Senior Consultant (Technical Product Manager)

Senior Consultant (Technical Product Manager)

Apex Systems is a leading global technology services firm that incorporates industry insights and experience to deliver solutions that fulfill our clients' digital visions. We provide a continuum of services, including strategy and enablement, innovation and productivity, and technology foundations to drive better results and bring more value to our clients. Apex transforms our customers with modern enterprise solutions tailored to the industries we serve. Apex has a presence in over 70 markets across North America, Europe, and India. Apex is a part of the Commercial Segment of ASGN Incorporated (NYSE: ASGN). To learn more, visit www.apexsystems.com.

At Apex Systems, we prioritize professional development, work-life balance, and fostering a collaborative culture. We value our teams well-being and recognize the importance of building strong relationships. That is why we organize regular team-building events and philanthropic days to give back to the community - fostering a sense of purpose and fulfillment among our team.

Join us for career advancement, innovative solutions, and a supportive environment focused on your success.

Job Description

Apex is seeking a dynamic Senior Consultant with strong consultative skills to act as a Technical Product Manager and Agile Coach Internal Practice Consultant within our Consulting Practice as part of our Apex Systems Solutions Delivery Organization. This consultant will play a pivotal role in bridging business and technical teams, while also bringing the mindset and skills of an Agile Coach to provide guidance in cross-team coordination, foster high-performing teams, drive continuous improvement, support dependency resolution, delivery, and influence people leaders and management that directly interface with and oversee delivery teams. An ideal candidate shows a passion for mentoring, communicates clearly, and leverages tact in dealing with multiple levels of personnel while supporting the vision of the future state. This hands-on role requires strong technical fluency, stakeholder engagement and Agile delivery expertise. This role will be responsible for client deliverables as well as internal consulting practice contributions. This role has an onsite requirement.

Responsibilities

• Build strong client, industry, and technical community relationships and represent Apex Systems as leaders in industry and professional events and communities. Develop and maintain strong internal and external customer relationships.
• Perform detailed assessment of the current processes, tools, roles, and responsibilities within the designated team(s) to understand gaps with the desired future state, typically in Scrum and/or Kanban framework.
• Conduct sessions with the client leadership team to align overall direction and address specific challenges, including reviewing end-to-end processes, identifying improvement opportunities, and translating roadmaps to tactical plans.
• Coach related stakeholders/business teams to educate and set expectations on how teams will work collaboratively with them.
• Train and coach entire teams and involved stakeholders to understand key principles of Scrum and/or Kanban. Develop and deliver Agile-related training materials to produce high-performing teams.
• Evaluate the culture and structure of the organization, collaborate with client staff to establish a long-term vision and guiding principles, identify obstacles and impacts of initiatives, and create strategies that ensure successful implementation.
• Support the team in all aspects of events, make recommendations specific to teams, defining roles and responsibilities within those teams, as well as any working agreements (i.e. Definition of Done, Definition of Ready, etc.) and support their direct implementation.
• Collaborate with Product Managers and business stakeholders to understand requirements and translate them into epics and user stories.
• Train and mentor, all roles within a team such as Scrum Master, Product Owner, Developers of any technical orientation, Quality Assurance Testers, etc.; working continuously on their team dynamics, communication, and process to overcome Agile maturity gaps.
• Suggest key team and sprint/iteration health metrics showing how the team is working, as well as what they are working on. Develop workflows, dashboards, metrics and reports to provide the teams with meaningful operational/performance metrics and status reports.
• Support ad-hoc reporting, including KPIs / team-level metrics, etc. and materials for managers as needed. Employ various techniques to increase collaboration, transparency, predictability, and delivery of value.
• Easily step into key roles, such as Scrum Master and Product Owner to execute and showcase how the role should be performed, which can be used as a teaching tool for new personnel.
• Participate and oversee various Communities of Practice to sharpen critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and continuous improvement in agility.
• Conduct and manage Agile maturity assessments to help teams develop, grow, and continuously improve in their Agile journey. Identify and act on opportunities for continuous operational and team improvement with coaching plans.
• Partner with higher-level coaches to optimize coaching efforts, share feedback, and identify gaps to be designed for in the overarching Agile framework.
• Own the definition, refinement, and prioritization of user stories, ensuring clear acceptance criteria and documentation. Take ownership of standalone features and product management deliverables, as needed.
• Manage requirements, backlog refinement, and prioritization; challenge business-facing Product Managers on prioritization and scope changes.
• Coach teams on how to remove complex roadblocks and impediments to change and deliver high quality work, on time. Proactively track open questions, risks, and decisions during requirement discovery and definition sessions.
• Lead API integration efforts, API documentation analysis, mapping, and validation using tools like Postman.
• Coordinate with cross-functional teams (product, engineering, QA, architecture, external partners) to ensure successful delivery.
• Demonstrate professional level consulting skills, leadership skills, and executive-level communication/presentation skills. Demonstrate adaptability and flexibility to acquire skills to meet business needs.
• Continually innovate, seek creative solutions, and find new ways of adding value. Listen and seek to understand the client and meet their needs, proactively provide solutions and approach adversity with a consultative, solution-focused mindset.
• Stay attuned to the future needs of the client and work with internal resources to identify opportunities. Participate in sales pursuits by providing strategic guidance, estimates, scoping and other pre-sales activities.

Job Requirements

• 8+ years of overall agile experience working within large organizations
• 4+ years as a Product Owner or Technical Product Manager in software delivery projects (insurance or integrations preferred)
• Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology, Organizational Design, Business Administration, Systems Engineering, Management Information Systems or related field (applicable education and experience may be substituted) Master's Degree a plus.
• Scrum and/or Kanban Certification, SAFe Certification (SPC6) or other scaled implementation certification Preferred.
• Additional Coaching-related Certification preferred
• Experience with launching Waterfall teams into an Agile methodology (Scrum or Kanban)
• Experience developing Agile training materials and/or overseeing the creation of such materials
• Experience with leading an Agility assessment and framework design of similar size/scale
• Deep knowledge of the software development lifecycle and ability to work around various technologies
• Strong experience writing epics, user stories, and detailed requirements; hands-on experience with APIs and API documentation/analysis.
• Strong Experience with JIRA required, experience in various other Agile-tracking tools, such as Azure DevOps, ServiceNow etc. preferred.
• Experience with carrier integration and API validation using Postman.
• Proven ability to lead and manage cross-functional teams. Experience supervising and mentoring team members. Exceptional leadership, time management and organizational skills
• Well-versed in virtual coaching techniques and collaboration tools. Excellent creative, conceptual, storytelling, and analytic thinking skills. Strong writing, communication, and presentation abilities.
• Must be a team player with strong interpersonal skills, able to work in a team setting and independently.

Our Comprehensive Benefits

• Competitive Salary
• Health, Dental and Vision Insurance
• Health Savings Accounts (HSA) with Employer Contribution
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Long and Short-Term Disability
• Life Insurance
• Voluntary Benefits
• Employee Assistance Program
• Paid Parental Leave
• Wellness Incentives
• Vacation and Holiday Pay
• 401(k) Retirement Plan with Employer Match
• Employee Stock Purchase
• Training and Advancement Opportunities
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Birthdays Off
• Philanthropic Opportunities
• Referral Program
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