Senior Product Owner

Position summary:The Rainforest Alliance is looking for a performance oriented, data driven, and collaborative Senior Product Owner responsible for the implementation and continuous optimisation of the organizational capability to deliver multiple digitally enabled business services. The Senior Products Owner will be part of our global Engagement, Supply Chain team.

These digitally enabled business services could be for internal use by Rainforest Alliance employees and/or external use such as members or certification bodies. Examples of external services are member registration, licensing, traceability and certification body management. An example of an internal service is the digital workplace.

Responsibilities: 

• The Rainforest Alliance’s Core Values are Impact, Change, Collaboration, Openness and Trust and as such they form the basis of the behaviours we demonstrate;

• Ensure digitally enabled business services of the Rainforest Alliance are relevant, user-friendly and deliver value to our customers, members and staff;

• Rainforest Alliance is currently replacing its Certification and Assurance software with third party software solutions in combination with mobile applications. As a Product Owner, you are responsible for setting, prioritizing, and evaluating the work to replace the current software and manage the Certification Technology Eco system

• Lead the product roadmap providing for a set of products, indicating when new product features are planned for delivery

• Work with the portfolio director on defining the product roadmap and share results with  the stakeholders;

• Develop with the Product manager an engagement plan

• Manage expectations of and maintain good relationships with all the stakeholders involved in creating and delivering the services (technology, external service providers), as well as organisational architectural experts (e.g. process, solutions and data architects);

• Work with the release manager and stakeholders around the product implementation schedule and set priorities within the different product streams

• Assess impact of dashboard and communicate progress with senior stakeholders

• Promote design thinking, lean and agile ways of working

• Provide direction setting for a software development teams and / or configuration management teams

• Manage and develop staff

 Delivery

Analyse business processes to optimise their efficiency / value delivery in close partnership with the business owners, enterprise architects and business process modellers as appropriate; Set priorities in the development of product with the product owners

• Assessment of Quality and fit for purpose configuration management plan, to be able to implement new software solutions

• Create the more complex prototype mock-ups, or guides design team in their creation;

• Translate complex IT solutions into digestible concepts for business stakeholders, and complex business process into functional IT designs;

• Discuss technical challenges of IT solution with the Development Team;

• Coordinate the prioritisation of delivery steps, and develop detailed planning in partnership with project managers, business owners and delivery partners;

• Write, or guide creation of acceptance criteria and acceptance tests as part of user stories;

• Manage the ongoing backlog of updates.

 Qualifications: 

• Master’s degree, preferably in supply chain management, business administration or a technical field.

• At least 10 years’ work experience and 5+ years experience as a Product Owner

• Knowledge of MS Office and proficient in Excel;

• Deep understanding of Lean principles, thinking and methods; Scrum way of working, Design thinking;

• Experience with Certification management systems and / or processes, preferably in an agricultural settings.  Activities include member registration, certification against global standards and Certification body management.

• Experience working in a global, culturally diverse team is essential;

• Excellent interpersonal skills with ability to interact culturally, linguistically, and diplomatically with diverse internal and external individuals; 

• Results-driven, accurate, structured and good analytical and communication skills; 

• Team & Relationship Building: Building and maintaining (internal and external) contacts that are useful. Builds trust, rapport and cooperation with persons inside and outside RA; Works in partnership with other colleagues, responds to request for assistance respectfully and helpfully, contributes to team environment and supportive workplace and;

• Fluency in English, both verbal and written. French and/or Spanish is a plus.

• Experience with managing staff

Job level: 3B

Deadline: 26 July 2024

Notes: Only candidates authorized to work in the Netherlands or the UK will be considered.

If you have any questions about the job vacancy, please contact the HR department: recruitment@ra.org

WHO WE ARE:

The Rainforest Alliance is creating a more sustainable world by using social and market forces to protect nature and improve the lives of farmers and forest communities. To achieve our mission, we partner with diverse allies around the world to drive positive change across global supply chains and in many of our most critically important natural landscapes.

Our alliance spans 70 countries and includes farmers and forest communities, companies, governments, civil society, and millions of individuals. Together we work to protect forests and biodiversity, take action on climate, and promote the rights and improve the livelihoods of rural people.

As an international nonprofit organization with more than 30 years of experience in sustainability transformation, we understand that the social and economic well-being of rural communities is tightly connected to ecosystem health. This knowledge has shaped our rigorous programs to advance sustainable land-use and commodity production.

At the Rainforest Alliance we combat climate change, protect forests and biodiversity, promote human rights, and improve livelihoods. The enormity of the social and environmental challenges we are facing requires working together in a broad alliance. This is why we bring farmers, forest communities, companies, and consumers together to change the way the world produces, sources, and consumes.

Why
To protect nature and improve lives it’s becoming increasingly urgent that we approach the way we use our land and produce food and other products in more sustainable ways. For this to succeed we need to fundamentally change the way that businesses operate and source, and the choices we all make as consumers.

How
Our growing global alliance aims to transform our relationship with our natural resources and each other, to create a better future for people and nature together.

The Rainforest Alliance encourages diversity and inclusion across the global organization. With this commitment to diversity, we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, ages, disability, and any other protected group.