Product Owner II at Shoprite Group of Companies

Purpose of the Job    

• The Product Owner II is a member of the agile team, responsible for defining user stories and prioritizing the team backlog to streamline the execution of program priorities while maintaining the conceptual and technical integrity of the features or components for the team.
• The role owns products of varying complexities, engaging, and collaborating with product management to execute the product vision, strategy, and roadmap. 

Job Objectives    

• Provide input into the refinement of the program backlog, ensuring the team is familiar with the features being brought into PI planning, collaborating with program management in the refinement of the backlog and keeping them informed of progress in achieving team PI objectives. 
• Continuously refine and sequence the product backlog:  
• Provide clear direction to the team.
• Gather the requirements for the product and capture them in the form of a product backlog, consisting of user stories with acceptance criteria. 
• Ensure all user stories are written and that each user story has acceptance criteria.  
• Sequence team backlog - Must prioritise work for teams' main stakeholders with demands for change from other stakeholders. 
• Ensure team backlog readiness for next iteration (enough user stories / enablers are ready to be worked on in the next iteration) 
• Include the team in enough of the backlog refinement to ensure familiarity ahead of the next iteration 
• Ensure the team is familiar with the features being brought into Sprint planning
• Collaborate with BEM / Product Manager / Team in the refinement of the Program Backlog 
• Keep BEM / Product Manager informed of progress in achieving team Sprint objectives 

Provide visible, transparent, and clear direction, ensuring the development team is clear on priorities: 

• Provide clear solution direction to the agile team.
• Apply economic decision making. 
• Sequence user stories based on team PI objectives. 
• Balance PI objectives with local team requirements. 
• Ensure team backlog readiness for next iteration.
• Include the team in backlog refinement. 
• Participate in ART level events: ART sync, Product Owner Scrum of Scrums, Inspect and Adapt, PI 
• Planning, daily stand-ups, and system demos. 
•  Participate in relevant team level events:  
• Provide vision for iteration planning and participate in iteration Planning.
• Accept completed work in iteration Demo.
• Participate in relevant Scrum ceremonies - ART level events: ART sync, Product Owner Scrum of Scrums, Inspect and Adapt, PI Planning, Sprint Planning, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospective, daily stand-ups, and system demos. 
• Track progress towards the release of a product.
• Help create a release plan and track progress towards the release of a product. 
• Drive mobile digital omnichannel customer engagement based on customer preference and omnichannel strategies.
• Ensure a consistent and delightful customer experience across all digital touchpoints of the Shoprite customer journey.  
• Provide input and support into the strategic customer experience improvements that help drive customer acquisition, customer retention and conversion. 
• Actively promote and advocate product features and customer-first product design. 
• Adhere to and improve customer service levels across businesses and service.
• Provide integrated reporting and feedback.

Qualifications    

• Degree in Business, IT, Engineering, Marketing, or another relevant field – (essential). 
• Certified Product Owner / certified SAFe Product Owner – (essential). 

Experience    

• +4 years’ experience in a Product Owner role, working in an agile team with proven success 
• launching new product features and translating business strategy and analysis into successful  consumer products – (essential). 
• Experience collaborating across multi-disciplinary teams to deliver projects – (essential).
• Strong understanding and experience with analytics and big data – (essential).  
• Commercial experience in digital led business development environment – (essential).  
• Customer user and loyalty experience – (essential).
• General marketing or retail experience – (desired).  

Knowledge and Skills    

• Knowledge of legal compliance (POPIA, Electronic Information Act, etc.) – (essential).
• Exposure to the African digital market and customers – (desired).  

Closing Date    

• 2026/03/20