Product Owner

Job Summary

We are seeking a Product Owner to drive the delivery and continuous evolution of technology solutions that support key business objectives. This role serves as the bridge between business stakeholders and engineering teams, translating strategic goals into actionable requirements and prioritized product backlogs. The ideal candidate will possess strong Agile delivery experience, excellent stakeholder management skills, and the ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams to deliver high-value outcomes.

*Please note, this role is not able to offer visa transfer or sponsorship now or in the future*

About the Role

As a Product Owner, you will be responsible for understanding business needs, defining product requirements, and ensuring the successful delivery of product enhancements and capabilities. You will work closely with business stakeholders, architects, engineers, and delivery teams to develop and maintain product roadmaps, prioritize work based on business value, and drive Agile ceremonies including sprint planning, backlog refinement, and product reviews.

In this role, you will take ownership of a defined product or capability, balancing functional and non-functional requirements while monitoring product health, performance, scalability, reliability, and overall value. You will help resolve dependencies, facilitate collaboration across teams, and champion continuous improvement initiatives that enhance both product quality and team effectiveness.

Success in this position requires strong analytical and communication skills, the ability to build trusted relationships across business and technology organizations, and experience leveraging Agile tools and methodologies to drive results in a fast-paced environment.

In This Role, You Will

· Take an active role in understanding the business case, why a change is being requested, and the desired future state.

· Leverage knowledge of the product's value stream and system interactions to identify when new features or product changes are needed to achieve business value.

· Break down business requests into well-defined functional and non-functional requirements.

· Communicate stakeholder goals and expected outcomes to engineering, Solution Architects, and Principal Engineers, and write definition-of-ready user stories.

· Facilitate product backlog grooming sessions, ensuring the highest-impact work is delivered first.

· Maintain the product technical roadmap and advocate for prioritization of non-functional work at the appropriate time.

· Own a defined capability or technical product area, including product value, cost of ownership, health, and non-functional requirements such as reliability, scalability, usability, security, and performance.

· Cultivate trusted relationships with business and technology partners to support the product vision, goals, and priorities.

· Lead sprint planning, story refinement, and feature elaboration sessions with business and technology stakeholders.

· Participate in planning sessions to ensure cohesive, iterative plans that deliver business value.

· Resolve upstream dependencies and effectively manage cross-team conflicts.

· Participate in team standups, sprint reviews, product demonstrations, and retrospectives.

· Identify, monitor, and communicate technical product health metrics and KPIs, and advocate for product improvements.

· Manage team capacity to support product health initiatives and reduction of technical debt.

· Leverage Agile tools, such as Jira, and implement strategies to optimize team performance and delivery outcomes.

Work Model

We believe hybrid work is the way forward as we strive to provide flexibility wherever possible. Based on this role’s business requirements, this is a hybrid position requiring 2-3 days a week in a client or Cognizant office in Morris Plains, NJ. Regardless of your working arrangement, we are here to support a healthy work-life balance though our various wellbeing programs.

*Please note, this role is not able to offer visa transfer or sponsorship now or in the future*

Required Qualifications

· Experience working as a Product Owner within Agile delivery environments.

· Demonstrated ability to understand business needs and translate them into functional and non-functional requirements.

· Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, with experience working across business and technology teams.

· Experience creating and managing user stories and product backlogs.

· Knowledge of product value streams and system interactions.

· Ability to build trusted relationships and establish a strong partnership with stakeholders.

· Experience managing product roadmaps and prioritizing work based on business value.

· Understanding of non-functional requirements, including reliability, scalability, usability, security, and performance.

· Experience facilitating sprint planning, backlog refinement, and feature elaboration sessions.

· Ability to proactively resolve dependencies and coordinate work across multiple teams.

· Experience monitoring product health metrics, KPIs, and continuous improvement initiatives.

· Familiarity with Agile tools such as Jira.

· Focus on continuous learning and adopting a probe-and-learn approach to problem solving.

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Salary and Other Compensation:

Applications will be accepted until November 8th , 2026.

The annual salary for this position is between $60,000 - $70,000 depending on the experience and other qualifications of the successful candidate.

This position is also eligible for Cognizant’s discretionary annual incentive program and stock awards, based on performance and subject to the terms of Cognizant’s applicable plans.

Benefits: Cognizant offers the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements:

• Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance
• Paid holidays plus Paid Time Off
• 401(k) plan and contributions
• Long-term/Short-term Disability
• Paid Parental Leave
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan