Product Owner

Job description

Role Description

 

Allianz have an exciting new opportunity for a Product Owner working in our Customer Experience and Business Transformation team. You’ll work on a hybrid basis from our London Grace Church Street office.

 

This role reports directly to the Customer Experience and Business Transformation Director. You will lead the transition of Cytora, an asset developed to digitalise workflow through automatic extraction, enrichment, and risk evaluation from the Transformation programme into BAU operations. Cytora is already live across five products, has processed 80,000 risks and is utilised by 100 underwriters, providing structured data to Allianz. The purpose of this role is to ensure ongoing underwriter engagement, the development of future functionality and the introduction of new products. All aimed at accelerating our speed to market and enhancing data insights. In this role you will evaluate opportunities, prioritise initiatives, and maintain a concise backlog to drive impactful deliveries. 

 

Key accountabilities

 

Stakeholder Management

·  Lead and manage a long-lived team to drive the Cytora benefits case of improved loss ratio and expense ratio, with a focus on data insight and speed to market.
·  Accountability for the end-to-end delivery from requirements, through to build, testing and implementation.
·  Prioritisation of the backlog across new products, continuous improvement, transformation, and data.
·  Manage the Cytora relationship with the UK delivery team to ensure a seamless delivery.
·  Drive Cytora initiatives via various UK and Global forums such as action group, strategic initiatives, and global steerco.
·  Communication to senior stakeholders on delivery progress and benefits realisation.
·  Engagement with transformation delivery teams to ensure alignment on roadmaps and target state.

 

PI Planning

·  Prepare for the Program Increment planning by reviewing and contributing to the Product vision, roadmap, and content presentations.
·  Actively engage with user story definition, provide clarifications to enable the Scrum team to create their story estimates and sequencing.
·  Work with Scrum team to determine the team Pl objectives for the upcoming PL.

Backlog Maintenance

·  Act as the customer proxy to define and prioritise stories in the team backlog.
Ensure the backlog is appropriately prioritised, visible, clear, and refined ahead of sprint planning.
·  Make decisions on behalf of the business behalf of the business on which user stories are accepted or rejected and in which sprint they will be developed but being mindful of the need for a minimum Viable Product (MVP) with greatest business benefit and some elements that are time driven.
·  Maintain awareness of wider Portfolios to ensure the backlog accurately reflects support of wider initiatives which may require additional resource support and require priority. This will be achieved via close collaboration with both the Product Manager and other Product Owners.

Decision Making

·  Sign off all development work completed in the sprints, ensure quality of delivery, and fit for purpose in line with the definition of 'Done'.
·  Be available to the Scrum team, take responsibility for day-to-day decisions in the scrum team and able to think clearly on your feet to give quick concise decisions to help the team pivot and change direction rapidly when required.
·  Maintain a knowledge of future change items in a well-defined backlog in order that these can be considered by the team when planning future sprints and PIs.

Escalation

·  Take responsibility to escalate deviations/blockers/dependencies within the domain to ensure company visions are met and delivery plans remain on track.

 

Technical Skills

·  Some technical understanding of current company system applications and business processes.
·  Critical thinking generated by observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, and communication.
·  A basic understanding of the Agile methodology with experience using several frameworks e.g., Scrum, Kanban.

 

Desirable Skills

 

·  Previous experience working as a product owner required as well as a willingness to learn.
·  Previous experience working in insurance or financial services.
·  Some business knowledge with a wider understanding of the Mid-Corporate business vision.
·  Experience of changing technology and processes.
Good communication skills and stakeholder management.
·  Ability to work alongside and help energise a cross-functional experienced team.
·  Self-motivated.
·  Not afraid to take a risk-based approach to decision making.
·  A strong team player.

 

What We Will Offer You

 

Recognised and rewarded for a job well done, we have a range of flexible benefits for you to choose from- so you can pick a package that’s perfect for you. We also offer flexible working options, global career opportunities across the wider Allianz Group, and fantastic career development and training. That’s on top of enjoying all the benefits you’d expect from the world’s number one insurance brand, including:

·  Flexible buy/sell holiday options
·  Hybrid working.
·  Annual performance related bonus
·  Contributory pension scheme
·  Development days
·  A discount up to 50% on a range of insurance products including car, home and pet
·  Retail discounts

Our Ways of Working

Do you need some flexibility with the hours you work? Let us know as part of your application and if it’s right for our customers, our business and for you, then we’ll do everything we can to make it happen. 

Here at Allianz, we are signatories of the ABIs flexible working charter. We believe in supporting hybrid work patterns, which balance the needs of our customers, with your personal circumstances and our business requirements. Our aim with this is to help innovation, creativity, and you to thrive - Your work life balance is important to us.

 

Diversity & Inclusion

At Allianz, we prioritize diversity and inclusion, demonstrated by our numerous accreditations: EDGE certified for gender inclusion, Women in Finance Charter members, Disability Confident employer, Stonewall Diversity Champion, Business in the Community’s Race at Work Charter signatories, and Armed Forces Covenant gold standard employer.

We embrace neurodiversity and welcome applications from neurodivergent and disabled candidates, offering tailored adjustments to ensure your success.

We encourage our employees to advocate for their needs, whether it’s assistive technology, ergonomic equipment, mentoring, coaching, or flexible work arrangements.

 

Accessible Application for All

As part of the Disability Confident Scheme, we support candidates with disabilities or long-term health conditions through the Offer an Interview Scheme, for those meeting the essential skills for the role.

Contact our Resourcing team to opt into this scheme or for assistance with your application, including larger text, hard copies, or spoken applications.

 

 

Hr-recruitment@allianz.co.uk

resourcingteam@allianz.co.uk

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