Title:  Digital Product Owner

Canada Life UK looks after the retirement, investment and protection needs of individuals, families and companies. We help to build better futures for our customers, our intermediaries and our employees by operating as a modern, agile and welcoming organisation.

Part of our parent company Great-West Lifeco, Canada Life UK has operated in the United Kingdom since 1903. We have hundreds of respected and supported employees committed to doing the right thing for our customers and colleagues.

Canada Life UK is transforming to create a more customer-focused business by providing our customers with expertise on financial and tax planning, offering home finance and annuities propositions, and providing collective fund solutions to third party customers.

Job Purpose

As the Digital Product Owner, you will support the setting of the strategic direction for the relevant business area, and then actively working with the rest of the agile product delivery team to translate that strategy into reality. You will be responsible for achieving business outcomes. 

The Digital Product Owner acts as the voice of the customer within an agile delivery team. You will ensure that a team is maximising the value delivered taking the relevant vision and business outcomes into a roadmap and backlog you own. This requires that you maintain appropriate feedback mechanisms from real users such as customers, advisers, or colleagues. 

Key Duties

• Gathering and interpreting feedback from the Customer/User. The Digital Product Owner must keep open feedback channels with stakeholders (internal and external). This enables them to identify the problem to be solved and potential approaches to the solution. 
• Agreeing the Vision for the agile delivery team with the Sponsor and owning the creation and maintenance of the Product Roadmap. The Digital Product Owner is champion for the customer/user in these tasks, ensuring that they are aligned to product and company strategy while driving great customer outcomes. They take product concepts from idea through validation, shipping, measurement, and iteration.  
• Managing and prioritising the delivery team backlog to focus maximising the value delivered while balancing the long-term health and sustainability of the product. The Digital Product Owner make certain that all work is well-informed as well as validating that the implementation is fit for purpose / meets the acceptance criteria. They will also support the technical experts in driving the architectural runway that provides the foundation for the product. 
• Working as part of the agile delivery team to deliver value. The Digital Product Owner works with the rest of the delivery team to communicate the vision and business strategy, answering questions, sharing feedback, and actively participating in team events i.e., iteration planning or retrospectives. 
• Author presentations and represent the delivery team’s work to senior leadership. 
• Fostering collaborative relationships across the company to facilitate cooperation and information exchanges that improve customer and business outcomes. 
• Design and run experiments to validate a hypothesis in a low-risk manner. Use the data to inform future backlog/roadmap priorities. 
• Supporting the organisation in its ongoing transformation to become a more agile, customer-focused business. Organise and participate in communities of practice and share openly any learnings with all colleagues.  

Skills, Knowledge and Experience

• Extensive knowledge/experience in the business domain / capability being recruited for, including relevant regulatory concerns 
• General financial services industry experience 
• Experience working as a Product Owner 
• Proven record of being able to deliver against tangible business outcomes and the ability to champion the value of this internally to the at every level of the organisation 
• Effective communication skills suitable for both internal and external stakeholders 
• Ability to interpret data and understand what data would be valuable to collect and report on to make decisions 
• Experience working as part of an agile team, and agile ways of working, and Agile methodologies 
• Experience supporting an organisation going through an agile transformation  
• Has a strong business acumen, with proficiency in identifying, tracking, and acting upon metrics, designing tests, and collaborating with engineering / data science partners. 

Benefits of working at Canada Life

We believe in recognising and rewarding our people, so we offer a competitive salary and benefits package that’s regularly reviewed. As a Canada Life UK colleague, you’ll receive a competitive salary and comprehensive reward package including a generous pension and bonus scheme, along with, income protection, private medical insurance and life assurance.  We have a fantastic number of other benefits and support services as well as regular personal and professional development.

How we work at Canada Life

Our culture is unique and incredibly important to us.  We care about doing the right thing for our people, customers and community and helping others to build better futures.  Our blueprint behaviours shape and influence how we work, and are central to the relationships we have with others.  Every day we are encouraged to be more curious, own the outcome, face into things together and find a way forward. 

We want colleagues to have rewarding careers with us so we invest in the development of our people, technology and workplaces. That’s why we offer a range of training, flexible working and opportunities to grow and develop.

Diversity and inclusion

Building an inclusive workplace with a diverse workforce where everyone can feel they belong and achieve their potential regardless of gender, ethnicity or any other characteristic is a key commitment for us.  We are proud of the progress we’re making in DEI, and we continue for it to be a significant focus. 

“At Canada Life we believe in the power of great people from different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives coming together to build better futures. Emerging talent is crucial to our growth and creating an environment that continues to inspire us all.”  Nick Harding, Chief People Officer, Canada Life UK

We appreciate that everyone has different work and life responsibilities. We’re happy to discuss flexible working arrangements, including part time, for any of our roles should this be a requirement for you.