Job Title: Senior Product Owner – BCA Buyer App
Location: Working from home initially then with some travel to either Farnham or Bedford.
Salary: £55,000-£70,000 plus healthcare, bonus and car allowance
Working Hours: 40 hours per week Monday – Friday
Job Status: Permanent
About BCA
BCA is Europe’s leading used vehicle marketplace and automotive services business with revenues of over £3 billion and operating profits of over £100 million. With 4.4m physical and 17m digital annual vehicle interactions, we are a critical support partner and link to the entire value chain in automotive, whether that is the manufacturer, the dealer, the vehicle financier or the end consumer.
Automotive is an increasingly data-driven industry; our multiple touch points across the life of a vehicle supported by considerable investment in data quality, data warehousing and analysis, give BCA and our customers a genuine advantage in everything from smart transport solutions to transactional margins. Through acquisition, simplification and innovation BCA aims to drive accelerated growth. Over the last 4 years the management team have built the leading change of life business in the UK. The strategy is to build upon these strengths and to broaden our horizons into in-life automotive services.
BCA’s Group IT function is based in Farnham, Surrey and Birmingham and provides a group-wide shared service, including the delivery of IT projects and digital products. The Senior Product Owner role will require some travel within the UK, across BCA’s different locations.
Over the last 5 years BCA has expanded its product portfolio to support all parts of the automotive value chain, delivering digital products to Dealers, Buyers, OEMs, End Customers, Transportation etc., across both the UK and Europe. We now require a motivated Sr. Product Owner to drive the development of the BCA Buyer App.
The Role
Reporting into the Head of Product – Buyer, the role will serve as the day to day technology leader for BCA’s Buyer App.
Collaborating closely with our commercial and operations teams the Sr. Product Owner leads the product development team to execute against our strategy, and deliver the right commercial outcomes and customer benefits.
As a Sr. Product Owner you will be involved in every aspect of the product development process, from brainstorming the next product innovation to working directly with our product design team and engineers to implement new features & iterate upon feedback. You will use your start-up mind-set and your full range of product development skills to produce elegantly simple features that align to both business & product outcomes. You’ll be expected to push the boundaries of what’s possible in a mobile app, while sharing in our healthy obsession for product, quality and attention to detail.
This role works closely with the wider Product Owner community and the Head of Product – Buyer to define and manage the product roadmap and ensure that products and features released are done so securely, robustly and methodically.
Key Responsibilities
Product Strategy
Own the end to end strategy to BCA’s Buyer App
Ability to incorporate data, research and market analysis to inform product strategies and roadmaps
Understand BCA’s strategic and competitive position and deliver products that are aligned with our mission and recognized as best in class in the automotive industry
Work with Commercial and Operations counterparts on the Strategic Direction for our digital products and its integration to the wider BCA ecosystem
Determine opportunities to drive innovation into the current product portfolio and add product features that add value to customers
Be the voice of the customer; ensuring that new products and commercially led programmes have the customer at the heart of them
Leading key interactions with the business community and users – ensuring we constantly listen to our internal and external customers and drive value into our products
Product Development and Delivery
A passion for building the right thing & building it right!
Drive the best user experience through our digital platforms, to ensure an efficient and frictionless experience
Break down your deliverables into smaller chunks and iterate through delivery, releasing value early and often
Understanding of prioritisation techniques to ensure we are building the right thing, at the right time
Work closely with team and Technical lead to quarterly planning and coordinate across dependent products working to agreed outcomes/OKR’s
Guide the team to optimise for outcome hypotheses, for experiments, for feedback, for speed and for learning.
Well versed in writing user stories and acceptance criteria & Kanban methodologies
Work in close partnership with our ways of working coach to improve team efficiencies
Monitor and measure the success of the features and product performance
Work closely with Product Marketing on go-to-market plans/communication for our buyers
Encourage a Build Measure Learn mind-set, creating a culture of innovation and continuous improvement within the product team
Support the successful preparation and implementation of the product quarterly planning.
Ensure the products and features are delivered to the required quality; minimising any disruption to business activities.
Staff and Leadership Development
Build a great team environment in partnership with engineers and other cross-functional colleagues such as Product Design to implement and build new features that meet our standards of simplicity and quality
Work to creatively improve the product through leading an inspired product team, extolling innovation, new ways of thinking and customer centric behaviours
Line management of a matrix management resource which manages change across the entire Buyer/Digital Auctions Product Stream
Requirements
Hands-on Product Owner/Product Manager, who has led Agile product teams to deliver end-to-end products and propositions
Strategic thinker with an entrepreneur mind-set
Relationship skills – ability to develop and sustain positive and co-operative working relationships with a broad variety of company and partner personnel
Excellent team player, able to interact cross-functionally at different levels within the organisation
Able to handle a high degree of complexity
A tenacious approach with the focus and determination to get things done effectively, looking for solutions to overcome difficulties
Highly motivated self-starter with a “can do” attitude
Strong written and oral communication skills with the ability to present complex data and arguments in clear and compelling manner
Strong negotiating & influencing skills with the ability to influence decision makers up to senior management level
Agile approach and ability to keep up with the pace of change, learn fast and adapt to the new conditions quickly and effectively
Comfortable with ambiguity and able to make decisions in the face of incomplete information
Explorer’s mind – curiosity, strong desire to innovate, take risks and think outside the box
Is comfortable operating in an organisation going through transformational change and leading change
Being detail oriented and having the ability to work at both strategic and detailed levels
Strong commercial acumen; understands the key financial drivers and dynamics related to growth and revenue goals
High level of personal ownership and unimpeachable business integrity
Desirable agile software development tools such as Microsoft Azure DevOps, and an understanding of Agile Frameworks
Experience
Significant relevant experience within a product led environment.
Educated to a degree, or similar work experience.
Experience working directly with commercial owners, and have a strong commercial focus
Deep understanding of software development processes and cycles
Knowledge and experience of Agile product development frameworks
Good understanding of operating products in the cloud, and or migrating products to the cloud
Extensive experience working directly with customer and external stakeholders
Significant, demonstrable repeat experience of delivering successful products
Cultural awareness and emotional intelligence, backed by demonstrable experience working closely with diverse cultures
Ability to perform under pressure and in highly complex environments.
Demonstrate a thorough working knowledge of the automotive sector is desirable
A knowledge of design thinking and lean start-up working practices preferred.