Agile Product Owner - Lead Analyst

Cigna Healthcare’s International Health business is committed to strengthening our Agile operating model to best execute and deliver against our strategic priorities. As part of this transformation, we are seeking an Agile Product Owner to join the team to support the ongoing delivery of our Healthcare Provider portal and digital experience. Our International Health business offers medical insurance and health services to meet the needs of customers across the globe. We are committed to improving the health and vitality for those we serve. This is an excellent opportunity to join our evolving Agile Product Management team as we shape our agile framework across our international business.

The Agile Product Owner will be responsible for owning the product backlog, including communicating the end user requirements, defining user acceptance criteria for requirements, and prioritizing and managing the backlog. The role represents the “voice of the customer”, ensuring that the team is working on stories that maximize business value and deliver necessary functionality to our healthcare provider partners.

The Product Owner will be responsible for understanding internal stakeholders and end users deeply and must synthesize information from multiple sources to ensure backlog readiness and quality. The individual must exercise considerable creativity, foresight, and judgment in conceiving, planning, and delivering initiatives. Ideal candidate must possess a broad base of skills and knowledge spanning technology, business, user experience design, and agile development practices. They will work with multiple stakeholders to determine the business and technology objectives for their team and ensure solutions deliver tangible business value.

The Product Owner will report into the Product Management Manager for their experience area and collaborate to set business objectives and establish roadmaps based on business priorities and optimizing value. They will work closely with the Scrum Master and UX / UI experts to guide the teams towards successful delivery as they decompose features into user stories and prioritize work to optimize pace and value within the Program Increment. The individual will also work closely with their Change Readiness Lead, Subject Matter Experts, and Key Stakeholders to ensure business areas are ready for the changes as capabilities are developed and released to end users.

Responsibilities:

• Collaborates with stakeholders to ensure alignment between business strategy and product development efforts
• Collaborates with Product Manager and Portfolio Managers to ensure backlogs align to business and product roadmaps
• Has final decision-making authority on acceptance criteria for product functions
• Maintains and refines the inflow of work to the team (product backlog)
• ​Responsible for decomposing features into user stories and acceptance criteria
• Ensures stories clearly communicate customer/stakeholder needs to the Scrum team; work with team to clarify stories as necessary
• Sets and communicates the team’s scope for the current iteration
• Assesses business value and prioritizes all stories to ensure work focuses on those with maximum value and aligns with strategy
• Collaborate with UX/UI teams to ensure the customer voice is embedded at all stages of the product delivery cycle
• Partners with the Product Managers by contributing to story mapping and brainstorming activities to prepare and decompose work for teams
• Ensures the outcome and value is clearly defined and communicated to support technical assessments of solutions with the development team
• Works closely with cross-functional teams to validate product hypotheses and make data-informed decisions
• Must be aware of other work being completed within the Release Train so that they can help teams proactively manage risks and dependencies and propose optimal solutions
• Understands and supports inter-team dependencies and escalates prioritization issues when necessary
• Clearly communicates release timing and delivery dates to Product Management, Portfolio Leads and Key Stakeholders
• Works closely with their Scrum Master to understand progress to plan, identify blockers and paths to resolution
• Reports outward on progress against PI objectives and accountable for JIRA reporting quality
• Supports UAT and business readiness activities to ensure new capabilities deliver expected value for internal and external stakeholders

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s Degree required
• Strong English language skills required
• Knowledge of agile methodology - SAFe Product Owner / Product Manager certification required

Experience Range:

• Agile Product Owner experience 3-5 years required

• Experience in healthcare industry preferred

• Experience in Salesforce technology preferred

Foundational Skills:

• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Skilled working in JIRA tool or an equivalent to manage requirements and backlogs
• Both technically deep and business savvy enough to interface with cross-functional partners
• High attention to detail and proven ability to manage multiple, competing priorities simultaneously
• Demonstrates strong decision-making skills and problem-solving techniques
• Demonstrates ability to work independently and as part of a collaborative team in a fast paced and changing environment

Desired Skills:

• Proven ability to develop strong working relationships and establish a high level of credibility across functional and lines of business
• Strong adaptive capability; ability to approach problems pragmatically and creatively in the phase of changing circumstances, resources and direction

Competencies required for the role:

• Customer Focus
• Action Oriented
• Cultivates Innovation
• Communicates Effectively
• Tech Savvy
• Manages Complexity
• Decision Quality
• Communicates Effectively
• Drives Results
• Drives Engagement

Work Timings: Some degree of flexibility to work with International Health stakeholders across multiple regions and time zones in the India evening hours.

About The Cigna Group

Cigna Healthcare, a division of The Cigna Group, is an advocate for better health through every stage of life. We guide our customers through the health care system, empowering them with the information and insight they need to make the best choices for improving their health and vitality. Join us in driving growth and improving lives.