Lead Product Owner

Job description

The Lead Product Owner (LPO) within Kroll’s Chief Data Office (CDO) is responsible for **end‑to‑end ownership, consistency, and execution excellence across multiple data, analytics, and reporting products or domains** . This role ensures alignment between business priorities, product strategy, and delivery execution. The Lead Product Owner acts as the **central accountability point across a portfolio of related products** , coaching and guiding Product Owners, establishing standards, and partnering closely with Program Management, Data Engineering, and Governance to deliver predictable, high‑quality outcomes. This role is critical to enabling **product‑led execution at scale** within the CDO. **Key Responsibilities** **Portfolio‑Level Product Ownership** - Own the overall product vision and execution strategy across a defined product portfolio or domain (e.g., Reporting, Self‑Service Analytics, Finance Analytics, Data Platforms). - Ensure each product has: - A clear purpose and roadmap - Defined success metrics - Consistent experience and standards - Act as the final decision authority on prioritization, scope tradeoffs, and acceptance across related products. **Leadership & Coaching** - Lead, mentor, and coach Product Owners to ensure consistent product ownership practices and decision quality. - Set and enforce standards for backlog quality, roadmap clarity, and stakeholder communication. - Serve as the escalation point for complex prioritization, dependency, or scope conflicts. - Raise the overall product ownership maturity across CDO. **Stakeholder Alignment & Business Partnership** - Serve as an interface between CDO and business, finance, and functional leaders for assigned domains. - Translate enterprise priorities into sequenced, realistic roadmaps. - Manage competing stakeholder demands by making transparent, value‑based trade‑offs. - Ensure stakeholders have confidence in what will be delivered, when, and why. **Roadmap, Backlog & Delivery Governance** - Maintain a portfolio‑level roadmap, aligned with capacity, dependencies, and strategic priorities. - Ensure Product Owners maintain well‑defined, ready backlogs that support predictable delivery. - Partner with Program Managers and Scrum Masters to: - Align sprint and release plans - Surface risks and constraints early - Manage cross‑team dependencies - Ensure delivery adheres to CDO governance, readiness, and release standards. **Quality, Governance & Trust** - Partner with Data Governance, Architecture, and Platform teams to: - Enforce consistent KPI definitions and semantic standards - Uphold data quality, lineage, and trust expectations - Ensure security and compliance requirements are met - Ensure products are operationally ready and supported post‑release. **Value Realization & Continuous Improvement** - Define and track adoption, usage, and value metrics across the product portfolio. - Ensure products deliver measurable business impact, not just functionality. - Identify opportunities to: - Simplify or consolidate products - Reduce technical or vendor dependency - Improve scalability and user experience - Continuously refine product direction based on feedback and performance insights. **Required** **Qualifications & Experience** - 7+ years of experience in Product Ownership, Product Management, Business Analysis, or Analytics/Data‑centric leadership roles. - Proven experience owning multiple products or domains in a complex enterprise environment. - Strong understanding of enterprise data, analytics, reporting, and BI platforms. - Demonstrated ability to work effectively with senior business stakeholders and technical delivery teams. - Experience leading or mentoring other Product Owners or equivalent roles. **Preferred** - Experience within a Chief Data Office, Analytics COE, or Enterprise Reporting organization. - Familiarity with platforms such as Databricks, Power BI, semantic models, and self‑service analytics. - Experience modernizing legacy reporting or analytics platforms. - Background in professional services or financial services environments. **Leadership Behaviors & Expectations** - Thinks and acts portfolio‑first, not story‑by‑story. - Brings clarity, structure, and discipline to ambiguity. - Comfortable making—and defending—trade‑off decisions. - Focused on outcomes, adoption, and trust, not just delivery. - Acts as a role model for product ownership maturity. **Role Relationships (Clarity of Accountability)** - Lead Product Owner: Defines long‑term strategy, investment priorities, and value realization. Owns execution alignment, product standards, and delivery outcomes across a portfolio. - Product Owners: Own day‑to‑day product execution and backlogs within specific domains. - Program Managers: Own delivery coordination, milestones, and dependency management. **Why This Role Matters** The Lead Product Owner ensures CDO can **scale product‑led execution without chaos** , reducing reliance on individual heroics while increasing predictability, trust, and impact across enterprise data and analytics investments.