Product Owner, Business Insurance

About Farmers Insurance

At Farmers, we strive to deliver peace of mind to our customers by providing protection and comprehensive advice and delivering in the moments of truth. We foster a high-performance culture focused on results and accountability, seeking solutions and growing through discomfort. Farmers is an award-winning, equal opportunity employer, committed to an inclusive workforce. We support the well-being of our people through extensive benefits and our communities through volunteer programs and nonprofit partnerships. To learn more, visit www.Farmers.com/careers/corporate and follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok.

Workplace Philosophy

Farmers believes in a culture of collaboration, creativity, and innovation. Our hybrid work environment combines flexible virtual settings with in-person opportunities. Employees within fifty (50) miles of a Farmers corporate office are expected to be in the office at least three (3) days a week, with up to two (2) days virtual. Applicants beyond fifty (50) miles may still be considered for remote work. This role is offered across the United States.

Job Summary: Product Owner, Business Insurance

This role serves as a dedicated Product Owner for the end-to-end conversion of legacy policy administration and quoting systems to Guidewire. You will be 100% focused on the build, rollout, and successful transition to the new platform, ensuring product integrity, underwriting excellence, and a superior user experience for both internal and external users. You will independently lead product development by following Agile principles, managing the team backlog, anticipating and prioritizing needs, overseeing development stages, acting as a primary liaison, and evaluating product progress. Serving as the customer proxy, you will collaborate with business owners and other stakeholders with little to no support, managing a higher volume of work. You will utilize a strong understanding of the business vision to offer guidance and influence requirements, and may provide overall leadership to other Product Owners through mentorship.

Key Expectations

• Serve as the primary leader for specific Agile teams throughout the Guidewire launch and deployment process.
• Be fully dedicated to the build, development, rollout, and conversion of legacy policy administration and quoting systems to Guidewire, maintaining a holistic view ensuring alignment with business goals and quality standards.
• Act as a leader and influencer among stakeholders to ensure varying needs are considered and addressed, while coordinating with supporting team members to confirm completeness of requirements, adherence to scope, and ultimate acceptance of work.
• Demonstrate a passion for excellence and technology-driven process improvement, proactively identifying opportunities to enhance system functionality and user experience.
• Commit to ongoing self-development and learning, staying current with both underwriting trends and Guidewire system capabilities.
• Collaborate effectively within a matrixed environment, partnering daily with cross-functional teams to deliver shared outcomes.
• Possess Product Owner / Product Manager SAFe Certification.
• Have experience with Business Insurance products (Businessowners Policy (BOP) / Commercial Multi-Peril, Umbrella, Commercial Auto, Workers Compensation).

Essential Job Functions

• Applies scientific practice within iterations in order to routinely plan, do, check and adjust.
• Manages team backlog items and prioritizes based on business value.
• Outlines dependencies and informs stakeholders the necessary sequence of development to ensure optimized performance and outcomes.
• Holds a significant role in quality control and is the primary team member empowered to accept stories as done.
• Utilizes strong business knowledge, influence and communication skills to anticipate problems, address them accordingly while working cross functionally in a self-organizing manner to accomplish tasks and effectively manage the backlog.
• Effectively applies critical thinking to identify flexibility in determining how and when each iteration and product element will be developed.
• Acts as primary communicator and connection between stakeholders, end users and teams determining if each story meets their shared expectations.
• Mutually partners with the business and uses effective challenging techniques in order to influence decisions.
• Ensures collaboration from all stakeholders on decisions and strategy providing clear instructions and deliverables for developers.
• Takes ownership for each stage of the process and final product to ensure the goal and vision are correctly aligned with the work items on the backlog.
• Contributes input into the prioritization of the program backlog, coordinates dependencies and manages the inspection and evaluation of product progress through each iteration.
• Assists in the mitigation of program risks.
• Participates in PO and/or ART sync meetings in addition to the system demo to show critical aspects of the solution.
• Participates in Inspect & Adapt (I&A) workshop to work across teams to define and implement improvement stories to increase program quality.
• A key member of the Agile team who utilizes perspective to define iteration goals and drives execution and delivery with the ability to influence stakeholders.
• Partners with the business owner to understand needs, manage scope and add/eliminate user stories.
• Communicates requirements to Agile Team in a clear and collaborative manner to determine new requirements, negotiate teams and dependencies.
• Regularly interacts with the Product Manager in order to discuss goals and share a clear understanding of the business/value stream vision.
• Heavily involved in the Program Increment (PI) planning, story definition and assists team with story estimates and sequencing.
• Oversees the development of the product to include planning, refinement, review, and execution.
• Partners with stakeholders to identify and organize steps required for next iteration.
• Works to gain clarity on queries and participate in the demo of committed items.
• Participates in ceremonies within the team to coordinate efforts with team to refine the process, identify areas for improvement and support the execution of tasks.
• Continuously keeps the end-user needs in mind based on on higher level of business acumen.
• Ensures the solution meets expectations and the development delivers expected outcomes from the accepted stories.
• Provides mentorship and guidance to PO I.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Education Requirements

Bachelors degree

Experience Requirements

Experience in an Agile environment or 3+ years in a project environment.

Physical Actions & Environment

This job is performed in-person at a Farmers office or virtually at an approved alternative work location. The physical work environment is indoors and climate-controlled. You will frequently sit for prolonged periods, occasionally move about, lift up to 25 pounds, and perform fine motor tasks like typing. Adequate vision and hearing are required for communication and safety. This position typically involves rare travel and operates in an open office environment with standard distractions.

Benefits

Farmers offers a competitive salary commensurate with experience, qualifications and location. Salary ranges vary by state (e.g., CA Only: $91,350 - $154,990; WA Only: $85,800 - $163,125). Comprehensive benefits include Medical, Dental, Vision, Health Savings and Flexible Spending Accounts, Life Insurance, and Paid Time Off. For more information, review “What we offer” on https://www.farmers.com/careers/corporate/#offer.

Key skills/competency

• Agile Methodologies
• Guidewire Platform
• Business Insurance Products
• Product Management
• Backlog Prioritization
• Stakeholder Management
• User Experience (UX)
• SAFe Certification
• Underwriting Principles
• Critical Thinking