Senior Product Owner

Senior Product Owner (Agile Banking)

📍 Toronto, ON (Hybrid - 4 Days Onsite)

💲 $54/hour

📅 Start Date: November 2, 2026

⏳ Duration: 12 Months

🕒 Schedule: Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM-5:00 PM (37.5 Hours/Week)

About the Opportunity

Our client, a leading financial institution, is seeking a Senior Business Analyst/Product Owner to join a highly collaborative Agile team supporting enterprise customer-servicing communications across Canadian Personal Banking.

This role leads an Agile pod that delivers critical customer communications via SMS, email, push notifications, and secure messaging. The successful candidate will act as a Product Owner while leveraging strong Business Analysis expertise to drive backlog prioritization, stakeholder engagement, sprint planning, and delivery execution.

This is an excellent opportunity for someone who thrives in a fast-paced Agile environment and enjoys balancing business priorities, delivery timelines, and stakeholder expectations.

Why Apply?

✅ Opportunity to work with a leading financial institution

✅ Long-term contract with extension potential

✅ Permanent conversion opportunity based on performance

✅ Lead an Agile pod delivering customer-facing banking solutions

✅ Collaborative and supportive team culture

✅ Exposure to enterprise-scale Agile delivery

✅ Visible initiatives impacting millions of customers

Team Environment

• Team consists of 6 Agile pods
• Approximately 10 team members per pod
• Collaborative, supportive, and highly engaged culture
• 2-3 weeks of onboarding and training provided
• Work structured around Quarterly Program Increments (PIs) and two-week sprints

Role Overview

As the Product Owner for an Agile pod, you will be responsible for ensuring the team delivers maximum business value through customer-focused product increments. You will work closely with business stakeholders, technical teams, and leadership to manage priorities, remove blockers, and drive successful delivery outcomes.

The team supports customer servicing communications such as:

• Fraud Alerts
• Security Notifications
• Balance Updates
• Secure Messages
• Digital Banking Communications

This is primarily a Business-As-Usual (BAU) environment focused on onboarding, configuration, deployment, and enhancement of communication capabilities rather than new feature development.

Key Responsibilities

Product Ownership & Agile Delivery

• Own and maintain the product backlog.
• Prioritize user stories based on business and customer value.
• Lead sprint planning, backlog refinement, story pointing, retrospectives, and other Scrum ceremonies.
• Define and maintain acceptance criteria.
• Make delivery decisions and escalate risks when required.
• Manage development team priorities and delivery timelines.

Stakeholder Management

• Partner with business stakeholders and leadership to support product vision and roadmap execution.
• Communicate with stakeholders at all levels of the organization.
• Facilitate demos and delivery reviews.
• Balance competing stakeholder priorities and negotiate trade-offs.
• Provide regular status reporting and progress updates.

Delivery & Planning

• Manage multiple concurrent workstreams and timelines.
• Monitor capacity and sprint commitments.
• Support release planning and deployment activities.
• Manage delivery dependencies, defects, and blockers.
• Coordinate testing, quality assurance, and business readiness activities.

Continuous Improvement

• Participate in Scrum and Kanban ceremonies.
• Review performance metrics and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Champion Agile best practices.
• Support a culture of collaboration, innovation, transparency, and accountability.

Required Qualifications

Experience

• 5-7 years of Business Analyst and/or Product Owner experience.
• 5-7 years of experience within Banking or Financial Services.
• 5-7 years of Agile delivery experience.
• Experience working in Scrum environments.
• Experience with backlog management and refinement.
• Experience writing user stories and acceptance criteria.
• Experience facilitating Agile ceremonies.
• Experience leading stakeholder discussions and demos.

Technical Skills

• JIRA (5-7 years)
• Confluence (5-7 years)
• Scrum Frameworks
• Agile Delivery Methodologies
• Story Pointing
• Sprint Planning
• Capacity Planning
• Backlog Prioritization

Soft Skills

• Excellent communication skills.
• Strong stakeholder management capabilities.
• Exceptional organizational skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously.
• Leadership mindset with the ability to lead an Agile pod.
• Strong presentation and facilitation skills.
• Ability to adapt quickly in a fast-paced environment.

Education

• Undergraduate Degree in Business, Technology, or a related field.

Nice-to-Have Qualifications

• Kanban experience.
• Understanding of Architectural Design concepts.
• Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO).
• Project Management experience.
• SAFe Certification or experience working within Scaled Agile environments.
• Knowledge of APIs, endpoints, payloads, data mapping, variables, and integrations.

What Makes a Successful Candidate?

The ideal candidate is a strong Agile practitioner who can effectively manage approximately 30 concurrent initiatives, prioritize competing demands, communicate confidently with senior stakeholders, and keep delivery teams focused on achieving business outcomes.

You are highly organized, comfortable working in a meeting-heavy environment (approximately 3 hours per day), and enjoy driving progress across multiple stakeholders and delivery teams.

Interview Process

• 1-2 rounds of virtual interviews
• Panel interview possible
• Camera-on interviews
• Approximately 30-45 minutes per round

Use AI for Hiring: Our recruitment process for this role includes the use of AI-based tools to help evaluate candidate qualifications and screen applications.

Why Kelly?

At Kelly®, we’re committed to finding rewarding opportunities that help you thrive - both professionally and personally. We partner with leading organizations across industries, connecting talented individuals to roles that fit their skills, interests, and goals. As part of the Kelly team, you’ll have access to a diverse network, ongoing career support, and resources to help you succeed. We value inclusion, respect, and work-life balance, and we offer competitive pay and benefits. Join us and discover what’s next for your career!