Product Owner - Project Hire

Department Description

At Disney, we’re storytellers. We make the impossible, possible. The Walt Disney Company is a world-class entertainment and technological leader. Walt’s passion was to continuously envision new ways to move audiences around the world—a passion that remains our touchstone in an enterprise that stretches from theme parks, resorts and a cruise line to sports, news, movies and a variety of other businesses. Uniting each endeavor is a commitment to creating and delivering unforgettable experiences — and we’re constantly looking for ways to improve these exciting experiences.

The Enterprise Technology mission is to deliver technology solutions that align to business strategies while enabling enterprise efficiency and promoting cross-company collaborative innovation. Our group drives competitive advantage by improving our consumer experiences, enabling business growth, and advancing operational excellence.

Team Description:

This Product Owner role would be part of our Business Technology Platforms group, which is responsible for the products and platforms that support Disney’s corporate business functions, and our enterprise service management platforms (Appian, Salesforce, & ServiceNow). This role supports the development efforts of one or more agile teams, in partnership with the individual Product Owners supporting each agile team, to aid maintaining a prioritized focus to delivering commitments to our customers. We’re looking for an individual who is passionate about building outstanding products and is focused on continuously maintaining and enhancing existing products, all to improve Disney’s technical excellence.

*This is an estimated 30-month project hire placement, with no guarantee of permanent placement.

What You’ll Do:

• Identify key customers to build relationships with, in order to develop effective product feedback loops for integration to the agile delivery cycle

• Work with partners and team to develop strategy and roadmaps for implementation into Disney Technology business planning cycles and cross-functional development management

• Define priorities of agile team, managing the team backlog, and prioritizing the user stories, defects, and enablers - ensuring that these efforts align with the strategic priorities of product strategy and overall roadmap

• Ensure the development of well-defined user stories and acceptance criteria based on established requirements

• Collaborate with technology and end-user communities to understand business process and elicit, define, and ensure vital information is detailed for the agile team to deliver the intended business outcomes

• Partner with quality engineering to develop test strategy and write test cases across in alignment with the established standards and practice, execute tests and analyze their results, and resolve defects as needed

• Evaluate the delivered stories against the definition of done and the established acceptance criteria

• Collaborate with business partners on implementation including training, organizational change, and communications

• Partner with the Program Management Office on product/project budgets and forecasting processes

• Remediate difficult problems and sophisticated inquiries related to the development backlog and requirements to ensure successful agile team outcomes; on time, on budget and on function

• Act as a peer group leader to and help train staff on product delivery standards and processes

• Act as subject matter resources with internal customers and the assigned product areas

Required Qualifications & Skills:

• 5+ years of related experience in a Product Owner or related role – driving outcomes for both single products or complex features

• Validated experience working in, and leading within, an Agile environment – managing backlog, prioritizing user stories, and related efforts

• Strong technology background and applicable technical skills

• Ability to translate sophisticated ideas into understandable requirements, value statements, and business outcomes

• Strong communication, writing, and executive presentation skills

Required Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software, Electrical or Electronics Engineering, or comparable field of study, and/or equivalent work experience

Preferred Education/Certifications:

• Masters Degree in a related field

• Agile product owner certifications (ex. CSPO, SAFe PO/PM)

#DISNEYTECH

The hiring range for this position in Burbank, CA is 117,500 - $155,500 per year. The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. A bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to the full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the level and position offered