Product Owner

Product Owner Help shape the Future of Lending at FCS Financial For more than 100 years, FCS Financial has been helping Missouri agriculture and rural communities thrive. As part of the nationwide Farm Credit System, we're committed to providing innovative financial solutions that make a real difference for farmers, ranchers, rural homeowners, and agribusinesses. We're looking for a Product Owner who is passionate about solving business challenges, improving customer and employee experiences, and turning ideas into impactful technology solutions. If you enjoy collaborating with business leaders, influencing strategy, and leading the evolution of digital lending solutions, we'd love to hear from you. The Opportunity As our Product Owner, you'll play a key role in shaping the future of lending technology at FCS Financial. You'll serve as the bridge between business and technology, partnering with stakeholders across lending, risk, compliance, and technology to deliver solutions that drive efficiency, support growth, and ensure regulatory compliance. In this role you’ll: Define and manage the product roadmap, vision, and priorities for your product area. Partner with business leaders and stakeholders to identify opportunities, solve challenges, and deliver meaningful outcomes. Translate business needs, regulatory requirements, and market insights into actionable product features and priorities. Collaborate with various development teams to drive successful product delivery. Support user acceptance testing, release readiness, training, and adoption efforts. Incorporate risk, compliance, and operational requirements into product decisions. Leverage data, user feedback, and business insights to continuously improve product performance and value. Why Join FCS Financial: Competitive Compensation : $80,000 – $130,000 plus incentive tied to Association performance. Meaningful Impact : Help shape the technology and processes that support Missouri agriculture and rural communities. Growth Opportunities: Opportunities to lead strategic initiatives, influence product direction, and expand your leadership capabilities. Outstanding Benefits: Comprehensive benefits designed to support your health, financial well-being, and work-life balance. Flexible Work Environment: Hybrid options available within FCS Financial’s Branch locations in Missouri. Collaborative Culture: Join a team that values innovation, partnership, continuous improvement, and employee development. What You Bring: Bachelor's degree in Business, Information Systems, Finance, or a related field (or equivalent experience). Three or more years of Product Owner or Product Management experience within the lending lifecycle. Strong understanding of lending lifecycle processes and credit operations. Experience with vendor-supported SaaS or loan origination/CRM platforms. Ability to translate business needs, regulatory requirements, and technical capabilities into prioritized backlogs. Location: Preferred office location in Jefferson City, Missouri. Other FCS Financial branch locations will be considered. Join a team that's helping the business thrive while building a career you'll be proud of. Apply today! This position is open until filled. Candidates must reside in Missouri to be considered for this position. This position is classified as Exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Hybrid work environment and flexible work schedule will be considered based on the candidate’s qualifications and business needs. Department: Information Services Reports To: Product Manager Supervises: None Job Functions* Percentage Job Functions 45% Product Leadership – Roadmap, Backlog & Product Definition Enablement Own product feature definition and roadmap execution for an assigned product area, informed by stakeholder needs, business priorities, and market dynamics Facilitate discovery and product definition activities, including stakeholder interviews, user feedback sessions, and journey exploration to identify problems, pain points, and intended outcomes Map and refine user journeys to identify improvement opportunities and inform feature design and prioritization Define epics and user stories with clear, testable acceptance criteria to guide delivery Establish expected business outcomes and success measures for product features and enhancements Incorporate insights from market, vendor, and ecosystem trends into actionable product and roadmap options Evaluate, prioritize, and sequence capabilities using structured, transparent approaches that balance value, risk, effort, dependencies, and timing Ensure regulatory, risk, and ICFR considerations are incorporated into product definition and prioritization Partner with Delivery and stakeholders to assess vendor roadmap items, releases, and upgrades for business impact and operational readiness Define business readiness expectations for releases, including documentation, knowledge transfer, and Service Desk enablement 25% Stakeholder Partnership Partner with stakeholders to understand needs, define priorities, and align on intended outcomes Facilitate decision‑making and trade‑off discussions; document decisions, owners, and timelines Communicate roadmap and delivery status, risks, and dependency impacts to appropriate audiences Incorporate operational feedback (e.g., issues, trends, root causes) into product priorities Contribute to user enablement and adoption readiness for releases, including training coordination, communications, and rollout planning in partnership with stakeholders and Delivery 15% Delivery, Integrations & Execution Participate in Agile ceremonies to clarify intent, priorities, and acceptance criteria during delivery Ensure priorities consider end‑to‑end customer and employee journeys and cross‑system impacts Partner with delivery teams and shared services (engineering, QA, architecture, integration, platform teams) to align on scope, sequencing, and dependencies Accept completed work against defined acceptance criteria and support business and control sign‑offs occur Support UAT planning and defect triage in partnership with stakeholders and Delivery Coordinate deployment readiness and release execution activities in partnership with Delivery teams Partner with application development and technical operations teams to evaluate technical trade-offs and scalability considerations Ensure product decisions consider system performance, reliability, and technical debt implications 5% Product Governance, Risk & Controls Incorporate applicable policy, regulatory, and control requirements into product priorities and acceptance criteria Partner with Compliance, Security, Risk, and Audit stakeholders to support governance and readiness needs Ensure appropriate documentation, approvals, and traceability are maintained for product releases Support remediation of findings, issues, or control gaps related to the product area Use operational, audit, and incident insights to inform product improvements n/a Other duties as assigned to meet the needs of the organization * Essential Functions for this position consist of all items listed under any category that make up 5% or more of the job duties. This job description is subject to change without notice. Minimum Qualifications Bachelor’s degree in Business, Information Systems, Finance, or related field, or equivalent experience 3 years of product owner or product management experience across the lending lifecycle Or an equivalent combination of education and experience sufficient to perform the essential functions of the job. Required Knowledge and Skills Experience delivering outcomes on vendor-supported SaaS, configuration-heavy platforms (e.g., CRM/loan origination platforms such as nCino/Salesforce (preferred, not required), including rules/workflow/permissions configuration, coordinating impacts across integrated platforms, and managing dependencies through release governance. Experience participating in vendor and platform run-cost decisions (e.g., licensing, renewals, support models), including basic TCO analysis and cost/value trade-offs. Familiarity with financial institution risk management, audit/exam processes, and control documentation through prior participation or exposure. Ability to translate stakeholder needs, regulatory/control requirements, and vendor/platform capabilities into a prioritized backlog aligned to measurable business outcomes. Strong analytical, facilitation, relationship management, and influence skills to drive decisions across business and technical stakeholders with clear oral and written communication. Working knowledge of lending lifecycle process and practices Excellent problem-solving, communication, and collaboration skills; Ability to translate complex data concepts into business-friendly insights Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously and meet deadlines We are an Equal Employment/Affirmative Action employer. We do not discriminate in hiring on the basis of sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religious creed, national origin, physical or mental disability, protected Veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please contact us by email at [email protected] and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information. Requests for accommodation will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Please note that only inquiries concerning a request for reasonable accommodation will be responded to from this e-mail address. For more information about our commitment to equal employment opportunity, please click here .