Product Manager / Product Owner

Aquent is partnering with a leading utility provider, a cornerstone of innovation and service, dedicated to powering communities and shaping the future of energy. This organization is at the forefront of leveraging advanced technologies to enhance customer experience and operational efficiency, driven by a commitment to reliability and sustainability.

Step into a pivotal role where your vision and leadership will directly shape the future of customer operations through cutting-edge artificial intelligence. We are seeking a dynamic and impactful leader to drive product and feature development for a transformative AI Initiative focused on customer engagement. You'll be at the forefront of innovation, owning the entire lifecycle of use cases from conception to successful adoption, and playing a critical role in defining governance and responsible-AI practices as the program scales. Your expertise will directly influence how advanced AI solutions enhance service delivery and create tangible value for millions.

What You'll Do:

• Lead the charge in product and feature development for customer operations AI initiatives, owning the end-to-end backlog from intake through delivery and adoption.
• Prioritize and sequence use cases based on business value, feasibility, and risk, ensuring strategic alignment.
• Translate complex business problems within customer operations into clear problem statements, epics, user stories, and acceptance criteria for the build team.
• Serve as the crucial bridge between business stakeholders and the technical build team, facilitating discovery, validating requirements, and managing expectations effectively.
• Define and champion measurable success criteria for each use case (e.g., deflection, handle time, accuracy, adoption), holding the team accountable for achieving these outcomes.
• Lead and facilitate all Agile ceremonies, including stand-ups, reviews, retrospectives, backlog grooming, and sprint/release planning.
• Track and communicate team velocity and sprint/release progress to affected teams and management using Agile estimating techniques.
• Ensure daily task status and hours are maintained in Agile tracking systems for complete backlog transparency.
• Own responsible-AI and governance touchpoints, including human-in-the-loop design, evaluation criteria, and guardrail requirements.
• Drive comprehensive change management and rollout strategies, including training, adoption initiatives, and feedback loops with end users.
• Conduct continuous research and benchmarking on AI trends and comparable enterprise deployments to inform and evolve the product roadmap.
• Support and foster a customer-centric culture, taking special interest in meeting the needs of both external and internal stakeholders.
• Initiate and implement program improvements across governance and intake processes, performing other related tasks as required to advance the initiative.

What You'll Bring:

• Proven experience managing an agile product development team as a Product Owner or Product Manager.
• Demonstrated experience with Generative AI, conversational AI, or intelligent automation products, including the ability to define evaluation criteria and "good enough to ship" for probabilistic systems.
• Proficiency in SAFe/Agile program management and utilizing Agile tracking tools.
• Exceptional ability to manage multiple assignments and changing priorities across a complex stakeholder ecosystem.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, including proficiency with standard office productivity suites.
• Experience producing formal presentations and documentation for executive and regulatory share-outs.
• Previous management experience (employees or contractors).
• Must have a Bachelor's Degree.

Nice-to-Haves:

• Experience with responsible-AI or AI governance frameworks.
• Vendor management experience.
• SAFe, Product Owner, or Scrum certification.

About Skill:

Skill connects the best professional, IT, engineering, financial and administrative talent with the world's biggest brands. Our eligible talent get access to benefits such as health benefit contributions, retirement plans with match and flexible spending accounts.

Skill is an equal-opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics. We're about creating an inclusive environment-one where different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives are valued, and everyone can contribute, grow their careers, and thrive.

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