Product Owner III

Role: Product Owner III
Location: Peoria, IL (Hybrid — approximately 3 days onsite per week)
Duration: 12 months

Let’s create our future together at The AES Group!

About The AES Group:

The AES Group is a premier technology and engineering consulting company that has been bringing businesses and talent together for over 20 years to deliver innovative solutions that have the greatest positive impact on society. AES has helped over 40 business enterprises, including Fortune 500 companies, engage their customers, empower their employees, and transform their business operations with the power of cloud, data, AI, engineering, and other emerging technologies.

What This Role Offers

• Competitive pay rate
• Opportunity to support a high-visibility enterprise AI assistant initiative
• Exposure to Generative AI, LLMs, and cloud technologies
• Collaboration across multiple Agile Scrum teams
• Long-term engagement in a hybrid work environment

Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced Technical Product Owner to manage product backlogs, Agile delivery, stakeholder communication, software enhancements, and User Acceptance Testing for enterprise software and AI-enabled products.

The ideal candidate has experience leading Scrum teams, prioritizing backlogs, facilitating sprint planning and refinement, writing user stories, managing software change requests, and coordinating work across engineering, QA, support, and business teams.

Experience with Generative AI, AI platforms, data engineering, or enterprise cloud software is highly preferred. A previous Python development background is an added advantage.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and prioritize product backlogs based on business value, dependencies, risks, and delivery timelines.
• Lead sprint planning, backlog refinement, grooming, release planning, and Agile ceremonies.
• Translate business needs into user stories, acceptance criteria, and technical requirements.
• Coordinate priorities across three product teams and approximately 15 team members.
• Partner with engineering teams on product design, development, maintenance, and enhancements.
• Manage software defects, reliability issues, enhancement requests, and change requests.
• Participate in UAT and validate deliverables against requirements and acceptance criteria.
• Track product risks, dependencies, issue resolution, and delivery status.
• Support product implementation, integration, adoption, and continuous improvement.
• Communicate clearly with engineering, QA, support, and business stakeholders.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree with 5–7 years of relevant experience.
• An equivalent combination of education and 8–10 years of experience may be considered.
• Experience as a Product Owner, Technical Product Owner, Business Analyst, or Software Product Manager.
• Strong knowledge of Agile Scrum, backlog management, sprint planning, UAT, and SDLC.
• Experience supporting enterprise software, cloud applications, or large-scale IT products.
• Strong stakeholder management, analytical, decision-making, and communication skills.
• Ability to coordinate multiple Scrum teams and competing priorities.
• Stable employment history with demonstrated long-term contributions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Generative AI products
• AI/ML platforms and LLMs
• Azure OpenAI or OpenAI technologies
• Amazon Bedrock or Google Vertex AI
• AI product management
• Data engineering
• Python development
• Enterprise cloud software
• Product lifecycle management

Work Requirements

Candidates must be available to work onsite in Peoria, Illinois, approximately three days per week. Candidates outside the area must be willing to relocate at their own expense and begin onsite work from the first day.

Ready to make an impact? Apply now and join us on our journey!