Product Owner Manager

Description

The company needs its Product Owner group transformed into a high-performing, product-centric capability, and this leader will set the bar for it.

You will define role expectations, day-to-day operating practices, competency standards, career and development paths, and measures that show how Product Owners are performing.

The work applies SAFe principles and current product management practices, and it looks for practical, responsible ways to use AI in discovery, backlog quality, prioritization, decision support, stakeholder updates and team productivity.

This role combines people leadership with organizational change. You will own the team's collective effectiveness, the growth of the Product Owner capability, and lasting adoption of the new operating model.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Product Owner group.
• Coach, direct and develop the Product Owner team.
• Set clear outcomes, expectations, accountabilities and performance measures for Product Owners.
• Foster a team culture that is inclusive, accountable and always improving.
• Hold regular performance, development, talent and succession conversations.
• Find capability gaps and build development plans for individuals and the team.
• Make sure Product Owners have the skills, context, authority and support to make sound product decisions.
• Resolve unclear roles, uneven practices and obstacles that keep Product Owners from working well.
• Define the Product Owner mandate, role expectations, decision rights, interfaces and accountability model.
• Build and maintain a capability and competency framework for Product Owners.
• Set consistent Product Owner practices while leaving room for differences between products.
• Create role-based learning, coaching, onboarding and accreditation paths.
• Start a Product Owner community of practice where people share learning, patterns and reusable assets.
• Create scalable playbooks, tools, templates and guidance for strong product ownership.
• Work with Product Management and Engineering leaders to clarify how Product Managers, Product Owners, Engineering Managers, architects, delivery roles and other stakeholders relate.
• Adapt and embed the relevant SAFe principles and practices across the Product Owner group.
• Tie product strategy and roadmaps to prioritization, planning, backlogs, execution, delivery and outcome measurement.
• Raise Product Owner effectiveness in PI Planning, backlog management, iteration planning, stakeholder engagement, dependency management and review of delivered results.
• Work with Product, Engineering, Portfolio and Product Operations leaders to set up planning and operating rhythms that work.
• Assess current maturity and produce a practical plan for improving the capability.
• Balance consistency in the framework against the needs and maturity of each product and team.
• Identify priority AI use cases in Product Owner workflows.
• Help Product Owners use AI for research synthesis, backlog preparation, requirements quality, prioritization analysis, meeting preparation, stakeholder communication and knowledge discovery.
• Create practical guidance, reusable workflows and training for secure, responsible AI use.
• Work with security, privacy, legal, technology and governance stakeholders when AI-enabled practices are introduced.
• Track whether AI adoption measurably improves quality, cycle time, decision-making or team capacity.
• Keep human accountability for product decisions and customer outcomes.
• Design and run the change strategy for the Product Owner transformation.
• Explain why the Product Owner role is changing and what that means for Product Owners, Product Managers, Engineering teams and leaders.
• Involve Product Owners in shaping the future model and in finding barriers to adoption.
• Equip leaders and people managers to reinforce the new expectations consistently.
• Time communications, learning, coaching and rollout to match how ready the organization is.
• Use feedback, maturity assessments, retrospectives and adoption data to refine the approach.
• Build reinforcement so the new practices become routine work, not a one-off initiative.
• Build a balanced measurement framework covering maturity, adoption, product flow, predictability, quality, engagement, stakeholder confidence and business or customer outcomes.
• Set up transparent reviews of Product Owner team effectiveness.
• Use qualitative and quantitative evidence to find systemic problems and recommend fixes.
• Make sure measures reward the right behaviors and go beyond activity or output counts.
• Report progress, constraints, decisions and results to the right leadership forums.
• You are accountable for the performance and development of the Product Owner team.
• You are accountable for clarity and consistency in applying the Product Owner role.
• You are accountable for the maturity and sustainability of the Product Owner capability.
• You are accountable for adopting SAFe and product-centric practices that fit the business.
• You are accountable for how well Product Owners work with Product Management, Engineering and Product Operations.
• You are accountable for responsible adoption of AI-enabled Product Owner workflows.
• You are accountable for evidence that the capability is improving product decisions and customer or business results.

Requirements

• Significant experience leading Product Owners, Product Managers, business analysts, agile practitioners or similar product-delivery roles.
• Proven experience defining or transforming Product Owner roles, practices or capability models.
• Experience managing people, including setting expectations, coaching, growing talent and managing performance.
• A solid grasp of product-centric operating models and how strategy, discovery, prioritization, delivery and outcomes connect.
• Hands-on experience with agile product delivery and scaled planning.
• Experience leading change across several teams and stakeholder groups.
• Ability to work well with senior leaders across Product, Engineering, Operations and other functions.
• Experience building competency frameworks, assessments, learning paths, coaching programs or communities of practice.
• Strong facilitation, communication, stakeholder management and conflict-resolution skills.
• Ability to use evidence and metrics to judge capability maturity and guide improvement.
• Ability to lead through ambiguity and turn strategy into practical operating mechanisms.
• Optional: SAFe certification or substantial applied experience in a SAFe environment.
• Optional: Product Owner, Product Manager, product management, agile coaching or Scrum certification.
• Optional: Change-management certification or equivalent transformation experience.
• Optional: Experience moving a group from project-centric to product-centric ways of working.
• Optional: Experience building or scaling Product Owner or Product Management capabilities.
• Optional: Experience with organizational design, role clarification and career-path development.
• Optional: Experience implementing AI-supported product management or Product Owner workflows.
• Optional: Experience across global, distributed or cross-functional organizations.
• Optional: Experience introducing capability and maturity measures that link team practices to business outcomes.
• Sets clear direction while involving the team in how the capability evolves.
• Pairs strategic thinking with hands-on coaching and implementation.
• Builds internal capability so the team does not depend on the leader.
• Deals with performance and accountability directly, constructively and consistently.
• Builds trust across Product and Engineering and is willing to challenge unclear ownership or weak practices.
• Applies frameworks pragmatically instead of treating compliance with them as the goal.
• Shows curiosity and sound judgment about emerging AI capabilities.
• Communicates change openly, empathetically and credibly.
• Keeps teams focused on customer and business outcomes rather than finishing process steps.

Conditions

The on-target earnings (OTE) range for this role is $140,350 to $190,850 CAD per year. Pay within this range depends on experience, skills and internal equity.

This is a full-time employee role with HP Canada, eligible for group benefits including medical, dental, life insurance and disability coverage, subject to plan terms. You receive 15 paid vacation days per year, prorated from your start date. Full benefit details are provided at hire and are governed by the plan terms.

Benefits

• Group benefits: medical, dental, life insurance and disability coverage.
• 15 paid vacation days per year, prorated from start date.