Product Owner

afarax is looking for a freelance Product Owner. We need you! The project: Our client in the utilities sector, is seeking an experienced Product Owner. Key responsibilities: • Define and communicate the product vision, roadmap and priorities for your SGS Product Team, aligned with the overall Product Line strategy. • Take full ownership of the product backlog , ensuring that epics, user stories and acceptance criteria are clear, prioritized and delivery-ready. • Translate complex Grid Development and expert-user requirements into clear product outcomes and actionable requirements for IT and Data teams. • Drive continuous product discovery through user interaction, problem framing, assumption testing and analysis of usage and outcome data. • Challenge requirements and make pragmatic trade-offs between business value, feasibility, risk, cost and delivery constraints . • Coordinate sprint and release planning , while proactively managing dependencies with the other SGS Product Teams. • Facilitate alignment between Business, Grid experts, IT, Data, Architecture and other stakeholders , ensuring transparency on scope, priorities and expected value. • Accept completed user stories and ensure that delivered solutions meet agreed quality, testing, documentation and acceptance criteria . • Support the rollout and adoption of new digital and data capabilities , monitoring their usage and business value. • Promote Agile and product-oriented ways of working , continuous improvement and pragmatic innovation. • Contribute to improving data quality, study execution and data-driven decision-making within Grid Development. Is this you? • Proven experience as a Product Owner, Product Manager, Business Analyst or similar role within an Agile and product-oriented environment. • Strong hands-on experience with backlog management, prioritization, epics, user stories, acceptance criteria, sprint planning and release planning. • Ability to understand complex expert-user needs and translate them into clear requirements and product priorities. • Strong experience working at the intersection of Business and IT/Data teams. • Experience with Data Products, analytical solutions, decision-support tools, workflow digitalization or business-critical digital platforms is a strong asset. • Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to create alignment across multidisciplinary teams without direct hierarchical authority. • Strong analytical mindset and ability to make transparent, evidence-based prioritization decisions. • Experience with continuous discovery, user adoption and product performance monitoring is highly valued. • Strong understanding of the energy sector, utilities, electricity markets, grid development, grid studies or long-term infrastructure planning is a major advantage. • Candidates from other regulated, infrastructure-intensive or data-driven environments are also welcome if they can quickly develop the required energy-domain knowledge. • Collaborative, pragmatic and improvement-oriented personality with a strong sense of ownership. Languages & Education • English: Fluent. • French and/or Dutch: Professional working proficiency. • Education: Master's degree or equivalent through relevant professional experience. How afarax supports you? • You benefit from our extensive network • You will have access to projects that fit your expertise • We help and support you throughout your project • We offer the possibility to build a valuable and lasting partnership Check out more projects on: https://afarax.be/jobs/type/freelance