Product Owner

SoCalGas, the nation’s largest gas distribution utility, is dedicated to providing safe, reliable, and affordable energy to over 21 million Southern California customers. Through innovation, collaboration, and an unwavering commitment to the needs of our communities we proudly uphold our mindset of “Glad to be of Service” and provide exceptional customer service today and ready to meet California’s energy needs with innovative solutions for tomorrow.

As an employee of SoCalGas, you will support our core values to do the right thing, champion people, and shape the future. You will play a pivotal role in the energy transition initiatives, supporting our mission: Safe, reliable, and affordable energy delivery today. Ready for tomorrow. We are committed to attracting top talent and fostering a diverse workforce that reflects the vibrant communities we serve.

As an employee of SoCalGas, you’ll enjoy a competitive compensation plan, upward mobility opportunities and the ability to find a true work life balance. Discover the rewards of joining SoCalGas by exploring our website: Our Mission; Sustainability, In the Community, and Employee Benefits. Join SoCalGas today and become a vital part of a team that is driving innovation, championing community needs, and shaping the future of energy in California.

Primary Purpose The Product Owner is a member of an agile team, primarily responsible for defining user stories [i.e., a short description of a unit of work to be delivered within an agile sprint, detailing the desired system or software functionality written in the user’s language] and prioritizing the backlog of user stories based on value for the customer. Responsible for teams which typically have fewer dependencies [i.e., reliance and interrelatedness with other systems, applications, platforms, and workstreams which result in a more challenging product to manage due to the additional risk]. Focuses on defining user stories that can be delivered by a single team.

As the face of a delivery team, navigates IT and Business Environments with few dependencies, translating business or capability value into user stories and features. Prepares for and participates in agile ceremonies including sprint planning, user story refinement, daily stand-ups, demonstrations, and retrospectives. Ensures the agile team is working on the right things at the right time, defining the roadmap for their team.

Duties And Responsibilities

• Captures and documents user stories to inform priority and sprint planning. Defines stories and features according to quality standards for clarity. Acts as a trusted advisor and liaison between the team and its primary stakeholder. Communicates value of a particular story to scrum team and ensures user stories are well-formed with clear acceptance criteria. Manages team sprint plan and a healthy backlog, a list of well-defined prioritized work that is ready to be delivered within a two-week sprint.
• Maintains a healthy backlog of work for the team, refining and prioritizing backlog items and assisting in the creation of clear sprint plans. Drives demos and reviews with stakeholders to ensure alignment on user stories, stakeholder priorities, and value delivery. Provides feedback to team on work completed. Reviews and accepts user stories and features as completed, ensuring the story meets acceptance criteria and end user needs.
• Writes features [i.e., a grouping of work defined in an agile way and made up of individual units of work that can be performed within a two-week sprint] and creates a quarterly plan in situations with fewer dependencies, focused on net new development. Participates in planning activities across the enterprise, including group-level planning activities that involve the work of multiple agile teams, such as quarterly planning or program increment (PI) planning. Participates in group events to review outputs and progress across teams.
• Implements team vision and goals, defining team’s roadmap for a 3 month time horizon and aligning priorities with the product roadmap guidelines set by the Group Product Owner. Identifies and qualifies potential opportunities for their team, focused on net new products, features, and stories for quarterly planning. Maintains product roadmap and qualifies work to be accepted into the backlog.
• Performs other duties as assigned (no more than 5% of duties).