Lead Data Product Owner

Overview:

At ACT Your Work Makes a Difference

Education has power – a power that changes lives forever. It creates opportunities that lift up individuals, their families, and sparks societal change that echoes through generations to come. From our grassroots we have fought the good fight for equity in education, and we remain devoted to helping anyone who struggles to access that power. This is what matters to us and we must do better -- we’ve never been more sure of our purpose.

ACT Education Corp. team members are part of an organization dedicated to an important mission: Helping people achieve education and workplace success.  Advancing the mission internally, by helping team members achieve education and workplace success of their own, is core to our values. ACT values a diverse workplace and is committed to fostering an inclusive, equitable environment in which every team member has an opportunity to grow.

We want our team members to have the well-being and confidence they need to do their best work, in an environment where both they and the company thrive. To support this, our total rewards include company paid life insurance, medical, dental, vision, flexible spending accounts, 401(k) with company contributions, paid holidays, paid time off, and so much more. You can find a comprehensive list of our benefits here.  

We are seeking a Lead Data Product Owner to help us fulfill that mission.

The Lead Data Product Owner (PO) within ACT provides technical leadership to market segment leaders on large-scale projects, guiding all facets of the software development process for data-specific product suites or market offerings. The PO offers guidance on technical strategies and issue resolution to achieve objectives. This role has primary accountability for the success of the projects inside the Data and Analytics Team using Agile development methodologies.

The finalist will be hired at the salary and level commensurate with their qualifications. We anticipate offering a market competitive annual salary in the range of $165,000 - $173,000.  ACT manages salaries within the range based on relevant factors including, skills, experience, and internal equity. The position is incentive eligible.

Location: This is a remote position (can also be onsite or hybrid if in Iowa City, Iowa area)

What you’ll be working on:

• The Lead Data Product Owner (PO) serves as the technology representative to business stakeholders, as well as a single point of contact for technical and product expertise within ACT.
• The PO helps define strategic direction for data strategies, analytics, data governance, cost optimization, and similar serving market segment needs, as set forth by the business leaders.
• The PO works directly with a solution architect on feature story creation that are in line with business roadmap.
• The PO supports business stakeholders for successful delivery of projects, creates the training needed for new features, as well as any documentation or demos needed to launch.
• The PO interacts with customers (internal or external) for firsthand feedback and manages customer satisfaction KPIs to ensure quality as well as satisfaction with deliveries.
• The PO supports RFP responses for responsible applications as well as internal and external audits.
• The PO is responsible for directing the work of multiple scrum teams including:
  • Providing direction and assignment of work to be completed.
  • Evaluating progress of deliverables and provide guidance and feedback.
  • Making sure the team is performing according to processes and standards.
• The PO runs grooming and technical planning sessions.
• The PO leverages Jira as the software development planning tool using Agile Scrum methodolgy (or deviates as needed).
• The PO escalates risks to deliverables, and proposes mitigation plans while adjusting delivery expectations, as needed.
• The PO provides meaningful metrics to allow for tracking of work as well as reporting on flow of work.
• The PO analyzes metrics to determine areas of improvement and efficiency.
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Role Progression:

• Within the first 30 days, the Lead Data Product Owner  (PO) will gain a detailed understanding of the various data systems currently deployed, the relevant usecases, customers, stakeholders, and similar.
• Within the first 90 days, the PO should have ideas and stories for tactical improvements to the data systems including addressing existing pain points, driving efficiencies around data access, reducing costs, and similar.
• Within the first 180 days, the PO should have the foundational knowledge needed to articulate the strategic direction of data systems.  This includes identifying what systems to deprecate, migrate, and invest in.  This may also include changes to underlying technology systems, team structures and roles, and other foundational areas to set ACT up for future success with regards to our data practices. 

About You (minimum requirements): 

• A minimum of 7 years of progressively responsible technology experience.
• Experience with AWS data platforms and services including S3, Glue, Athena, Kinesis, and similar.
• Experience with 3rd party data platforms such as Databricks, Snowflake, and Informatica.
• Experience in working with applications leveraging Docker containers and Docker Compose.
• Experience running Agile Scrum rituals such as story planning, standups, retrospectives, and similar.
• Able to derive KPIs regarding team’s performance, quality, and other metrics relevant to stakeholders.
• Familiar working with end-users and customers to empathize and understand their needs to feed back to the product teams.
• Experience in API development and integration projects.
• Experience leading projects across cross-functional teams.
• Skills and knowledge required for success in this position attained through experience and education (Bachelor’s Degree in computer science or management information systems or related area of study), or an equivalent combination of education and experience from which comparable knowledge and abilities can be acquired.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Ability to becomes an expert user of the data platforms, pipelines, and APIs.
• Excellent communications skills.
• Strong collaboration skills with ability to develop and maintain working relationships across teams.
• Ability to develop software project timelines.
• Ability to consider overall enterprise architectures.
• Understanding of Agile development methodology.
• Strong decision-making, prioritization, problem solving and analytical skills.
• Ability to lead team through changes and navigate positively in a rapidly transforming organization.
• Highly autonomous and demonstrated ability to take initiate and ownership.

• Actively seeks and engages with diverse perspectives and invites a sense of belonging.

• Uses subject matter knowledge and skills to effectively acquire and apply information.

• Ability to apply continuous improvement to existing processes and programs.

• Develops ideas that are new, better, or unique; embraces and promotes diverse perspectives.

• Ability to manage change and navigate positively in an environment experiencing change at a fast pace.

• Uses self-starter approach, ability to multi-task, proactively anticipates and acts on information and details needed, willingness and ability to learn.

• Remains current in area of expertise, seeks opportunities to expand and grow skills.

• Takes responsibility and follows through on commitments; acknowledges and learns from mistakes without blaming others; recognizes the impact of one's behavior.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with relevant technology we use currently - Snowflake, Databricks, and Informatica.
• Experience with AWS data solutions we leverage such as RDS, Glue, AirFlow, etc.
• Familiarity with other technical data concepts such as data APIs, GraphQL, data lakes, warehouses, etc.

When ACT was founded in 1959, it disrupted the assessment industry with a new approach to helping students better understand their readiness so they could take steps to improve it.  By leveraging our expertise and authority in assessment and research, we will again disrupt the industry—helping more people learn, better measure their progress, and improve their navigation through life’s transitions. 

More than ever before, ACT is fulfilling its mission of helping people achieve education and workplace success. We’re doing it by pushing the boundaries of learning innovation through the work of our people, who we call team members because we’re all in this together.

We know transformation does not come without challenge. That’s why ACT invests in a variety of experiences for team members to strengthen their connections, explore ideas, learn from customers, and celebrate success.

Learn more about working at ACT at act.org!