant business owners.
18. Opportunity Analysis: Engage with vendors to identify new opportunities for integration, development or enhancement within the relevant Adviser toolkit domain.
19. Business Case Creation: In collaboration with key business stakeholders, support business case development within Domain scope for new vendor integrations or in-house builds.
20. Vendor Identification: Identify and develop relationship with potential Adviser toolkit vendors and partners, who align with the strategic objectives of the Adviser toolkit.
21. Vendor Evaluation: Lead the assessment process of potential vendors, coordinating relevant parties from across the organisation based on the scope of the request.
22. Integration Strategy: Support setting the framework for Adviser toolkit participation, including onboarding, performance monitoring and SLAs, communication with users.
23. Vendor Management: Build and maintain relationships with key vendors in the Adviser toolkit Domain, ensure ongoing alignment with the Adviser toolkit's strategy and objectives.
What will you need to succeed?
24. Proven experience in product ownership, particularly within financial services or technology sectors including principles and lifecycle management.
25. Familiarity with financial services, adviser tools, and emerging technologies
26. Desirable – experience of large-scale transformation in the financial advice sector.
27. Knowledge of the wealth management, mortgage and protection advice process.
28. Experience in managing vendor relationships and product development processes.
29. Experience in creating and maintaining strategic roadmaps and aligning product strategy with business goals.
30. Experience in user-centred design and journey mapping to optimise adviser and client experiences.
31. Experience of FS systems – e.g. CRM, data management & orchestration.
32. Experience of product ownership tools and best practice e.g. DevOps, JIRA
33. Experience of the power of “data” and practical methods to ensure its conformity, consistency and completeness across the eco system.
34. Proficiency in Agile and Scrum methodologies, with experience leading Agile teams.
35. Knowledge of re-platforming, vendor relationship management and contracting, API and data integration
36. Experience working on a complex multi-app platform.
37. Familiarity with FCA regulations (COBS, ICOB, MCOB) and compliance frameworks
38. Leadership: Ability to lead cross-functional teams and drive product vision and strategy.
39. Customer-Centric Mindset: Deep commitment to understanding and meeting the needs of advisers and end-clients and translating adviser and client needs into actionable product features.
40. Results-Oriented: Driven to achieve results and deliver high-quality products that meet business objectives & KPIs – consistently tracking value and focusing on benefit realisation
41. Data-Driven Decision-Making: Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret complex data to inform product decisions.
42. Adaptability: Flexibility to adapt to changing business needs and market conditions.
43. Collaboration: Strong team player with the ability to work effectively across departments and with external partners.
44. Innovation: A proactive approach to identifying opportunities for product enhancements and new developments.
Why us?
We're a dynamic, fast paced, and growing business with huge ambition. This is all made possible by the brilliant people who are part of The Openwork Partnership family. We're investing heavily in our colleagues, continuously striving to give them the platform to develop personally and professionally and reach their full potential.
We’re also very proud of our culture, as one of the Best 100 Large Companies to work for in 2022. The Openwork Partnership values, and respects individuality and we are committed to building an inclusive culture and environment which truly recognises and celebrates our colleague’s individual differences and identities – just like our financial advice, for us, it’s personal. We believe everyone can make a difference and your race, religion, disability, and gender will never be a barrier. At Openwork, we have a strong ethic of care for each other where you can balance a successful career with your commitments and interests outside of work. We believe that you will bring your best self to work if you are trusted to choose when, where and how you do it.