Junior Product Owner at Metropolitan

Role Purpose    

• To support the team lead/product owner in providing direction to and lead a multi-disciplinary team responsible for the full product lifecycle to ensure successful delivery of all commission, remuneration and intermediary management system capabilities and features, support and maintenance thereof within the IT and Solution team of Metropolitan Life.

Requirements    

• Grade 12 National Certificate.
• Bachelor's Degree in Financial Accounting/Information Technology - Computer Science or Information Technology.
• At least 7 years’ experience in a financial accounting/software development team.
• In an environment which required validating work. 
• Stakeholder relationship engagement and management.
• Responsibility for delivery in a fast moving environment.
• General business acumen.
• The financial services industry.
• Insurance industry.
• Budgeting and accounting principles.
• Business analysis and design.
• Project Management principles and methodologies .
• Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC).

Duties & Responsibilities    
INTERNAL PROCESS

• Become familiar and understand the full product life cycle and road map of the end to end commission and remuneration models and system implementations.
• Explain, train, guide and support the relevant support areas in the business and specifically the distribution channels.
• Support the PO and the delivery team by being able to translate the remuneration strategy and proposition into road maps to outline the vision and direction of the product offering. 
• Elicit capability requirements from business, distil, prioritise and translate them into user stories with acceptance criteria in line with business expectations.
• Participate in the team ceremonies, including sprint planning, sprint reviews, retrospectives, and play an active role in mitigating impediments impacting successful completion of release or sprint goals.
• Work with Business Analysts to ensure prototyping/scenario planning takes place, and user stories and user journeys support the client and business outcomes.
• Create appropriate operational workflows to support the proposition in order to meet business needs.
• Assist with release plans and delivery expectation dates of new functionalities within agreed timelines.
• Be a knowledge leader with regards to the commission and behavioural remuneration keeping abreast with market, practices and client trends.
• Present back to relevant stakeholders on proposals that impact on product strategy, design, pricing, and the income or costs associated with the delivery of the product.

CLIENT

• Provide authoritative expertise and advice to clients and stakeholders.
• Build and maintain relationships with clients and internal and external stakeholders.
• Deliver on service level agreements made with internal and external stakeholders in order to ensure that client expectations are managed.
• Participate and contribute to a culture which builds rewarding relationships, facilitates feedback and provides exceptional client service.

PEOPLE

• Develop and maintain productive and collaborative working relationships with peers and stakeholders.
• Positively influence and participate in change initiatives.
• Continuously develop own expertise in terms of professional, industry and legislation knowledge.
• Contribute to continuous innovation through the development, sharing and implementation of new ideas.

FINANCE

• Identify opportunities to enhance cost effectiveness and increase operational efficiency.
• Provide input into the risk identification processes and communicate recommendations in the appropriate forum.
• Actively participate in the external and internal audit processes as and when required.
• Support the Finance team with the annual target and monthly production schedules.

Competencies    

• Passion to make a difference in the lives of people in the low to middle income markets.
• Extracting insights from data analyses.
• High degree of self-motivation and can work independent of supervision.
• Self-managing.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills;
• Naturally inquisitive mind-set, with a strong innovative tendency.
• Ability to function in a multi-disciplinary team environment including Marketing, Product & Solutions, IT and Client Insights.