Automation Product Owner at Kimberly-Clark
Chicago, IL
About the Job
*the candidate can be at any North American manufacturing site*
Your Job
You’re not the person who will settle for just any role. Neither are we. Because we’re out to create Better Care for a Better World, and that takes a certain kind of person and teams who care about making a difference. Here, you’ll bring your professional expertise, talent, and drive to building and managing our portfolio of iconic, ground-breaking brands. In your role, you’ll help us deliver better care for billions of people around the world. It starts with YOU.
About Us
Huggies®. Kleenex®. Cottonelle®. Scott®. Kotex®. Poise®. Depend®. Kimberly-Clark Professional®. You already know our legendary brands—and so does the rest of the world. In fact, millions of people use Kimberly-Clark products every day. We know these amazing Kimberly-Clark products wouldn’t exist without talented professionals, like you.
At Kimberly-Clark, you’ll be part of the best team committed to driving innovation, growth and impact. We’re founded on 150 years of market leadership, and we’re always looking for new and better ways to perform – so there’s your open door of opportunity. It’s all here for you at Kimberly-Clark; you just need to log on!
Led by Purpose. Driven by You.
About You
You’re driven to perform at the highest level possible, and you appreciate a performance culture fueled by authentic caring. You want to be part of a company actively dedicated to sustainability, inclusion, wellbeing, and career development.
You love what you do, especially when the work you do makes a difference. At Kimberly-Clark, we’re constantly exploring new ideas on how, when, and where we can best achieve results. When you join our team, you’ll experience Flex That Works: flexible (hybrid) work arrangements that empower you to have purposeful time in the office and partner with your leader to make flexibility work for both you and the business.
Main responsibilities:
Work closely with Product Managers and stakeholders to define product backlog according to the product vision, strategy, and roadmap. Ensure that the product backlog items solve business problems identified by the Product Manager and stakeholders.
Accountable for Product Backlog Management by creating and clearly communicating product backlog items with stakeholders, product managers and Scrum team (including engineering manager); routinely refining and prioritizing the product backlog items balancing product development, BAU-'Business As Usual', engineering work, and bug remediation while delivering product value. Maintain a healthy and transparent product backlog to ensure that the scrum team has adequate visibility and understanding of upcoming work.
Create and maintain effective release plans based on the delivery team’s available capacity. Set release goals, in coordination with the Product Manager and the delivery team and provides support so that they can deliver on their commitments. Collaborate with the Scrum team to identify the dependencies of product backlog items on other teams and coordinate with those teams to align on release plans, dependencies, and on the timeline to resolve these.
Continuously refine Product Backlog Items together with the Scrum Team and other subject matter experts to ensure the team understands those items to the level needed for them to estimate and plan to work during sprint planning.
Clearly define priorities for the scrum team and craft the sprint goal together with them.
Provide support to the scrum team while they deliver on the promised value. Actively work to address impediments to improve the team’s flow of work during sprint execution.
Work with the scrum team to ensure quality of work meets standards of excellence (Acceptance criteria and Definition Of Done). Review sprint backlog items and provide feedback about them to the scrum team. Actively participate in agile events to represent the stakeholder needs to the team.
Coordinate people (or any other resources) as needed for planning and execution of Product Backlog Items. This may entail working with people from across the organization, from business leaders, Product Managers, engineers, UX, testing, dev ops, legal, training, technical writing, marketing, and support personnel, and others as needed.
Collaborate with Product Managers, Business Partners and Stakeholders to plan Sprint Reviews, user acceptance testing and rollout/launch of the release/product.
Own communication to Product Manager and stakeholders regarding product progress and value delivery
Key Qualifications and Experiences:
Bachelor's degree, ideally in IT or a business discipline
15+ years demonstrable experience with automation processes, hands-on experience in designing and developing end-to-end automated warehousing/manufacturing processes and solutions (SAP EWM, Blue Yonder WMS and various Warehouse Control Systems).
4+ years' experience as a Product Owner or 7+ years as a Senior Business Analyst in an agile or product development environment teams (e.g., epics, stories, sprints, backlog management, product owners, product engineers, scrum master, etc.). Experience with Key Collaborative Events and Processes like Demand Intake, Demand/Requests Assessment, Quarterly Planning, Product Backlog Management, Sprint Reviews and Product Demos.
3-5+ years demonstrable experience mastering product development using human-centered design process that approaches problem-solving with understanding the user needs.
Proven success working with self-managed, virtual team members. Strong Virtual meeting facilitation, interpersonal communication, training, negotiation, and presentation skills.
Established background in launching software/solutions or services in partnership with business and engineering teams. High degree of proficiency in wireframes, prototyping, iterative development, understanding of agile principles.
Ability to inspire a team to act as a small business jointly accountable for its product.
Experience successfully driving end-to-end delivery of highly innovative products, including a wide variety of mechanisms (e.g., digital core, dashboards, APIs, cloud, e-commerce, real-time alerts, artificial intelligence)
Experience In using backlog tools (Azure DevOps, Craft).
Outstanding organizational, communication, relationship-building, and collaboration skills at all levels
Sharp analytical and problem-solving skills, prioritization and time management skills
Proven experience as a change agent to engage, influence, and inspire partners and stakeholders at multiple levels of a global organization.
Soft Skills and Others:
Agile Collaboration: Demonstrated experience in effectively working with Agile and Product teams, including involvement with epics, user stories, sprints, and backlog management. Ability to collaborate closely with product owners, engineers, and scrum masters to foster a productive and agile environment.
Leadership in Communication and Reporting: Skilled in leading communication efforts and reporting, adept at preparing and presenting comprehensive updates and reports to senior leaders and stakeholders. Ability to succinctly highlight key metrics, progress, and insights, ensuring transparency and alignment at all levels of the organization.
Expertise in Backlog Prioritization: Proficient in prioritizing the product backlog as a core responsibility of the Product Owner role, ensuring that items are assessed and ordered based on their value, complexity, and impact to the business. Ability to balance various factors such as stakeholder needs, team capacity, market trends, and strategic objectives to guide decision-making and optimize product delivery.
Total Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits you’d enjoy working in this role for Kimberly-Clark. For a complete overview, see www.mykcbenefits.com.
Great support for good health with medical, dental, and vision coverage options with no waiting periods or pre-existing condition restrictions. Access to an on-site fitness center, occupational health nurse, and allowances for high-quality safety equipment.
Flexible Savings and spending accounts to maximize health care options and stretch dollars when caring for yourself or dependents.
Diverse income protection insurance options to protect yourself and your family in case of illness, injury, or other unexpected events.
Additional programs and support to continue your education, adopt a child, relocate, or even find temporary childcare.
To Be Considered
Total Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits you’d enjoy working in this role for Kimberly-Clark. For a complete overview, see www.mykcbenefits.com.
Great support for good health with medical, dental, and vision coverage options with no waiting periods or pre-existing condition restrictions. Access to an on-site fitness center, occupational health nurse, and allowances for high-quality safety equipment.
Flexible Savings and spending accounts to maximize health care options and stretch dollars when caring for yourself or dependents.
Diverse income protection insurance options to protect yourself and your family in case of illness, injury, or other unexpected events.
Additional programs and support to continue your education, adopt a child, relocate, or even find temporary childcare.
To Be Considered
Click the Apply button and complete the online application process. A member of our recruiting team will review your application and follow up if you seem like a great fit for this role.
In the meantime, please check out the careers website.
And finally, the fine print….
For Kimberly-Clark to grow and prosper, we must be an inclusive organization that applies the diverse experiences and passions of its team members to brands that make life better for people all around the world. We actively seek to build a workforce that reflects the experiences of our consumers. When you bring your original thinking to Kimberly-Clark, you fuel the continued success of our enterprise. We are a committed equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, pregnancy, genetic information, citizenship status, or any other characteristic protected by law.
The statements above are intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by employees assigned to this classification. Statements are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities and skills required for this position.
Employment is subject to verification of pre-screening tests, which may include drug screening, background check, and DMV check.
Additional information about the compensation and benefits for this role are available upon request. You may contact 866-444-4516 – when prompted for employee ID, say “OTHER CALLER” - or kcchrprod@service-now.com for assistance. You must include the six-digit Job # with your request.
Veterans and members of the Reserve and Guard are highly encouraged to apply.
Kimberly-Clark will support in-country relocation for the chosen candidate for the role. The benefits provided will be per the terms of Kimberly-Clark’s applicable mobility policies. The benefits/policy provided will be decided at Kimberly-Clark’s sole discretion.
