Technical Product Owner

Position Summary The Technical Product Owner (TPO) serves as the critical link between business strategy and software development execution. Operating within an Agile framework, the TPO translates Program Increment (PI) business objectives into clear, actionable work items that development teams can efficiently execute. The TPO owns the full lifecycle of delivery — from backlog refinement through sprint execution to shipping — and is accountable for ensuring every initiative delivers maximum business value on scope and on time. Key Responsibilities Backlog & Delivery Management Monitor Jira Product Discovery (JPD) for any initiative turned over from architecture team for initiatives assigned in "Ready for Delivery" status and begin working with technical architecture team to create and linking epics and stories accordingly. Maintain a healthy, prioritized backlog with stories always groomed and ready for development. Ensure JPD is maintained on a regular basis in order to track progress. Manage scope, minimize scope creep, and balance technical debt against new feature development. When authoring stories and epics, explicitly document non-functional requirements (performance, scalability, security, availability), edge cases, and integration points — ensuring these are traceable acceptance criteria, not tribal knowledge. Own the quality and consistency of all technical artifacts produced by the team — including story templates, acceptance criteria, AC standards, and Definition of Ready/Done criteria. Design and maintain Jira automations that support team development workflows (auto-transitions, notifications, dependency flags). Conduct regular audits of generated stories to ensure they meet the team's quality bar before entering the sprint. Sprint Ceremonies Facilitate and actively participate in all Agile ceremonies: Daily Stand-Up (DSU), Backlog Grooming, Sprint Planning, Sprint Review, and Retrospectives. Pre-groom backlog items prior to grooming sessions and ensure all sprint tickets meet the team's Definition of Ready before Sprint Planning. Own release readiness decisions — serving as the final go/no-go authority before sprint closes and before releases are promoted to production. Verify all stories meet Definition of Done, acceptance criteria are validated, and regression risk is understood. Partner with QA and DevOps on release checklists. Continuously seek ways to improve work flows to and from developers and stakeholders. Dependency & Stakeholder Management Working cross-functionally, proactively identify and track all dependency types — primarily across internal teams & third-party vendors — mapping them in Jira with owners, risk levels, and resolution timelines. Escalate unresolved dependencies before they become sprint blockers. Work closely with stakeholders and end users to ensure delivered features match expectations. Create tickets and communicate requirements for both your team and dependent teams. Schedule and lead monthly internal and external customer demos. PI Planning & Execution Lead scope negotiation during PI Planning to align team capacity against committed PI objectives; ensure every accepted story traces back to a PI objective. Identify and register risks during PI Planning events and maintain a living risk log throughout the increment. Ensure PI objectives are broken down into milestones and sprint objectives that keep the team aligned to plan. Maintain Jira data hygiene throughout the PI — ensuring epics, stories, defects, and issues are tracked so nothing falls through the cracks. Ensure proper upload and closure of Jira items at the beginning and end of each PI in coordination with the Scrum Master. Transition JPD initiative statuses accurately and document reasoning for any changes in the initiative's Comment section. Success Metrics Track and maintain key delivery health metrics including sprint velocity, say/do ratio, sprint interrupt rate, and backlog readiness — using these signals to continuously improve team predictability and reduce mid-sprint disruption. Own initiative-level success tracking in JPD — keeping delivery tab data current (epics/stories, status, target completion, on-schedule indicators), monitoring requirement clarity through story return rates, ensuring monthly release schedule adherence, and driving customer demo completion on a monthly cadence.