{"id":3647826,"url":"https://alion.io/job/amrod-product-owner-artwork-automation-optimisation","title":"Product Owner – Artwork Automation & Optimisation","company":{"id":2728519,"name":"Amrod","domain":"amrod.co.za","url":"https://alion.io/company/amrod","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"MCI DirectHire","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":3,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":1,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":null,"computed_at":"2026-11-11T05:49:22Z"}},"role":"Product","role_family":"Product","seniority":"junior","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Johannesburg, South Africa"],"countries":["ZA"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":1,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Agile","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-08-31T12:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-11-02","last_verified_at":"2026-11-12T01:30:56Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":72,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":72},"description":"Job Description\nPurpose of the Role\nThe 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.\nKey Performance Areas\nProduct Strategy & Roadmap\nDelivery against the agreed artwork automation roadmap, release objectives and committed priorities.\nAutomation Value Delivery\nStraight-through processing rate, manual touchpoints removed and workflow enhancements implemented.\nSolution Quality\nProduction-file defects attributable to technology, automation exceptions, rework and acceptance outcomes.\nArtwork Visibility & Adoption\nImproved client artwork visibility and adoption of client-facing artwork capabilities.\nRoadmap & Benefits Realization\nRoadmap predictability, benefits realized, adoption and usage of delivered capabilities.\nProduct Stability & Supportability\nAvailability, processing throughput, exception recovery and artwork-automation incident trends.\nContinuous Improvement\nOpportunities identified, prioritised and progressed, including technical debt and risk reduction.\nTeam Performance & Capability\nDevelopment and automation team performance, engagement, capability growth and reduced key-person dependency.\nJob Requirements\nMinimum Skills and Education Required\nA 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.\nEquivalent depth of printing-industry and automation experience may be considered.\nProduct management or Agile certification (for example PSPO/CSPO) is advantageous.\nProcess 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.\nIntimate, practical knowledge of commercial/digital print workflows, artwork preparation, pre-flight, colour/file considerations, proofing, layout/imposition concepts and production-file requirements.\nDemonstrated ownership of a cross-functional roadmap or portfolio of workflow improvements, from discovery and prioritisation through implementation and benefits realisation.\nExperience leading technical, automation or multidisciplinary delivery teams and managing performance through clear outcomes.\nStrong stakeholder management where Sales, customer experience, operations and production priorities compete.\nExperience working with Agile delivery practices, structured SDLC governance, backlog management, testing and controlled production releases.\nWorkflow platforms such as Enfocus Switch and related pre-flight/PDF tooling; Adobe Creative Cloud and CorelDRAW.\nScripting, APIs, integrations, low-code automation, workflow orchestration and AI-assisted artwork use cases.\nVendor, license and commercial management for specialist production technology.\nCompetencies\nProduct and commercial judgement - Connects customer, operational and technology needs; makes clear value-based trade-offs.\nSystems and process thinking - Sees the full workflow, dependencies, data flows, failure points and downstream production consequences.\nPrinting-domain credibility - Engages confidently with specialists and understands what “production ready” means in practice.\nDecisiveness and prioritisation - Makes transparent decisions with incomplete information and revisits them when evidence changes.\nInfluence and facilitation - Creates alignment across functions without relying only on hierarchy.\nAnalytical problem-solving - Uses operational and product data to distinguish symptoms from root causes.\nPeople leadership - Sets direction, builds capability, holds others accountable and creates psychological safety.\nHumility and learning agility - Seeks expertise, welcomes challenge, owns mistakes and shares credit.\nCommunication - Explains complex workflow and technology matters simply and appropriately for the audience.\nContinuous improvement and operational discipline - Proactively challenges how work is done and balances innovation with quality, controls, resilience and supportability.","description_format":"text","description_chars":5123,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":1,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Consumer Goods","Gifts, Party Supplies & Souvenirs"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-11-02T23:21:30Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":12,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.414,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":71,"expected_fill_days":23,"reasons":["conf:1","win:tail","crowd:junior"],"computed_at":"2026-11-11T05:49:22Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/amrod-product-owner-artwork-automation-optimisation","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/amrod-product-owner-artwork-automation-optimisation.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-12T04:59:53Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":10924,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-13T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":2728519},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=2728519"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Famrod-product-owner-artwork-automation-optimisation"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":2,"usd":0.2},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Famrod-product-owner-artwork-automation-optimisation"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Famrod-product-owner-artwork-automation-optimisation"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/amrod-product-owner-artwork-automation-optimisation\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Famrod-product-owner-artwork-automation-optimisation"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":3647826}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"amrod.co.za","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":3647826},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. Docs: https://alion.io/developers"}}