Associate Product Owner

**SUMMARY**:
Join the Advance Auto Parts (AAP) eCommerce Product Management team as an Associate Product Owner and start reimagining the future of automotive retail. This role is located in the Advance India Innovation Center (AIIC) in Hyderabad, India. Disrupt the way consumers shop for auto parts and join a fast-growing team to take on our industry’s biggest challengers. We are charged with executing AAP's top-down commitment to eCommerce expansion and unifying the digital and physical Omni-channel retail experience.

The eCommerce Product Management team is responsible for rapidly developing and deploying solutions that will drive the customer experience, and ultimately, enhance our bottom line as an organization. This team plays an integral, high-visibility role in working across the company’s Marketing, Merchandising, and IT organizations.

As an Associate Product Owner, you will own and be responsible for driving key initiatives for the eCommerce team. You will act as an advocate for our customers and other internal and external stakeholders in delivering AAP omnichannel products to market. You will be responsible for driving the strategy for functionalities, then collaborating across a cross-functional matrix organization to execute and operationalize the aligned product roadmap. This responsibility spans the lifecycle of the product and includes translating business requirements into technical direction that can be executed by Agile teams.

**ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES**include the following. Other duties may be assigned.
- Be highly effective at owning initiatives, that come from epics, tied to concrete business objectives and are comprised of clear, actionable user stories. Champion understanding of these stories across the cross-functional matrix organization charged with design, development and launch.
- Overall 10+ years of experience Identify opportunities, both for new initiatives and for improving those that exist, on an ongoing basis. Define initiatives, quantify investment and return, and communicate these to executive decision makers to secure investment.
- Employ an entrepreneurial mindset, capable of managing end-to-end, complex, large-scale products, including those which may subdivide into smaller individual products or projects.
- Build master knowledge of the aftermarket auto parts industry, AAP's business and strategies that AAP can employ to continue to gain market share.
- Be a leader and evangelist for the product-driven Agile culture at AAP. Help to grow the product and project management talent base: define requirements, identify our needs, interview, onboard, mentor.
- Act as liaison between cross-functional matrix teams in order to realize product concepts and bring them to market. Work with internal and external clients to define and refine product requirements.
- Develop and execute tactical plans. Product lifecycle management along with supporting production and site defects.
- Contribute to overall product planning, including creation and delivery of planning documents. Work with Product Management leadership to ensure that planning documents address growth objectives including revenue, market share, ROI and profitability across all channels.
- Work closely with business-side teams in taking products to market, retaining ownership as we gauge effectiveness, customer satisfaction and overall success.
- Consistently demonstrate AAP cultural beliefs and leadership competencies.

**QUALIFICATIONS**
- Minimum of 3 years' experience in project / product management, specifically in the Digital web or technology space. Substantial eCommerce experience is a must.
- Minimum of 5 years' experience as Business analyst in the Digital web or technology space.
- Experience in B2C or B2B eCommerce platforms
- Experience in the aftermarket automotive (or a similar) field would be ideal.
- Analytical skills and mindset. Ability to synthesize and evaluate complex solutions to complex problems, in context with this challenging environment.
- Work ethic. There is an enormous amount of work to do here, and members of the leadership layer must lead by example. We need to function well under pressure, have a high level of respect and regard to others, all while maintaining ownership and accountability.
- Experience with project/product management tools. Specifically experience in Jira, Confluence, and Atlassian tools in general, will be a plus.
- Strong communication skills, both written and verbal, and the ability to work across business and IT / development teams. With this goes the enthusiasm for mastering the language of the automotive space, which is culture and enthusiast-driven.

**EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE**
- Bachelor’s degree and/or equivalent experience.
- Overall 10+ years of experience in software industry
- 3+ years of overall experience in product and/or program management.
- 5+ years of experience in business analysis across multiple functional areas. Retail Industr