Lead Product Owner – EXPIRED

Lead Product Owner

Do you want to be part of a force for good, helping to make life better for customers & society in the moments that matter? At Hodge, we put people at the heart of our business and that means our customers, colleagues and communities. Hodge is a Welsh financial service provider that focus on commercial lending, and specialist residential mortgage markets. The company is unique in that it is 79% owned by the Hodge Foundation, a charity established in 1962 that awards grants to registered charities and is funded by the profits from Hodge.

For over 50 years, we’ve shared the same simple mission: to really make a positive difference for our customers and communities. This ethos is in our DNA, as we are 79% owned by a charity, the Hodge Foundation.

The purpose of this role is to ensure that – in partnership with all teams within Hodge – we have a clear understanding of how we are going to enhance and develop our systems to support our customers and internal teams.

You will work with the PMO, Product Managers, and Business Owners to understand the roadmap of change needed to drive the strategy and then work with the wider technology team to build a roadmap of change for each product area within Hodge.  You will have a close relationship with Delivery Leads or 3rd party software providers as part of the software delivery lifecycle.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Lead and coach a team of product owners.
• Ensure standards are in place so that products are being managed in a consistent way.
• Work collaboratively across Hodge to build shared ways of working and a team approach to product development.
• Work with Product Managers and Business Owners to build business cases.
• Constantly drive for value delivery – challenging where changes do not represent a positive return on investment.
• Work with the Delivery Leads to ensure that work being progressed into delivery align with the Hodge investment roadmap. Work with the PMO to ensure that work is being scheduled in line with the agreed plan.
• Ensure there is a clearly defined and understood investment case for the product (showing the cost and return across multiple deliveries and across a long range investment period).
• Work with project teams to design solutions to business challenges.
• Ensure that designs are customer and colleague focused and provide a positive experience to end users.
• Build product roadmaps using techniques such as Kanban to manage and control the flow of work through engineering teams and 3rd party providers.
• Aim for agile iterative delivery, focusing on Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and MVP+1 releases to deliver value early and de-risk implementations.
• Own the production of high level designs on a page showing how changes will work at a business level, and then work with architects and other areas to build lower level design collateral. Ensure these are agreed with the Enterprise Design Authority before work commences.

What we need from you:

• Must be able to demonstrate previous product knowledge, leading a team of product professionals.
• Able to provide practical experience of building business cases for large scale change.
• Financial Services Experience.
• Able to work collaboratively outside of functional reporting lines.
• Business Analysis
• Business Case Development
• Product Ownership
• Roadmap development.
• Agile development.
• Mortgage and Savings Experience preferred.

In return we offer:

• Based in Cardiff City Centre or remote operating in a highly flexible Hybrid workspace.
• Private Medical & Health Insurance
• 28 days Holiday with the option to buy more.
• Subsidised Gym Membership.
• Extensive learning and development programme
• Generous, personalised benefits package
• Company pension contribution up to 15%
• 4 days on top of annual leave for community and charity work
• Flexible working options

Please be aware that should we pursue your application, all our Financial Services employees will be expected to complete background checks to assess suitability for employment, these include; a criminal record, identity, sanctions, adverse finance, fraud prevention and reference checks to comply with our regulatory requirements.

Hodge is an advocate of being an equal opportunities employer, We believe in promoting equality and diversity which is central to our lives today. We welcome applications from all sections of the community and recognises the value a diverse workforce brings to an organisation.

ESG and sustainability are at the heart of everything we do and serves as a reminder of the responsibility we have to our stakeholders, customers, colleagues and the communities we operate in to use our position wisely. We’re currently exploring different certifications available and have done an initial review of how we think we’d fare, as we see this as a real opportunity for Hodge given our social purpose.