Product Owner
This is a terrific opportunity for an organized individual with excellent product ownership skills to join our team. At Forward Financing, our mission is to be the leading provider of financing solutions to under-served small businesses. As the 15th fastest growing company in US & #1 in Massachusetts (Inc 500), we are at the forefront of growth in the FinTech space. We are 100% dedicated to this vertical and to achieving our mission.
As Product Owner, you will be responsible for articulating and translating the product vision into feature(s) and tactics for our products while effectively communicating the product strategy to key stakeholders and team members.
In this role you will:
- Ensure that development work maximizes value and is aligned with overall business and product strategy
- Contribute to continuous improvement and innovation by identifying high impact features and fixes
- Meet with stakeholders to understand pain points and requirements
- Write technical user stories, collaborating and communicating feature requests to engineering teams in a fast-paced, agile environment
- Identify, size and prioritize increments of work to be targeted for each iteration
- Communicate the project status, readiness, issues and risks to management & stakeholders
- Be the product expert, knowing the functional and technical capabilities inside and out
- Help define and establish Forward Financing’s agile processes, standards and best practices
- Train internal teams on product development changes and be the go-to resource for the teams as questions arise
- Conduct user acceptance testing (UAT) and determine if a product enhancement meets acceptance criteria
- Participate in daily standups, reviews, and retrospectives
About You:
- Passionate: High energy. “Can-do-attitude”. Enthusiastic. Optimistic, open, and objective toward others.
- Coachable: Open to feedback and continual professional improvement. Flexible and adaptable.
- High Standards: Quality orientation. Follow through on commitments. A Doer who gets things done.
- Efficient: Producing significant output with minimal wasted effort, organized planning and prioritization.
- Proactive: Self-starter, continually seeks additional responsibilities. Willingness to go the distance to get something done, including working long hours at times if needed.
- Collaborative: Strong “people orientation”. Can disagree without being abrasive or intimidating. Team player.
- Emotional Intelligence: high degree of self-awareness. Handles interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically. Exercises good judgement while under pressure.
- Communicator: Speaks and writes clearly and articulately without being overly verbose or talkative and possesses an openness to people and a willingness to hear what others are saying.
Requirements:
- Bachelor’s degree
- 4+ years of professional experience and 2+ years of experience in an agile software development environment
- Proven competency with agile processes, defining stories that are ready-for-engineering
- Exceptional communication skills including the ability to deliver precise, detailed requirements to engineering
- Experience with working with offshore and onshore teams is a plus
- Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) Certification is a plus
About Us:
Forward Financing is a Boston-based financial technology company that provides fast, flexible, and reliable working capital to small and medium-size businesses nationwide. By combining proprietary technology with a team of small business financing experts, Forward Financing delivers same day funding with the speed and simplicity business owners need to succeed and grow. With a simple online application, businesses can trust Forward Financing for approvals within minutes, funding within hours, and personalized support and service when they need it most.
Since 2012, Forward Financing has provided over $500m in funding to more than 10,000 small businesses. Consistently recognized as an industry leader, the company is A+ rated by the Better Business Bureau and receives top ratings across all major customer review platforms. In 2017 and 2018, Forward Financing was named by Inc. Magazine and the Boston Business Journal as one of the fastest growing companies in Massachusetts. Learn more at www.forwardfinancing.com
Compensation:
At Forward Financing, we believe that if our company succeeds, all of our employees succeed too. We offer a competitive compensation package for highly qualified candidates that are extremely motivated, have a positive attitude, and are able to ramp up quickly. We offer a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, vision and commuter benefits along with gym reimbursement, 401K, paid volunteering days and a matching gift program. We work in an open environment with a start-up vibe, conveniently located just steps away from South Station. You will have the opportunity to work with people that enjoy a fun, social office culture.