AVP, Product Owner - Customer Solutions

The Product Owner is a leadership role responsible for defining, evolving, and executing the platform and hive vision. As a Platform Product Owner – Client Communication, you would drive the development and enhancement of phygital client communication solution covering print, digital and interactive solutions. The ideal candidate should have a strong mix of business acumen and technical expertise, with experience in retail banking and client communication products like statements, advice, eNotices, Letters etc. This role requires collaboration with WRB Platform & Domain & Development Organization, Hve Lead, Engineering Lead, Architects, and fellow Product Owners. The role also requires close adherence to the Enterprise Software Delivery Lifecycle (ESDLC), referencing relevant PO R&R documents and aligning with Clarity, Azure DevOps (ADO), and Confluence for planning and governance. Key Responsibilities: STRATEGY SHAPE AND COMMUNICATE PLATFORM VISION • Contribute to building a multi-year strategic roadmap, blending market insights, business needs, and technical innovation to position the platform for future success. • Execute this roadmap with hive lead and squad, ensuring wide alignment and clear understanding of why, how and when the platform will evolve. ALIGN WITH ENTERPRISE OBJECTIVES • Ensure platform initiatives directly support major WRB outcomes and domain-level OKRs. • Champion a data-driven approach to prioritisation, incorporating both functional milestones and non-functional imperatives (e.g., security, scalability, performance). SET BALANCED STRATEGIC PRIORITIES & KPIS • Drive adoption of measurable metrics (e.g., developer adoption, cost savings, time-to-market improvements) to improve the platform's success. • Proactively integrate technical debt reduction and compliance items into these priorities, balancing new feature delivery with foundational stability. PROMOTE SCALABILITY & SUSTAINABLE GROWTH • Collaborate with Hive Lead, Engineering Leads, Production Engineering and Architects to embed performance, reliability, and risk controls at the architecture level. • Manage trade-offs between rapid feature deployment and the long-term viability of the platform ecosystem. BUSINESS CHAMPION STAKEHOLDER NEEDS • Continuously advocate for Journeys/Platforms and other Hive stakeholders, translating their feedback into the unified backlog for the Hive. • Build transparent relationships with Journeys to ensure each domain's objectives are reflected in the platform's evolution. UNIFIED BACKLOG OWNERSHIP • Maintain a single backlog that captures stream aligned journey roadmaps, business-driven features, technical enablers, and compliance/risk work. • Balance urgent demands against strategic investments, reflecting the right mix of short-term wins and long-term capabilities. VALUE-DRIVEN DELIVERY & COMMUNICATION • Provide real-time visibility into backlog status, upcoming releases, and risk items through lifecycle tools like Clarity, Azure DevOps (ADO), and Confluence. • Host regular reviews showcasing platform increments (e.g., new integrations, improved APIs), inviting cross-domain feedback to refine direction. FOSTER CROSS-DOMAIN AND CROSS-HIVE SYNERGY • Identify reusable platform capabilities that reduce duplication and accelerate outcomes across multiple hives. • Collaborate with engineering lead to avoid siloed development and ensure a consistent user experience where platform services are leveraged. PROCESSES ADOPT & EMBED ESDLC (ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE DELIVERY LIFECYCLE) STANDARDS • Ensure all platform lifecycles (e.g., ideation → dev → test → deploy → monitor) align with ESDLC and organisational governance frameworks. • Reference the eSDLC PO R&R document where appropriate, reinforcing best practices for backlog management, quality gates, and audit readiness. CHAMPION BIG ROOM PLANNING & DIRECTIONAL SCRUMS • Actively participate in quarterly and directional planning sessions, enabling squads, chapters, and domain stakeholders to align on objectives. • Encourage open dialogue, autonomy, and continuous improvement, using these forums to address dependencies and realign priorities swiftly. DEVOPS & CONTINUOUS PROCESS OPTIMISATION • Drive adoption of DevOps practices (CI/CD pipelines, automated testing), ensuring fast, reliable releases with minimal manual overhead. • Collect feedback from squads, domain leads, and external partners, feeding into retrospective loops and iterative improvements. REGULATORY & SECURITY INTEGRATION • Embed secure-by-design, privacy-by-design principles from the earliest phases of solutioning collaborating with Architects. • Maintain audit trails and compliance documentation, minimising rework or bureaucratic bottlenecks while staying fully audit ready. PEOPLE & TALENT LEAD & EMPOWER SQUADS • Nurture a psychologically safe environment, empowering squads to self-organise, innovate, and experiment with new approaches—within strategic guardrails. • Provide squads with clarity on how their work contributes to the platform's long-term goals, promoting autonomy and accountability. CHAPTER COLLABORATION & CAPABILITY BUILDING • Contribute to the Product Owner Chapter to align skill development • Commit to continuous learning, offering / attending training on product management AGILE MINDSET & TEAM CULTURE • Cultivate communities of practice where domain experts, squad members, and chapter leads exchange best practices and lessons learned. RISK MANAGEMENT INTEGRATED RISK OVERSIGHT • Continuously incorporate operational, security, and regulatory risk items into the backlog. • Proactively escalate major risks (e.g. compliance blockers, infrastructure vulnerabilities) to domain leads, ensuring swift mitigation. TECHNICAL DEBT & LEGACY TRANSFORMATION • Emphasise regular refactoring, legacy system modernisation, and architectural upgrades that keep the platform robust over time. • Prevent "feature factory" mindsets by consistently valuing behind-the-scenes improvements that enable future velocity. CROSS-DOMAIN IMPEDIMENT RESOLUTION • Identify and clear systemic blockers (e.g., environment constraints, resource bottlenecks) that hinders the squad. • Coordinate with Chapter Lead and Engineering Lead to address critical performance or architectural issues, maintaining platform stability. REGULATORY ADHERENCE & AUDIT READINESS • Keep the platform fully audit-ready, with clear documentation mapping backlog items to compliance requirements (e.g., privacy, data residency). • Collaborate with risk/compliance officers to stay abreast of evolving regulations, proactively adjusting the platform roadmap. GOVERNANCE ENTERPRISE GOVERNANCE ALIGNMENT • Guarantee platform deliverables satisfy corporate policies (e.g., Group Plans, ESDLC gating) without imposing excessive bureaucracy on squads. • Ensure platform-level artefacts, from architecture decisions to user stories, meet governance needs with minimal friction. STEERING COMMITTEE & FORUM REPRESENTATION • Advocate for the platform in RF, QPR, or other governance bodies, linking platform metrics/deliverables to strategic business outcomes. • Use data to highlight successes, risks, or resource requirements for upcoming platform increments. RELEASE & VERSION MANAGEMENT • Oversee a structured release cadence, ensuring each major update meets performance, security, and quality benchmarks. CONTINUOUS ASSURANCE & COMPLIANCE • Maintain transparent records (design docs, test outcomes, retrospectives) that satisfy internal/external audits. • Treat governance as a built-in aspect of daily development rather than a final checkpoint, aligning with agile and DevOps principles. REGULATORY & BUSINESS CONDUCT • Display exemplary conduct and live by the Group's Values and Code of Conduct. • Take personal responsibility for embedding the highest standards of ethics, including regulatory and business conduct, across Standard Chartered Bank. This includes understanding and ensuring compliance with, in letter and spirit, all applicable laws, regulations, guidelines and the Group Code of Conduct. • Lead the Digital Experience team to achieve the outcomes set out in the Bank's Conduct Principles • Effectively and collaboratively identify, escalate, mitigate and resolve risk, conduct and compliance matters.

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