Data Product Owner (Banking or Financial Services industry)
Work Location: downtown Toronto, ON (Hybrid, 2-3 days onsite)
Start ASAP
Initial contract end date: December 31, 2026 (Highly Renewable)
The Data Product Owner will own the end-to-end lifecycle of assigned data products, translating business priorities into actionable roadmaps and delivery backlogs. This individual will work closely with stakeholders, data engineering teams, data governance organizations, and business leaders to build trusted, scalable, and business-aligned data products.
Key Responsibilities
- Define the product vision, strategy, roadmap, and success metrics for assigned data products.
- Own and prioritize the product backlog, ensuring user stories are well-defined and delivery-ready.
- Participate in Agile ceremonies including sprint planning, backlog refinement, sprint reviews, and retrospectives.
- Serve as the primary liaison between business stakeholders and delivery teams.
- Review and validate data mappings from upstream systems and data products.
- Define acceptance criteria and validate completed work prior to release.
- Own the creation and maintenance of data quality rules and controls.
- Partner with data governance teams to strengthen metadata, lineage, provisioning, and data quality practices.
- Support sustainable product team planning, balancing delivery priorities and operational support requirements.
- Drive adoption, monitor value realization, and continuously improve product effectiveness and stakeholder satisfaction.
- Champion a customer-centric approach to data governance and data management.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Data Management, Computer Science, Business, Finance, or a related field.
- Proven experience as a Product Owner supporting data products, analytics, or data governance initiatives.
- Hands-on Agile experience including backlog management, sprint planning, and stakeholder management.
- Strong understanding of data quality, metadata management, lineage, and data governance principles.
- Experience collaborating with data engineering and technology teams to deliver enterprise data solutions.
- Proficiency with JIRA, Confluence, and Agile delivery methodologies.
- Strong communication, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills.
Preferred Qualifications
- Banking or Financial Services industry experience.
- CSPO, SAFe POPM, or equivalent Product Owner certification.
- Familiarity with Databricks, Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, and Medallion Architecture.
- Experience supporting Retail Banking, Payments, Transaction Banking, or SME Banking data domains.
- Strong understanding of enterprise data ecosystems and data governance frameworks.
