Business Analyst III (Product Owner) – Cartage, IS Operational Experience

Company Description

We take care of our employees, and they take care of our customers!

Become a member of a global community! The international logistics industry is an integral piece of the global trade puzzle; we make the world go round. Global supply chain management is what we do, and at the heart of Expeditors you will find professionalism, leadership, and a friendly environment, all of which foster an innovative, customer service-based approach to logistics. Expeditors is a global logistics company headquartered in Seattle, Washington. As a Fortune 500 company, we employ over 19,000 trained professionals in a worldwide network of over 350+ locations across six continents. Expeditors satisfies the increasingly sophisticated needs of international trade through customized solutions and seamless, integrated information systems.

Our Mission

We recruit, train, and retain the very best logistics and technical experts the world over. We love to promote from within - more than 50 percent of our employees have been at Expeditors for five years or more. Our high retention rate is influenced by a unique compensation program for positions that are more than just jobs - they're chances to grow, do what you love and build a career with us!

Job Description

About Cargo Services, IS Operational Experience

Our software business systems are built to provide efficiency and functionality to our branches, allowing Expeditors to provide outstanding customer service and competitive rates. Our internal and external systems are an integrated suite of collaborative supply chain software applications that are designed to assist our operations teams and customers in managing international and domestic shipping challenges.

The Cartage Team will be doing greenfield development work to create a new system that will manage local freight movement, including initial freight pickup, transfers between facilities, and final delivery. It is part of the Cargo Services group, which is responsible for developing core business applications that enable our world-wide network to efficiently manage and transport freight via collaborative internal and customer facing systems.

The position

The Product Owner (PO) will lead their team by setting the vision and defining the functional outcome of the software that the team will deliver. They are accountable to the development team, Product Management, business stakeholders and IS management to deliver customer value through the team's software products. The PO has a fundamental understanding of the business and technical domain for which the team is responsible. As such, the PO must be able to give direction to software development team members so that they understand how each of their individual contributions align with the program objectives and overall company vision.

Most importantly, the PO will serve as the customer proxy to guide their team's development priorities to meet the long-term product vision, customer feedback, and market opportunities by ensuring that the highest value features are developed and delivered to users through SAFe Lean-Agile development practices.

Having a strong sense of curiosity about logistics, exceptional interpersonal skills, and an innate customer service-oriented attitude are essential for being successful in this position.

Roles And Responsibilities

• Be a highly visible, fully embedded team member who attends all team-level check-ins, meetings and other events
• Serve in a decision-making, leadership role for Agile Scrum teams as Product Owner
• Solves cross functional initiatives
• Influences release scoping and solution design
• Coordinates analysis plans across multiple analysts
• Work involving many systems, processes, and stakeholders
• Applies skilled analysis techniques
• Coaches and trains others
• Effectively communicates complex and detailed concepts
• Build, refine, and prioritize team backlog in alignment with the program vision and roadmap
• Draft specific team objectives for each iteration and Program Increment (PI) that are aligned and contribute to program objectives and overall company strategy
• Break features down into stories, define story acceptance criteria and accept stories as done
• Represent the team at program-level meetings and pass relevant information back to the team
• Participate in team demos, reviews and retrospectives with an eye toward continuous improvement
• Prepare for Program activities, including PI Planning, System Demos, and Inspect and Adapt
• Craft meaningful requirements that align stakeholder needs to Capabilities
• Collaborate with Product Managers and other Product Owners in Continuous Exploration to understand the business context, define features, and identify dependencies
• Bridge the gap between the development team and business stakeholders to address complexity or ambiguity
  
  

This position is on-site and will reside in the greater Seattle, WA. area at one of the following locations depending on availability. Candidates must be local or willing to relocate. Relocation assistance is not offered for this position.

• Downtown Seattle
• Federal Way
• Lynnwood
• Bellevue (Factoria)
  
  

Qualifications

Working on our team - what to expect:

Team structure

You would be part of an agile team working on building the new Cartage system. The team will typically have 3-4 developers, 1-2 QA engineers, a Product Owner, and a Scrum Master.

Our philosophy

Our team encourages people to take the time to help others, both within our team and across the organization. This provides opportunities to learn from many people, and makes work a more enjoyable place. We want our team members to love their job and feel supported by each other. We believe in a reasonable work/life balance, and go out of our way to provide employees with a stable place to grow their careers. We view failure as an opportunity to learn. We strive to provide help when asked, but avoid micromanaging. We favor decentralized decision making whenever possible. We value diversity in all its forms, and believe it makes for a more successful team. We make our hiring decisions irrespective of age, gender, disability, sexual orientation, race, religion, or belief.

Minimum Qualifications

• 4+ years of software business analysis experience or equivalent operational experience in logistics/brokerage
• Business knowledge across multiple products
• Understanding of data, application, and technology environments
• Fluent in Business Analysis, Information Technology, and Software Development Lifecycle and and in software development methodologies including SAFe, Lean, Scrum and Agile
• Certification or ability to become certified as a SAFe Product Manager/Product Owner
• Proven interpersonal skills and the ability to build relationships with a wide spectrum of people including senior leaders, customers and people across geographies
• Effective at navigating ambiguity and helping diverse teams drive towards clarity and consensus
• Excellent time management and organization skills
• Outstanding verbal and written communication
• Ability to elicit and define functional and non-functional Acceptance Criteria
• Ability to compose concepts, ideas, and designs into actionable/measurable deliverables
• Expertise in creating, analyzing, and improving processes
• Management of multiple and competing priorities
• Ability to recognize and mitigate risks.
• Driven, strong 'get it done' attitude
  
  

Desired Qualifications

• Highly literate in current industry issues, topics and market drivers that affect our software
• A curiosity about software engineering tools and practices that facilitates better decision-making and better relationships with team members
• A strong interest and desire for knowledge about the commercial and operational aspects of Expeditors' network and the broader transportation industry
• System or Data analysis experience
• Knowledge of the Unified Modeling Language (UML), modern architectural styles, and Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK)
• Understanding of database structures, data relationships and Structured Query Language (SQL)
• Experience creating and utilizing SQL queries or data analysis tools and reporting systems
• Understanding of the transportation/global logistics industry
• Working knowledge of Office 2013 or above, Azure Dev Ops (VSTS/TFS), SharePoint
• Passion for technology
• Experience as a Product Owner for an Agile team
• Certification or ability to become certified in Leading SAFe and SAFe PM/PO
  
  

Applicants are required to be eligible to lawfully work in the U.S. immediately; employer will not transfer or sponsor applicants for U.S. work authorization (such as an H-1B visa) for this opportunity.

Additional Information

Expected base salary: $105,000 to $137,000

Position is full time (40 hours per week) Monday through Friday. We are a business professional attire company.

Expeditors offers excellent benefits:

• Paid Vacation (first year prorated based off month of hire then eligible for 15 days)
• Holidays (10)
• Flexible Days (2)
• PaidSick Time(accrual rate of 1 hour of sick time per 30 hours paid)
• 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan with employer match
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)
• Medical, Prescription Drug, Dental & Vision Coverage
• Health Savings Account (HSA)
• Life and Disability Insurance
• Paid Parental Leave (additional eligibility criteria)
• Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account (DC FSA)
• Commuter Benefit
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Training and Personnel Development Program
• Educational Assistance and Reimbursement
  
  

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO Guidelines.