iiQ8 Classifieds, Product Owner – Marketplace, Alghanim Jobs

Long Description

Alghanim Industries is one of the largest privately owned companies in the Persian Gulf region, predominantly in Kuwait. A multinational company in outlook with operations in 40 countries, Alghanim Industries is a multibillion-dollar conglomerate with more than 30 businesses.

This role sits within the Digital practice, focussing on a new business vertical – Marketplace. The wider Digital practice predominantly focusses on Retail (X-Cite, the largest Electricals retailer in Kuwait & Safat, one of the leading home furnishing brands), Food & Beverage (Costa, Slim Chickens & Wendys), GTRC and Supply Chain & Distribution. There are additional business units which are out of focus of the Digital practice including Engineering, Insurance, Manufacturing and Automotive.

The Senior Product Owner will take responsibility for the ‘Marketplace’ proposition – tasked with owning design, execution and on-going management of the Marketplace platform. It is expected this role will own the end-to-end vision for the Marketplace platform as well as the roadmap for the product. The Senior Product Owner will manage internal / external teams to manage delivery & execution, whilst being known as the ‘go-to’ person within Alghanim Industries for any topic relating to their product set.

The Marketplace product is primarily used to on-board third-party sellers, who will then in turn manage their product, price, promotional activity, stock as well as other attributes. There are multiple integration points between marketplace platform, ecommerce platform and additional third-party systems and the Senior Product Owner will assume responsibility for the entire Marketplace platform and the connected ecosystem.

This role will line manage Business Analyst’s within the Digital portfolio – overseeing both their career development as well as day-to-day performance review.
In addition, as a Senior Product Owner you will work alongside other Senior Product Owners from the Digital Team to define the overall strategic vision of the Digital team – inputting across all domains with your expertise.

The role of the Senior Product Owner is business focussed, and as such a key aspect will be related to ensuring solutions are fit for purpose, future-proof and commercially competitive. Where solutions are non-consumer facing, the focus is on empowering business teams and delivering best-in-class tooling to meet business requirements.

This individual will have outstanding communication skills, strong analytical and problem-solving skills as well as a genuine passion for Retail. Strong presentation skills are required, as well as the confidence to manage multiple stakeholders from business teams, IT teams, external vendors and delivery partners. It is expected that the individual is a keen follower of technology trends and can determine potential business value in order to pro-actively suggest ideas to business & IT teams.

Job Summary

Job Responsibilities

    Own the ‘Marketplace’ product set with responsibility for setting the overall vision whilst managing internal / external teams to deliver projects end-to-end.

    Capture and document business requirements and business processes. Develop business requirements into user stories, epics and business requirement documentation as required.

    Design to-be solution including functional design and process design, whilst acting as a conduit between business & IT teams to ensure to-be solution is approved.

    Assess potential technology solutions & vendors, developing scorecards and recommendations to business & IT teams.

    Engage closely with IT teams to ensure solution is fit for purpose in-line with IT architectural principles and governing frameworks (e.g. Mobile app development, infrastructure, security.)

    Review and analyze the effectiveness and efficiency of existing systems and develop strategies for improving or further leveraging these systems.

    Organize and drive requirements prioritization meetings, developing approved backlog of work – engaging with IT teams to understand solution approach and timelines.

    Lead and support with sprint planning (and waterfall delivery methodologies, where applicable) in order to deliver approved backlog of change.

    Engage with other Product Owners across other functional domains (e.g. Consumer, Data or Digital) to ensure knowledge sharing. Where applicable, recommend solutions that could benefit other business areas, and vice-versa.

Candidate Requirements

    University degree, ideally from a business or technology discipline.

    8 years+ experience working as a Product Owner (or similar designation) within the Marketplace environment

    6 years+ experience of working within retail, with preference for consumer facing brands.

    Solid experience of facilitating & running workshops (business & IT facing).

    Solid experience of capturing and documenting business requirements.

    Experience working on agile projects (end-to-end) and traditional waterfall projects.

    Ability to effectively prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment.

    Ability to understand and communicate complex concepts and resolve complex problems.

    Project management experience is preferable, with relevant qualification (e.g. PMP/PRINCE2).

Education