Product Owner I

Product Owner I at Liberty Mutual Insurance

As a Product Owner on the PL Product Property & Specialty team at Liberty Mutual Insurance, you will act as the voice of the customer and the business, collaborating closely with partners across product, technology, and downstream teams. Your role involves defining and prioritizing work that drives strategic outcomes, encompassing everything from immediate enhancements to foundational modernization efforts.

You will be responsible for deeply understanding problems, breaking down complex work for agile squads, and ensuring alignment across all stakeholders. Given the diverse needs within Property & Specialty, which include state-specific changes, underwriting, specialty programs, and modernization initiatives, you will regularly navigate shifting priorities and varied work types.

Key Responsibilities

• Product Vision & Strategy
  • Contribute to shaping the product vision and ensuring strong alignment with strategic priorities, such as Win Now initiatives and future-state technology modernization.
  • Clearly communicate product strategy and expected outcomes to both agile squads and key stakeholders.
• Backlog Management & Delivery
  • Own and meticulously maintain the squad backlog, ensuring all stories and features are precisely defined, appropriately prioritized, and directly aligned to customer and business value.
  • Effectively balance near-term delivery objectives with longer-term viability, actively supporting product health and preparing for future modernization.
  • Actively participate in planning ceremonies, demos, and retrospectives to guide prioritization and ensure clear business intent is maintained.
• Stakeholder Engagement & Communication
  • Serve as the primary liaison between business stakeholders, downstream partners, and the agile team.
  • Clearly and concisely communicate scope, decisions, and expected value for each increment of work.
  • Coordinate seamlessly across various teams (e.g., Specialty, State Management, Underwriting, Tech) to ensure alignment and foster dependency awareness.
• Execution & Continuous Improvement
  • Clarify business requirements and proactively remove blockers to enable consistent team progress.
  • Assess feasibility, evaluate tradeoffs, and calculate the cost-of-delay to inform crucial prioritization decisions.
  • Understand critical regulatory, compliance, and operational considerations that may impact the product or portfolio.
  • Contribute to shaping roadmaps across Property & Specialty, effectively connecting business goals to actionable execution paths.

Ideal Candidate Profile

• Possess experience with insurance products, particularly PL Property & Specialty programs.
• Thrive in dynamic environments characterized by multiple workstreams, diverse stakeholders, and evolving priorities.
• Bring strong problem-solving skills and the ability to break down ambiguous challenges into actionable work items.
• Demonstrate clear, concise communication, especially when aligning stakeholders or articulating product decisions.
• Have proven experience working effectively in agile teams and are comfortable taking ownership of backlog prioritization.
• Be motivated by both strategic thinking and hands-on exploration of customer problems.
• Exhibit curiosity, adaptability, and enthusiasm for participating in the modernization of core insurance systems.

Qualifications

Candidates should have a strong knowledge of Agile development methodologies and IT project management, typically acquired through a Bachelor's degree in a relevant field (business, computer science, humanities, etc.). This should be combined with a minimum of 2 to 4 years of direct experience with agile teams, as well as 5 years in business, technology, or consulting. The ideal candidate will be able to depict complex ideas, issues, and designs to varied audiences, educating various departments on business vision and the impact of change. You must be able to make difficult and quick decisions daily, act as a problem solver, and lead the team to push solutions and progress. Experience in the insurance industry and knowledge of relevant products and portfolio are preferred. An experimental mindset to drive innovation amidst uncertainty is also highly valued.

Key Skills/Competency

• Product Ownership
• Agile Methodologies
• Backlog Management
• Stakeholder Communication
• Strategic Planning
• Insurance Products
• Problem Solving
• Technology Modernization
• Cross-functional Collaboration
• Requirements Gathering