IA-DOM-DOIT-PM6-Product Owner/Portfolio Manager

The
Department of Management (DOM), Division of Information Technology (DoIT), is
seeking a Product Owner/Portfolio Manager. The position involves close
collaboration with business and IT management, oversight of cross-functional
fusion teams, and a commitment to continuous improvement driven by performance
data and user feedback.
This Product Portfolio Manager will be responsible for managing fusion
teams, which typically consist of a QA, BA, PM, and a couple of developers.
These teams represent the smallest functional unit for a project. The Product
Owner is accountable for the overall product and serves as the central point of
communication for all projects under that product. They will coordinate with
the PMO, Application Development, and other stakeholders to communicate project
needs, priorities, and resource requirements.
The IT Product Portfolio Manager oversees a collection of custom applications and vendor systems, will lead meetings, solve problems, facilitate and coordinate communication between the parties, manage product backlogs, document status, and ensure that the team members have the support needed to perform their work. This is an opportunity to work in a mission-driven environment supporting Iowa’s public service agencies and citizen-facing services, such as those supporting the Department of Education, Department of Natural Resource, or others.

Key
Responsibilities:

· Manage a portfolio of IT products and
applications, ensuring successful completion and alignment with business needs
for both internal and external users.

· Serve as a Product Owner to guide
products through all lifecycle stages, ensuring efficiency, quality, and
alignment with strategic goals.

· Work with business SMEs, internal
teams, external agencies, and vendors to define product scope, identify
IT-enabled solutions, and support procurement and implementation processes.

· Create and prioritize product
backlogs and maintain roadmaps that align with long-term IT strategies and
changing user and state needs.

· Oversee product releases, ensure
readiness for deployment, monitor performance, gather feedback, and manage
risks affecting delivery or budget.

· Collaborate with business and IT
leadership to define and track performance metrics, ensuring all products and
processes meet state, federal, and IT governance requirements.

· Manage relationships with vendors and
service providers, overseeing performance, resolving issues related to
interoperability, and ensuring adherence to service level agreements (SLAs) and
availability targets.

· Oversee product IT financials,
including budget planning and monitoring, while providing leadership with
regular updates on product status, risks, and strategic roadmap progress.

· Lead and manage cross-functional
fusion teams, ensuring effective collaboration among IT, vendors, and business
units to deliver solutions that align with business needs and budget
constraints.

· Partner with DoIT supervisors to
allocate appropriate technical resources, monitor team performance, and provide
ongoing support to fusion team staff.

· Facilitate agile meetings and lead
sprint reviews, user story development, ensuring team alignment on priorities
and presenting outputs to stakeholders.

· Use feedback and metrics to identify
product needs and collaborate on acceptance criteria, testing, and feature
delivery.

· Collaborate with Executive Technology
Officers (ETOs) and product teams to prioritize and manage product development
efforts, ensuring alignment with agency needs and effectively transitioning
products to enterprise services.

· Build and maintain strong
relationships with client/business teams, establishing regular communication
and fostering trust to ensure successful collaboration and issue resolution.

Required Skills

· Product ownership, portfolio
management (2+ years)

· Project management: planning/managing
scope, budget, timeline, resources; coordinating project activities (5+ years)

· Requirement elicitation,
documentation and articulation between teams (5+ years)

· Proficient understanding of the
software development life cycle and related methodologies (5+ years)

· Experience partnering with vendor
project teams, managing relationships and vendor management (5+ years)

· High quality documentation: project
plans, status updates, presentations, requirements, user stories, process maps,
instructions (5+ years)

· Demonstrated strong communication
skills across technical teams and business stakeholders, specifically to
leadership – setting/resetting expectations (5+ years)

· Guide stages of agile software
development, including user story development, sprint planning, and
prioritization of the product backlog. (3+) years

· IT vendor management (3+ years)