About Us

At LV= General Insurance (LV= GI), we go above and beyond to help our millions of customers look after what they love. Putting our people first, and our customer at the heart of everything we do, we’ve made it our mission to become Britain’s best-loved insurer.

Having joined the Allianz family, we’re proud to be one of the largest personal insurers in the UK.

Our purpose is ‘We secure your future’ for our employees, our customers and the wider society, sits at the heart of our business.

About The Opportunity

The LV=GI Product Owner Practice is evolving, and at this exciting time of change we have an opportunity for a Product Owner to join our growing team and actively contribute to our growing Product Practice. We are looking for someone who is as passionate about delivering a first class experience to our customers as we are.

Although you may not have previous Product Owner experience you will have a good understanding of the role and ideally will have worked closely alongside a Product Owner as a Change Delivery Analyst or in another role within a Scrum team previously. You will bring energy, enthusiasm and a willingness to learn the role to help drive engaging user experiences and help lead LV=s visons and objectives.

As a Product Owner you will be a leading member of the Scrum team on some of our smaller deliveries initially, supporting change throughout the full development process from concept to delivery. You will evaluate all opportunities and decide what gets built and delivered through a clear concise backlog, with mentoring and support from your Product Manager whilst you get up to speed. You are a clear thinker with vision, passion, energy and attention to detail with a drive to learn and improve yourself and others but above all you;'re a real team player.

Your Focus

Stakeholder Management

• Acting as the interface with the Project Manager (PM) between stakeholders and the scrum team, liaising with and conducting "show and tells" to update and demo Scrum team progress to advise what changes will be delivered and that the business is aware of these ahead of delivery.
• Maintaining awareness of activities outside of the Sprints and the Scrum team, but are required to "complete the picture" for delivery.
• Agreeing approach with PM and SMEs on engagement model with wider operational teams to ensure upfront visibility and required tasks from and timeframes
• Consulting with the Business Design Authority (BDA) in advance of significant business design decisions being implemented and using them (when required) for sense check of initial sprint planning decisions.

Backlog Maintenance

• Working closely with the Scrum team, agreeing what stories should be "above" and "below" the MVP considering this will be fluid and may include defect fixes
• Making decisions that will influence whether user stories are accepted or rejected and in which sprint they will be developed
• Working closely with Product Managers and Product Owners maintaining awareness of wider Portfolios to ensure the backlog accurately reflects support of wider initiatives requiring additional resource and require priority calls
• Adding new features to the backlog, avoiding deviating from the roadmap of the project, whilst ensuring appropriately prioritised ahead and sprint planning
• Ensuring Epics and projects are up to date and in line with priorities set

Scrum Team Engagement

• Confirming the definition of "Done" as agreed by the Scrum team, proactively work with the Scrum team for each sprint to deliver code that can be accepted as "Done"
• Working closely with the Scrum team to get early feedback of timescales regarding key delivery dates, attend retrospectives and punctually deliver on actions
• Ensuring relevant SMEs / Knowledge Management Experts are available to support the sprints

Decision Making

• Signing off of all development work completed in the sprints, ensuring quality of delivery and fit for purpose in line with the definition of ‘Done’
• Being available to the Scrum team and think clearly on your feet to give quick, concise decisions to help the team pivot and change direction rapidly when needed
• Maintaining knowledge of future change items in a well defined backlog for these to be considered when planning future sprints and PIs
• Defining the MVP for each project and best benefit realisation, consulting the BDA when necessary.

Escalation

• Escalating risks to the PM, Scrum Master and relevant stakeholders

Release / Warranty Management

• Ensuring the Project Management team have undertaken all relevant tasks to ensure a smooth implementation in line with BAU processes for Release Management
• Taking ownership of warranty issues, and determining priority of issues compared to the product backlog.

What We're looking For

• Product Owner experience is desirable, but not essential for the right candidate
• A strong understanding of the Product Owner role and Agile methodology is expected. This includes experience using Scrum, Kanban etc with an appetite to develop knowledge further
• Proven track record of working within a Scrum team environment
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills
• Previous experience working in general insurance, financial services or back end integration technology is desirable
• Working understanding of Java Spring, Polaris, Radar Live, Azure Machine Learning and Mulesoft API technology is preferable
• Working knowledge of CRS (Common Rating Service) and CQS (Common Quote Service) is preferable
• Self-motivated team player with ability to energise a cross-functional experienced team
• Not afraid to take a risk based approach to decision making

Ways of Working

We are delighted to confirm that we are now a hybrid working business. Our office with flex model means that you will have the opportunity to work from home as well as the office. As a hybrid worker you will be in the office between 2 and 16 days per month depending on individual and business need. This will be discussed at interview stage.

Need some flexibility with the hours you work? Let us know as part of your application and if it’s right for our customers, our business and for you, then we’ll do everything we can to make it happen.

The role can be based at our Bournemouth or Croydon LV-GI office.

Why Work For us?

We want you to love what you do that’s why we’ve put together a benefits package that recognises and rewards a job well done.

We’ll give you:

• 30 days' holiday, with the option to buy up to 2 additional days
• An excellent pension plan (please click here to read more about it)
• An annual bonus scheme based on company and personal performance
• Private medical insurance which you can upgrade to family cover
• Other flexible benefits including discounted retail vouchers and dental insurance , 25% discount off our general insurance products including home, pet and travel as well as up to 50% discount on your car insurance

To find out more about our benefits and rewards, please click here.

LV= is an equal opportunities employer who values a diverse and inclusive workplace. We recognise that people work in different ways, and we value alternative viewpoints, celebrate individuality and foster a culture where everyone can bring their true self to work. We are committed to creating a diverse workforce, we accept applications from everyone regardless of your background, beliefs, culture, gender identity, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disabilities and long term health conditions

Here at LV= we always love to hear from great people, so don’t forget to follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and become a fan on Facebook.

Our Values drive everything we do - and they are:

Be Brave | With Heart | Everyone Counts | Inspiring Trust