Product Owner – Artwork Automation & Optimisation

Job Description

Purpose of the Role

The Product Owner - Artwork Automation & Optimisation owns the strategic direction, product roadmap and value delivery for the end-to-end artwork technology landscape across the client, Sales, layout/mock-up, pre-press and Production journey. The role translates business strategy and printing-domain requirements into prioritised technology capabilities that improve client artwork visibility and automate artwork intake, pre-flight, layout and mock-up generation, approvals and production-file readiness. Operating within IT Business Systems, the role is the single point of product accountability for this value stream. The role proactively identifies automation ideas, applications and capabilities that can solve business needs and embeds these into end-to-end workflows. The role partners with business process owners across departments, governs demand through the applicable Change Advisory Boards (CABs), and leads the development and automation team to deliver secure, supportable, scalable and measurable solutions.

Key Performance Areas

Product Strategy & Roadmap

• Delivery against the agreed artwork automation roadmap, release objectives and committed priorities.

Automation Value Delivery

• Straight-through processing rate, manual touchpoints removed and workflow enhancements implemented.

Solution Quality

• Production-file defects attributable to technology, automation exceptions, rework and acceptance outcomes.

Artwork Visibility & Adoption

• Improved client artwork visibility and adoption of client-facing artwork capabilities.

Roadmap & Benefits Realization

• Roadmap predictability, benefits realized, adoption and usage of delivered capabilities.

Product Stability & Supportability

• Availability, processing throughput, exception recovery and artwork-automation incident trends.

Continuous Improvement

• Opportunities identified, prioritised and progressed, including technical debt and risk reduction.

Team Performance & Capability

• Development and automation team performance, engagement, capability growth and reduced key-person dependency.

Job Requirements

Minimum Skills and Education Required

• A relevant diploma or degree in Printing Technology, Print Production, Production or Industrial Engineering, Information Systems, Product Management, Operations Management or a related field is advantageous.
• Equivalent depth of printing-industry and automation experience may be considered.
• Product management or Agile certification (for example PSPO/CSPO) is advantageous.
• Process improvement training such as Lean/Six Sigma is advantageous.5+ years’ relevant experience in printing, artwork, reprographics, pre-press, production workflow or artwork automation environments, including demonstrated experience leading product, workflow improvement, automation or technology-enabled change.
• Intimate, practical knowledge of commercial/digital print workflows, artwork preparation, pre-flight, colour/file considerations, proofing, layout/imposition concepts and production-file requirements.
• Demonstrated ownership of a cross-functional roadmap or portfolio of workflow improvements, from discovery and prioritisation through implementation and benefits realisation.
• Experience leading technical, automation or multidisciplinary delivery teams and managing performance through clear outcomes.
• Strong stakeholder management where Sales, customer experience, operations and production priorities compete.
• Experience working with Agile delivery practices, structured SDLC governance, backlog management, testing and controlled production releases.
• Workflow platforms such as Enfocus Switch and related pre-flight/PDF tooling; Adobe Creative Cloud and CorelDRAW.
• Scripting, APIs, integrations, low-code automation, workflow orchestration and AI-assisted artwork use cases.
• Vendor, license and commercial management for specialist production technology.

Competencies

• Product and commercial judgement - Connects customer, operational and technology needs; makes clear value-based trade-offs.
• Systems and process thinking - Sees the full workflow, dependencies, data flows, failure points and downstream production consequences.
• Printing-domain credibility - Engages confidently with specialists and understands what “production ready” means in practice.
• Decisiveness and prioritisation - Makes transparent decisions with incomplete information and revisits them when evidence changes.
• Influence and facilitation - Creates alignment across functions without relying only on hierarchy.
• Analytical problem-solving - Uses operational and product data to distinguish symptoms from root causes.
• People leadership - Sets direction, builds capability, holds others accountable and creates psychological safety.
• Humility and learning agility - Seeks expertise, welcomes challenge, owns mistakes and shares credit.
• Communication - Explains complex workflow and technology matters simply and appropriately for the audience.
• Continuous improvement and operational discipline - Proactively challenges how work is done and balances innovation with quality, controls, resilience and supportability.