Product Owner, Data & AI

Product Owner Data & AI

Data Strategy

Full-time Exempt Regular Pay Grade 4.2

Location: Hybrid (Onsite presence required in Adelphi MD at minimum 3 days a week)

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Product Owner is a member of our Enterprise Data & AI team. Product Owners work daily with teams of business stakeholders application developers QA testers and Scrum Masters to deliver business value through innovative software solutions. The Product Owner is the primary product specialist for the development scrum team manages the teams backlog participates actively in all phases of development and is a key stakeholder in product related decisions and release planning.

Responsibilities

Product Vision & Strategy

• Define and maintain the product backlog for the Data & AI platform ensuring alignment with the universitys long-term strategic plan and near-term priorities.
• Translate institutional goals (student success research advancement operational efficiency) into actionable product objectives.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Collaborate with faculty researchers administrators and IT leaders to gather requirements and identify high-value data and AI use cases.
• Serve as the primary liaison between business stakeholders and the technical development team.

Backlog & Prioritization

• Create refine and prioritize the product backlog based on business value compliance requirements and technical feasibility.
• Define acceptance criteria and ensure clarity for data AI and integration-related user stories.

Delivery & Execution

• Collaborate with data engineers AI/ML specialists developers and architects to deliver platform features and enhancements.
• Support Agile ceremonies (sprint planning standups reviews retrospectives) and ensure the team has a clear understanding of the overall vision and business value of priorities.

Governance & Data Stewardship

• Partner with institutional data governance groups to enforce data security compliance and stewardship and quality standards and processes.
• Ensure AI applications comply with ethical and responsible AI guidelines in higher education.

Analytics & AI Enablement

• Guide the development of AI/BI apps BI apps self-service analytics and AI-powered insights for faculty staff and leadership.
• Identify opportunities to embed AI/ML models (e.g. student retention predictions enrollment forecasting research analytics).

Change Management & Adoption

• Communicate platform benefits features and updates to stakeholders.
• Drive adoption through demonstrations training and user enablement activities.
• Help guide value creation realization and measurement through Data & AI products

Continuous Improvement

• Monitor product performance collect feedback and adjust priorities based on evolving institutional needs.
• Stay current on data & AI/ML trends and recommend platform innovations.

Qualifications

Education & Experience

• Bachelors degree in Information Science Information Systems Computer Science Data Science Business Administration or related field (Masters preferred).
• 5 years of experience in product ownership business analysis or project management ideally in data analytics or AI-focused environments.
• Experience in higher education research or public sector environments strongly preferred.
• Proven track record of helping deliver enterprise grade data & AI platforms and products within SAFe Agile environments.

Technical Knowledge

• Strong understanding of data & AI platforms data lakes/warehouses ETL pipelines APIs and cloud environments (e.g. Databricks AWS Azure GCP Salesforce Data Cloud).
• Working knowledge of Data Governance (e.g. Purview) and Master Data Management (e.g. Profisee) tools.
• Familiarity with AI/ML concepts predictive analytics and responsible AI frameworks.
• Working knowledge of BI/analytics tools (e.g. Tableau Power BI Salesforce CRM Analytics Looker).
• Experience with data governance privacy and compliance (FERPA HIPAA GDPR etc.).

Skills & Competencies

• Strong product management skills: backlog prioritization user story creation acceptance criteria.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement and communication skillsable to translate technical concepts into business value.
• Strategic thinker with ability to align platform initiatives to institutional goals (student success research excellence operational efficiency).
• Skilled in Agile/Scrum methodologies Jira/Azure DevOps or similar tools.
• Strong problem-solving analytical and decision-making skills.
• Ability to drive adoption and change management in diverse academic and administrative communities.

Preferred Certifications

• Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) or SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager.
• Data or cloud certifications (e.g. Databricks Azure Data Fundamentals Azure Purview Azure ADO Profisee).
• AI/ML or analytics certifications (e.g. Databricks MLFlow or equivalent).

All submissions should include a cover letter and resume.

The University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) is an equal opportunity employer and complies with all applicable federal and state laws regarding nondiscrimination. UMGC is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and does not discriminate on the basis of race color national origin age marital status sex sexual orientation gender identity gender expression disability religion ancestry political affiliation or veteran status in employment educational programs and activities and admissions.

Workplace Accommodations:

The University of Maryland Global Campus Global Campus (UMGC) is committed to creating and maintaining a welcoming and inclusive working environment for people of all abilities. UMGC is dedicated to the principle that no qualified individual with a disability shall based on disability be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of the services programs or activities of the University or be subjected to discrimination. For information about UMGCs Reasonable Workplace Accommodation Policy or to request an accommodation applicants/candidates can contact Employee Accommodations via email at.

Benefits Package Highlights:

• Generous Time Off:Enjoy 22 days of paid vacation 15 days of sick leave 3 personal days and 16 paid holidays (17 during general election years). For part-time employees time off rates will be prorated based on the number of hours worked.

• Comprehensive Health Coverage:Access to health care medical with vision dental and prescription plans for both individuals and families effective from the 1st of the month following your hire date.

• Insurance Options:Term Life Insurance Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance and Long-Term Disability (LTD) Insurance. Part-time employees working less than 0.5 FTE are not eligible for LTD.

• Flexible Spending Accounts:Available for medical and dependent care expenses.

• Retirement Plans:Choose between the Optional Retirement Program (ORP) or the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System (MSRPS).

• Supplemental Retirement Plans: include 401(k) 403(b) 457(b) and various Roth options. The university does not provide matching funds.

• Tuition Remission:Immediate availability for Regular Exempt Staff. Spouses and dependent children are eligible for undergraduate tuition remission after two years of service. NOTE: For part-time employees (at least 50 percent of the time) tuition remission benefits are prorated.

Hiring Range: