Principal Product Owner Compensation/HR/Benefits (Human Resources)

$75,500 - $127,900/Yr

Discover Financial Services - Deerfield, IL

Full-time - Principal

Remote - Deerfield, IL

Credit Intermediation and Related Activities

About the position

Discover Financial Services is seeking a Principal Product Owner to join the HR Technology team. This role is pivotal in partnering with Human Resources, Compensation, and Benefits business leaders to ensure that product outcomes align with stakeholder requests while effectively managing the change impacts of deliverables across various business processes. The Principal Product Owner will need a comprehensive understanding of the Human Resources, Compensation, and Benefits functions, including their constraints such as financial, marketing, compliance, legal, service, customer environment, technical capabilities, and user experience. This understanding is crucial for delivering viable solutions that meet the needs of the organization. In this role, the Principal Product Owner will actively manage and escalate risks and customer-impacting issues that arise in day-to-day operations to the management team. The responsibilities include leading the prioritization of business requests by collaborating with key stakeholders, leveraging insights and data to define product features and roadmaps, and ensuring alignment with the product vision and best practices of Workday and ServiceNow. The role also involves creating essential product documentation to provide clarity for the product team and stakeholders, capturing high-level business requirements, and defining non-functional requirements necessary for achieving product metrics. The Principal Product Owner will own the definition of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and features/user stories for the product delivery roadmap, ensuring that these align with the Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) set by the Senior Manager, HR Technology Product Owner, or Business Owner. Additionally, the role requires building and maintaining a product enhancements log, ensuring compliance with Discover's standards, and validating user story acceptance criteria through appropriate testing frameworks. Collaboration with Data Stewards and the Business Technology team is essential to ensure data quality and optimize system components. The Principal Product Owner will foster a culture of accountability and ownership within the team, setting implementation timelines and monitoring progress while managing dependencies across different product teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead the prioritization of business requests by collaborating with Human Resources, Compensation and Benefits business leaders on key product considerations for Workday and ServiceNow.
• Leverage insights, feedback, financials, compliance, and risk data to define key product features and product roadmaps in partnership with the business leaders and HR Technology configuration team.
• Align with Workday and ServiceNow product vision, features, best practices, and roadmap to leverage their high impact delivered functionalities.
• Create key product documentation (e.g., business requirements document, project timeline, decisions log, process map, User Acceptance Test scenarios, approval tracking etc.) to capture information that provides clarity for the Product team and key stakeholders.
• Capture high-level business requirements to include end-to-end impacts of enhancements/initiatives which will support HR Technology configurations team and the Business Technology team to initiate the work.
• Identify and define key non-functional requirements (e.g., security roles, availability, performance, etc.) to achieve necessary product metrics.
• Own definition of Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and features/user stories for product delivery roadmap in-line with the Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) of the greater product vision outlined by Senior Manager, HR Technology Product Owner and/or Business Owner as the final decision maker for product scope.
• Build and prioritize product enhancements log to achieve OKRs and keep the log up to date through continuous collaboration with the business leaders, HR Technology configurations team and Business Technology team.
• Ensure product features and processes align with applicable Discover compliance, risk and quality management standards.
• Create and validate user story acceptance criteria by defining appropriate testing frameworks for product features (e.g., execute unit testing, facilitate user acceptance testing, collaborate on functional performance testing, etc.).
• Work with Data Stewards in their respective Line of Business (LOBs) to ensure required data quality controls are identified and implemented.
• Partner with Business Technology team to create technical features that are required to continuously optimize system components and underline infrastructure maintenance.
• Build a culture of accountability and ownership by collaborating with the HR Technology configurations team and Business Technology team to set target implementation timeline and monitor progress; manage dependencies with other business functions while identifying, building, and fostering partnership across different product teams.

Requirements

• Proven experience as a Product Owner or similar role in product management, particularly in HR Technology or related fields.
• Strong understanding of Human Resources, Compensation, and Benefits business functions and their constraints.
• Experience with Workday and ServiceNow platforms, including their product vision and best practices.
• Ability to leverage data and insights to inform product decisions and roadmaps.
• Excellent documentation skills, including the ability to create business requirements documents and user acceptance test scenarios.
• Strong analytical skills to identify and define non-functional requirements and product metrics.
• Experience in managing product delivery roadmaps and defining Minimum Viable Products (MVPs).
• Ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams and stakeholders.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience in agile methodologies and frameworks.
• Familiarity with compliance and risk management standards in HR Technology.
• Knowledge of data quality controls and data stewardship practices.
• Experience in creating and validating user story acceptance criteria.

Benefits

• Competitive salary between $110k and $154k per year.
• Work from home option available.
• Comprehensive health insurance coverage.
• 401(k) retirement savings plan with company matching contributions.
• Paid time off and holidays.
• Opportunities for professional development and training.