Associate Product Owner en Boston Mutual Life Insurance Company

All Boston Mutual employees who interact with our policyholders, our producers and our BML associates embrace the principles of our brand and service philosophy. We are all brand ambassadors. Both our words and our behaviors matter. We share a common service philosophy and pride ourselves in living the BML brand promises every day, one interaction at a time.

The following statements represent what Boston Mutual stands “FOR” – it is what makes us different and better in the market we serve.

• We are FOR being a progressive life insurance company dedicated to offering financial peace of mind to working Americans and their families.
• We are FOR providing practical and affordable products designed for those we serve.
• We are FOR making it easy to secure a level of financial protection with a portfolio of products – beginning with life insurance – via enrollment and billing options at the workplace.
• We are FOR providing a personalized customer experience to our policyholders and producers.
• We are FOR acting in the best interests of our policyholders, producers, employees and the communities in which we live and serve – representing the goodness of mutuality in all we do.

 We do our best to:

• Demonstrate a desire to assist.
• Listen to understand and respond empathetically.
• Explain things in a manner that is easy to understand.
• Be knowledgeable students of our business.
• Take full ownership to resolve questions and issues.
• Be professional, polite and courteous.
• Leave our customers and associates “better than where we found them.”

The Associate Product Owner reports to the Director of EPMO. The Associate Product Owner will focus on supporting the Product Owner in delivering the product roadmap, vision and KPIs within an Agile/SCRUM framework, working cross functionally with both internal and external stakeholders to drive front and back-end improvements and operational efficiencies.   

Responsibilities:

1. Stakeholder Collaboration: 
   • Develop strong cross functional business relationships across the organization to ensure a successful implementation of the policy administration system. Lead workshops, brainstorming sessions, and meetings.
2. Support Product Backlog Management:
   • Partner with the Product Owner in maintaining and refining the product backlog, ensuring that user stories are well-defined, prioritized, and aligned with vision.
   • Collaborate with the Product Owner to prioritize backlog items based on business value, stakeholder input, and technical dependencies.
   • Help ensure that user stories and acceptance criteria are clear and understood by all stakeholders and Majesco.
3. Requirements Gathering and User Story Development:
   • Work with the Product Owner and stakeholders to gather and document business requirements.
   • Assist in the development of user stories, functional requirements, and acceptance criteria for features, ensuring that the acceptance criteria provides clarity for how the story can be tested. 
   • Facilitate discussions with stakeholders to ensure alignment between business needs and system capabilities.
4. Collaboration with Vendor and Testing Teams:
   • Serve as a liaison between the vendor team and stakeholders to clarify requirements and provide guidance during sprints.
   • Participate in Agile ceremonies, including daily stand-ups, sprint planning, and backlog refinement, ensuring the team understands the work to be completed.
   • Support the Testing Teams (QA and UAT) team by providing input to test scenarios, reviewing test results and providing feedback on whether the delivered functionality meets business requirements.
   • Review the story after the vendor team has completed the build to ensure it meets the acceptance criteria and can be marked as complete.
5. Stakeholder Communication:
   • Work with the Product Owner to communicate progress, challenges, and results to business stakeholders and project teams.
   • Participate in review meetings with stakeholders to demo features, discuss priorities, and gather feedback on delivered functionality.
   • Demonstrate features to stakeholders.
   • Act as a point of contact for day-to-day inquiries regarding product features, user stories, and requirements.
6. Continuous Improvement:
   • Identify opportunities for improving processes within the Product Owner role, helping to increase efficiency in backlog management and team collaboration.
   • Assist in implementing best practices for Agile product development and product ownership.
   • Participate in retrospectives to contribute to lessons learned and improvements for future projects

Qualifications

Education: Bachelor’s degree in Business, Data Science, Information Systems, or a related field or related work experience. Certifications such as CSPO (Certified Scrum Product Owner) or similar are preferred.

Experience: 3+ years of experience in Worksite or Group insurance, product management, business analysis, or a related field.

Knowledge Requirements:

• Strong attention to detail, problem-solving abilities
• Experience with test management tools (e.g., JIRA).
• Exposure to Agile development processes, product ownership, or requirements gathering, ideally in insurance or financial services.
•  
• Excellent written/verbal communication skills
• Strong understanding of UAT processes, testing methodologies, and defect tracking.
• Ability to write detailed test cases based on business requirements and user stories.
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Experience assisting in the creation of SOPs and training materials for end-users.
• Strong communication skills to collaborate effectively with UAT team members, business testers, and vendor.
• Strong computer skills using MS Office.

Hybrid Work Model

At our Canton location, employees will be on site Monday - Thursday. At our Omaha location, employees will be on site 2 days per week.

Boston Mutual is an equal opportunity employer, and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, disability, military service, veteran status, family status, pregnancy, or any other characteristic protected by federal or state laws. Boston Mutual is a drug-free workplace.

 #LI-Hybrid