Product Owner

Job description / Role

Overview

We are seeking a highly motivated and detail-oriented Product Owner to join our team. The Product Owner will be responsible for defining and prioritizing the product backlog, ensuring the development team delivers features that meet customer needs and align with the company's strategic goals. This role requires excellent communication skills, a strong understanding of Agile methodologies, and the ability to work closely with cross-functional teams.

Key responsibilities and accountabilities

Backlog Management:

- Define, prioritize, and maintain the product backlog.
- Ensure the backlog is visible, transparent, and clear to all stakeholders.
- Refine and prioritize user stories, epics, and features based on business value and customer needs.

User Stories and Acceptance Criteria:

- Write clear and detailed user stories with well-defined acceptance criteria.
- Ensure user stories are ready for development and understood by the team.
- Collaborate with stakeholders to gather requirements and translate them into actionable tasks for the development team.

Sprint Planning and Execution:

- Participate in sprint planning meetings to help define the sprint goals and select user stories for the upcoming sprint.
- Work closely with the development team to clarify requirements and answer questions during the sprint.
- Ensure that the team is aligned with the sprint goals and has a clear understanding of the priorities.

Stakeholder Communication:

- Act as the primary point of contact between stakeholders and the development team.
- Communicate progress, changes, and issues to stakeholders in a timely manner.
- Gather and incorporate feedback from stakeholders into the product backlog.

Sprint Reviews and Retrospectives:

- Participate in sprint reviews to evaluate the product increment and gather feedback.
- Ensure completed work meets the acceptance criteria and is of high quality.
- Participate in sprint retrospectives to identify areas for improvement and ensure continuous improvement in the development process.

Market and Customer Research:

- Stay informed about market trends, customer needs, and competitive products.
- Use insights from market and customer research to inform backlog prioritization and product decisions.

Requirements

- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering or other related fields.
- Proven experience (typically 8 years) as a Product Owner, or in a similar role in gaming products
- In-depth knowledge and understanding of Agile and Software Development Methodologies, particularly Scrum.
- Proficiency in the use of analytic tools.
- Hands-on experience managing all stages of the product life cycle.
- Technical background with knowledge of software development and web technologies.
- Excellent verbal, written communication and interpersonal skills.
- Ability to work with large teams.
- Understanding of design quality standards.
- Excellent knowledge of user-centric design principles.
- Team spirit and good communication abilities.
- Strong organizational and time management skills with the ability to prioritize effectively.
- Ability to stick to timelines and measure progress during development.
- Ability to work effectively with cross-functional teams.
- Proficiency in project management and backlog management tools (e.g., JIRA).
- Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) or similar certification is a plus.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Familiarity with user experience design principles.

Unfortunately, due to the high number of responses we receive we are unable to provide feedback to all applicants. If you have not been contacted within 5-7 days, please assume that at this stage your application has been unsuccessful.

About the Company

MBC GROUP is the largest media company in the Middle East & North Africa region that enriches people’s lives through information, interaction and entertainment. In 2002, nearly a decade after the launch of MBC1 in London, in 1991, MBC GROUP moved its headquarters to Dubai Media City, United Arab Emirates.

Today, MBC GROUP includes over 17 leading TV channels: MBC1 (general family entertainment); MBC2 & MBC MAX (24-hour western movies); MBC3 (children’s edutainment with a mix of both local productions and western acquisitions); MBC4 (entertainment for young families with a female-focus); MBC ACTION (an indigenous adrenaline-packed channel targeting young males with local and homegrown productions); MBC VARIETY (Western films and general entertainment with uninterrupted broadcasting); MBC DRAMA (24/7 Arabic drama) & MBC+ DRAMA (a joint pay-TV channel between MBC and OSN); MBC PERSIA (general family entertainment dubbed and subtitled in Farsi); WANASAH (24-hour Arabic music channel); MBC MASR & MBC MASR2 (general family entertainment geared towards the Egyptian family); MBC BOLLYWOOD (delivering the freshest in Bollywood content geared towards the region via an Arabized interface); MBC USA (on “Dish Network” in the US); MBC IRAQ (a premium channel aimed at the entire Iraqi family), MBC5 (new satellite channel dedicated to the Maghreb); all of them benefit from MBC STUDIOS which produces the region’s most compelling premium content for cinema, television and on-demand platforms. MBC GROUP also includes two FM radio stations: MBC FM (Gulf music) and Panorama FM (contemporary Arabic hit music).

Furthermore, part of MBC GROUP is Shahid and its premium subscription-based service Shahid VIP, the world’s leading Arabic streaming platform, home to highly rated original productions from the Arab world, a wide range of exclusive movies and premieres, as well as the top watched live Arab TV channels.