Product Owner

Who are we?

Howden is a collective – a group of talented and passionate people all around the world. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and no-limits mindset, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team comprised of 18,000 employees spanning over 100 countries.

People join Howden for many different reasons, but they stay for the same one: our culture. It’s what sets us apart, and the reason our employees have been turning down headhunters for years. Whatever your priorities – work / life balance, career progression, sustainability, volunteering – you’ll find like-minded people driving change at Howden.

Role: Product Owner

Terms: 12-month fixed term with view to permanent

Team: Web Development - Frontend

Location: Remote first; with monthly face-to-face in Gloucester.

Tech: Azure DevOps, Office 365

Role

As a Product Owner at Howden, you will join and support a two of our agile stream-aligned teams. You will help shape, refine, and guide our teams to create scalable, high-performing, and user-friendly solutions that are secure, reliable, and provide exceptional experiences.

You will participate in regular agile sessions, collaborating closely with your team to deliver our roadmap whilst developing our product strategy. You will influence and encourage quality, small incremental delivery of value, and bridge the gap between business intent and product delivery.

Our environment promotes cross-team learning and collaboration, ensuring you have opportunities to share knowledge and grow alongside your peers.

As a Product Owner you will be comfortable and committed to working with stakeholders across the business, presenting to audiences of different technical abilities and demonstrating working software to potential new business partners.

You will help drive up quality in our user interfaces and user experiences and have a clear focus on user needs, accessibility, performance, and emerging design standards.

You will also work with Engineering managers and other senior leaders to shape and manage roadmaps and to develop and supply a suite of reports capturing aspects such as risks, progress, productivity and ROI

About you:

• A keen understanding of the broader technological landscape.
• Experience in insurance or similar industry.
• You will have a strong understanding of the product discovery, shaping, testing, prototyping, gathering feedback, and behaviour driven development techniques.
• You are comfortable in producing user journey mapping, product visions etc.
• You are exceptionally organised in managing backlogs of work items.
• You will have demonstrable experience working closely with agile software teams
• A keen eye for detail and a focus on putting users first.
• A strong understanding and experience in accessibility needs and relevant standards.
• A strong communicator and facilitator as well as strong documentation skills
• A bias towards action.
• An experimental and scientific mindset leading to data-led decision making.
• An understanding of agile development methodologies

• Genuinely believes in the value of continuous delivery practices and iterative development based on feedback.
• Actively engage and participate in all agile sessions.
• Ability to demonstrate working software to a mixture of technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Rewards:

We believe that great work and dedication should be rewarded, that is why we offer:

• 25 days holiday (plus bank holidays), pro-rated for part year service
• A set of core benefits, designed with your health and financial protection in mind:
• Life Assurance up to 4x salary, protecting your loved ones in case the worst should happen.
• Income protection, guaranteeing an income for up to 5 years in the event of an illness or injury.
• Contributory pension scheme – 5% employer contribution and 5% employee contribution
• Access to a Healthcare Cashplan, which gives you access to a variety of health-related benefits.
• Access to a host of lifestyle and financial benefits that you can choose from:
• Discounts on gym membership across the UK
• Salary sacrifice schemes – Travel Insurance, Cycle to Work, Car leasing, Technology purchase.
• Access to discounted personal health policies – Critical illness, private medical, dental plans
• A range of insurance products available commission free, including home, motor, travel, and specialist vehicles
• Access to hundreds of high-street retailer discounts
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to support employees outside of work.

What do we offer in return?

A career that you define. At Howden, we value diversity – there is no one Howden type. Instead, we’re looking for individuals who share the same values as us:

• Our successes have all come from someone brave enough to try something new

• We support each other in the small everyday moments and the bigger challenges

• We are determined to make a positive difference at work and beyond

Reasonable adjustments

We're committed to providing reasonable accommodations at Howden to ensure that our positions align well with your needs.  Besides the usual adjustments such as software, IT, and office setups, we can also accommodate other changes such as flexible hours* or hybrid working*.

If you're excited by this role but have some doubts about whether it’s the right fit for you, send us your application – if your profile fits the role’s criteria, we will be in touch to assist in helping to get you set up with any reasonable adjustments you may require.

*Not all positions can accommodate changes to working hours or locations. Reach out to your Recruitment Partner if you want to know more.