Associate Product Owner

Reporting directly to the Director of Total Rewards, this Product Owner provides leadership, tools, and services to help product management and project teams manage and deploy releases into production. Acts as Product Owner for the state-of-the-art incentive compensation platform, Varicent. Responsible for implementing and managing release processes, implementing new procedures as needed to improve the product release process.

Location: Spokane Main Financial Center - 717 W Sprague, Spokane WA 99201. Onsite work required. Hybrid eligible. 

Essential Functions:

• Serves as Product Owner for plan release windows and cycles for incentive compensation platform, Varicent.
• Coordinate release content and effort based on the service request backlog, pending service requests, third party applications, or operating system updates.
• Act as Product Owner on teams to manage Product Backlog and ensure timely releases and quality assurance.
• Develop user stories and define user acceptance criteria.
• Sets goals and write acceptance tests with stakeholders.
• Conduct release readiness reviews, milestone reviews and business Go/No-Go reviews.
• Manage risks and resolves issues that affect release scope, schedule and quality.
• Maintains the release schedule for all assigned products and services, and ensures alignment across key partners and vendors.
• Inform Change Management Committee or equivalent forum of release timing, scope and/or roadblocks.
• Implements new procedures to improve product release process.
• Maintains a release repository and manages key information such as build and release procedures, dependencies, and notification lists.
• Identify and resolve issues that may impede a product release.
• Lead and coordinate the production implementation activities including the execution of the deployment plans, run books and checklists.
• Negotiate, plan, and manage all release activities across projects, teams and business units.
• Interface and communicate regularly with PMO, Customer Experience, Project Managers, Test Managers, and IT.
• Manage relationships and coordinate work between different teams.
• Communicate release details and schedules to the line of business teams as required.
• Regular (ad-hoc) release plan and production release status reporting.
• Manage retrospective meeting post release and incorporate lessons learned into the next release cycle.
• Research new tools and technologies, configuration management methodologies and analyze latest market trends to make agile release process future-state.
• Performs compliance and risk management duties as required or assigned.
• Regular, reliable attendance is required.

Qualifications:

• Experience with Varicent or similar incentive compensation software preferred. 
• Associate or bachelor’s degree in business administration or related field with product experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Prior experience in managing releases for application updates, operating system patches, security improvements, and/or hardware upgrades.
• Expertise in information systems operations environment in systems analysis or development.
• Knowledge, experience, or exposure to a process framework or methodology that supports teams in organizing work.
• Demonstrated organizational and analytical skills, strategic thinking and ability to work collaboratively and independently.
• Ability to complete goals, deadlines and reporting in a timely and accurate manner.
• Ability to delegate tasks as needed or required to ensure department objectives are met.
• Strong system and process analysis skills of bank products, services and systems.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to coordinate and direct the work of others.
• Strong knowledge of Federal and State laws, regulations, and requirements as applicable.
• Proficient PC skills to navigate Bank software, including Microsoft Suite, and related applications.
• Procedure documentation experience preferred.
• Ability to prioritize work projects to meet deadlines.
• Proficiency with Jira, Confluence, SharePoint, Visio and other documentation and project management tools preferred.

Compensation: $66,324 - $99,486

The pay range represents the low and high end of the pay range for this position located in Spokane, WA. Actual compensation will vary and may be above or below the range based on various factors including but not limited to location, experience, and performance. 

What Our Culture Can Offer You: 

Our benefit philosophy is to provide you with a comprehensive package to secure your overall wellness and help you become and remain a fulfilled and productive employee. Our benefits include Health, Financial, Retirement and Work/Life Benefits. We are proud to share an overview of our benefits HERE as part of your total compensation. 

Washington Trust Bank celebrates diversity in the workplace and actively recruits talent to help reflect the unique communities where we live and work. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and prohibit discrimination or harassment based on race, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, age, pregnancy, disability, genetic information and any other protected characteristics outline by state, federal and local laws. We believe strength comes from the diverse backgrounds and experiences of our team, and we are dedicated to fostering a supportive and inclusive work environment.