Agile Product Owner

Description

The Agile Product Owner serves as the product delivery lead and primary interface between FAA stakeholders and cross-functional delivery teams, partnering with government leadership to translate strategic business priorities into executable product plans, coordinated release activities, and successful software delivery. This position is responsible for leading product planning, backlog management, release coordination, and cross-functional collaboration to ensure customer priorities are effectively delivered through Agile software development practices.

Working collaboratively with FAA leadership, program management, business analysts, software developers, quality assurance, DevOps, UX, and operational stakeholders, the Agile Product Owner drives alignment between business objectives and technical execution while supporting the continued modernization of the FAA Aircraft Registry. This role exercises independent judgment in balancing competing priorities, identifying delivery risks, facilitating timely decision-making, and recommending product strategies that support successful program outcomes.

Although this position does not have formal personnel management responsibilities, the Agile Product Owner provides leadership through influence, fostering collaboration across government and contractor teams to achieve product objectives, release commitments, and long-term program goals. The successful candidate must effectively align business and technical stakeholders, resolve competing priorities, and drive successful execution of product roadmaps, release milestones, and deployment objectives.

Primary Responsibilities

Strategic Product Planning

• Partner with FAA stakeholders to develop, maintain, and execute the CARES product roadmap, ensuring strategic priorities are translated into executable release plans and Agile delivery objectives.
• Collaborate with FAA leadership and program management to establish product priorities aligned with mission objectives, operational needs, contractual requirements, and modernization initiatives.
• Balance customer priorities, technical debt, regulatory requirements, operational improvements, and strategic program objectives when establishing delivery priorities.
• Translate business needs and customer objectives into actionable Epics, Features, User Stories, Acceptance Criteria, and product backlog items.
• Develop and communicate product strategies that support the continued evolution and operational success of CARES.

Agile Product Leadership

• Own, refine, prioritize, and maintain the CARES product backlog.
• Lead backlog refinement, Sprint Planning, Release Planning, and Program Increment (PI) Planning activities.
• Ensure development teams have the business context, priorities, and decisions necessary to maintain delivery momentum.
• Collaborate with Scrum Masters and technical leadership to support Agile execution and continuous delivery.
• Participate in Agile ceremonies including Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Reviews, Retrospectives, and Release Planning.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Provide cross-functional leadership across software development, business analysis, quality assurance, DevOps, UX, database, and operational support teams.
• Lead through influence to promote accountability, collaboration, and shared ownership in achieving program objectives.
• Coordinate dependencies across multiple Agile teams, technical organizations, and customer stakeholders.
• Facilitate timely decision-making to minimize delivery risk and maintain release schedules.
• Foster a collaborative environment that enables teams to meet product delivery commitments and deployment objectives.
• Drive alignment between customer expectations, technical capabilities, and contractual delivery commitments.

Customer & Stakeholder Engagement

• Serve as the primary product representative between Leidos and FAA stakeholders.
• Build trusted relationships with government leadership, business representatives, and technical stakeholders.
• Facilitate prioritization discussions that balance competing customer needs while maintaining program objectives.
• Present product status, roadmap updates, release readiness, program risks, recommendations, and delivery strategies to customer and program leadership.
• Prepare and deliver executive-level briefings, product updates, release status, roadmap communications, and decision support materials to program leadership and FAA stakeholders.
• Ensure customer feedback is incorporated into future planning and continuous product improvement.

Release Planning & Program Execution

• Lead product planning activities supporting software releases from concept through production deployment.
• Coordinate release readiness activities across development, testing, operations, and customer organizations.
• Provide product leadership to ensure delivery commitments, program objectives, customer expectations, and contractual objectives remain aligned throughout the software development lifecycle.
• Monitor product health, delivery metrics, dependencies, and program risks while recommending corrective actions and mitigation strategies.
• Support successful implementation of new capabilities through operational transition, user adoption, and continuous product improvement.
• Partner with technical leadership to evaluate solution alternatives, implementation strategies, release sequencing, and delivery priorities.

Continuous Improvement

• Promote Agile best practices and continuous improvement across the product team.
• Identify opportunities to improve product delivery processes, stakeholder collaboration, release planning, and program execution.
• Utilize delivery metrics, customer feedback, and operational lessons learned to improve product maturity and delivery effectiveness.
• Foster a culture of accountability, innovation, collaboration, continuous learning, and customer focus.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree with 8+ years of relevant experience, Master's degree with 6+ years of relevant experience, or equivalent experience in lieu of degree.
• Experience serving as a Product Owner, Product Manager, Scrum Master, Business Analyst, Program Analyst, Project Manager, or similar leadership role supporting Agile software development.
• Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional software delivery teams through collaboration and influence without direct supervisory authority.
• Experience developing and managing product backlogs, release plans, roadmaps, and Agile work management artifacts.
• Experience collaborating with executive stakeholders, technical teams, and business organizations to define priorities and achieve program objectives.
• Demonstrated ability to influence decision-making, resolve competing priorities, and drive successful delivery across multiple organizations.
• Strong understanding of Agile software development methodologies including Scrum and/or SAFe.
• Excellent written, verbal, facilitation, negotiation, presentation, and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Experience using Agile lifecycle management tools such as Jira and Confluence.
• Ability to obtain and maintain required government suitability or security requirements.

Preferred Qualifications

• Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager (POPM), or equivalent Agile certification.
• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.
• Experience supporting FAA or other Federal Government software modernization programs.
• Experience supporting enterprise software products through implementation, operational transition, sustainment, and continuous enhancement.
• Experience coordinating software releases involving multiple Agile teams and stakeholder organizations.
• Experience with business process analysis, digital transformation, or enterprise modernization initiatives.
• Experience working within a Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) environment.

If you're looking for comfort, keep scrolling. At Leidos, we outthink, outbuild, and outpace the status quo - because the mission demands it. We're not hiring followers. We're recruiting the ones who disrupt, provoke, and refuse to fail. Step 10 is ancient history. We're already at step 30 - and moving faster than anyone else dares.

For U.S. Positions: While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline onlyand not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.

About Leidos

Leidos is an industry and technology leader serving government and commercial customers with smarter, more efficient digital and mission innovations. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with 47,000 global employees, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $16.7 billion for the fiscal year ended January 3, 2025. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com.

Pay and Benefits

Pay and benefits are fundamental to any career decision. That's why we craft compensation packages that reflect the importance of the work we do for our customers. Employment benefits include competitive compensation, Health and Wellness programs, Income Protection, Paid Leave and Retirement. More details are available at www.leidos.com/careers/pay-benefits.

Securing Your Data

Beware of fake employment opportunities using Leidos' name. Leidos will never ask you to provide payment-related information during any part of the employment application process (i.e., ask you for money), nor will Leidos ever advance money as part of the hiring process (i.e., send you a check or money order before doing any work). Further, Leidos will only communicate with you through emails that are generated by the Leidos.com automated system - never from free commercial services (e.g., Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail) or via WhatsApp, Telegram, etc. If you received an email purporting to be from Leidos that asks for payment-related information or any other personal information (e.g., about you or your previous employer), and you are concerned about its legitimacy, please make us aware immediately by emailing us at LeidosCareersFraud@leidos.com.

If you believe you are the victim of a scam, contact your local law enforcement and report the incident to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

Commitment to Non-Discrimination

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, ethnicity, age, national origin, citizenship, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, pregnancy, family structure, marital status, ancestry, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran or military status, or any other basis prohibited by law. Leidos will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories consistent with relevant laws.

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