AVP, Cloud Technical Product Owner

Organizational Overview:

Synchrony's Engineering Team is a dynamic and innovative team dedicated to driving technological excellence. As a member of this Team, you'll play a pivotal role in designing and developing cutting-edge tech stack and solutions that redefine industry standards.

The Credit Card that we use every day to purchase our essentials and later settle the bills - A simple process that we all are used to on a day-to-day basis. Now, consider the vast complexity hidden behind this seemingly simple process, operating tirelessly for millions of cardholders. The sheer volume of data processed is mind-boggling. Fortunately, advanced technology stands ready to automate and manage this constant torrent of information, ensuring smooth transactions around the clock, 365 days a year.

Our collaborative environment encourages creative problem-solving and fosters career growth. Join us to work on diverse projects, from fintech to data analytics, and contribute to shaping the future of technology. If you're passionate about engineering and innovation, Synchrony's Engineering Team is the place to be!

Role Summary/Purpose:

We are seeking a results-driven Technical Product Owner to lead the definition, planning, and delivery of strategic engineering initiatives for our software engineering team. This critical role will partner with cross-functional teams to create innovative solutions that drive business objectives while prioritizing customer needs. The AVP will manage the product lifecycle, prioritize features, and ensure seamless delivery of high-quality engineering products.

Key Responsibilities:

• Define Product Vision & Strategy: Set and communicate clear goals for engineering-based products that align with business needs and customer priorities.
• Own and prioritize the team backlog to maximize value delivered against Engineering Cloud Migration ART objectives, while managing dependencies across other supporting trains.
• Create & Manage Roadmaps: Develop and maintain product roadmaps, prioritize enhancements, and handle dependencies based on business value and user feedback.
• Be hands-on technical and AI-capable: participate in technical discovery, evaluate tradeoffs with engineers, and progressively contribute to technical artifacts using AI-assisted development (e.g., prototypes, scripts, test cases, API examples, automation/doc updates) with proper review and controls.
• Oversee Development: Work closely with Agile teams to refine backlogs and ensure high-quality user stories and acceptance criteria that include non-functional requirements (availability, performance, security, operability, resiliency) appropriate for 24/7 enterprise platforms.
• Monitor & Improve: Track product performance via metrics, gather customer feedback, and continuously identify improvement opportunities.
• Facilitate Delivery: Ensure timely, high-quality product launches and adoption while removing obstacles and managing risks.
• Support Governance: Ensure compliance with corporate policies throughout product implementation.
• Drive stakeholder alignment & communication: Partner with stakeholders to gather requirements, share updates, and ensure alignment with product goals; deliver clear reports on progress, challenges, and opportunities to senior leadership and stakeholders.
• Collaborate Across Teams: Work with technology teams, journey managers, Agile planning tools (e.g., Jira), technology leaders, and vendors to ensure value delivery.
• Perform other duties and/or special projects as assigned

Qualifications/Requirements:

• Bachelor’s Degree and 6+ years of IT experience , including 4+ years of Technical Product / Project Management experience in the credit card, financial services, or technology industries  or, in lieu of a degree, 8+ years of relevant experience.     
• Strong technical depth: Comfortable discussing architecture, APIs/integration patterns, cloud/container concepts, observability, and security tradeoffs with engineers.
• Proficiency in Agile methodologies and tools (e.g., Scaled Agile Framework, Scrum, Kanban).
• Proven experience in problem solving and negotiated solutions
• Strong cross-functional leadership and influence: Aligns engineering, architecture, security, operations, and business stakeholders to drive decisions and delivery.
• Excellent communication and facilitation: Clearly translates technical concepts into priorities/status/risks/tradeoffs and effectively leads discussions to resolve conflicts and negotiate scope/timelines.
• Ability and flexibility to travel for business as required

Desired Characteristics:

• True product mindset: Prioritizes outcomes and customer/consumer impact; can define success metrics and make value-based tradeoffs.
• Excellent backlog craftsmanship: Writes clear, testable user stories with strong acceptance criteria, including non-functional requirements.
• Data- and metrics-driven: Uses KPIs/OKRs to measure value, reliability, adoption, and delivery performance; acts on insights.
• AI-fluent and hands-on: Uses AI tools responsibly (e.g., copilots, AI code review/vulnerability scanning) and is willing to produce/review technical artifacts with proper controls.
• Strong SAFe/Agile execution: Effective in PI/iteration planning, refinement, demos, and dependency management across teams/trains.
• Communication, demos & adoption: Clear, concise communicator who can lead technical product demos (developer forums/CoPs), drive engagement, and accelerate adoption.
• Collaborative influencer: Builds trust across engineering, architecture, security, operations, and business stakeholders without relying on authority.
• Operationally minded: Thinks in terms of production readiness, resiliency, incident learning, and supportability for 24/7 platforms.
• High integrity and control orientation: Consistently embeds governance, security, and compliance expectations into delivery and ways of working.
• Experience with technical solution architecture. Preferred: AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
• Cloud platform knowledge: AWS services including IAM/security (encryption, etc.), networking, data services (e.g., RDS), event streaming, and caching
• DevOps experience: CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform)
• Action oriented – create an environment to leverage agile methodology and deliver continuous benefit to the business teams during the project

Grade/Level: 11

The salary range for this position is 115,000.00 - 200,000.00 USD Annual and is eligible for an annual bonus based on individual and company performance.

Actual compensation offered within the posted salary range will be based upon work experience, skill level or knowledge.

Salaries are adjusted according to market in CA, NY Metro and Seattle.

Our Way of Working:

We’re proud to offer you flexibility. At Synchrony, our way of working allows you to have the option to work from home near one of our Hubs or come into one of our offices. You will be required to commute to your nearest Hub (either virtual or physical) for in-person engagement activities such as regular business or team meetings, training and culture events. 

*Field Sales and some Commercial team roles may have varied location requirements based upon partner obligations or preferences.

Eligibility Requirements:

• You must be 18 years or older
• You must have a high school diploma or equivalent
• You must be willing to take a drug test, submit to a background investigation and submit fingerprints as part of the onboarding process
• You must be able to satisfy the requirements of Section 19 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act.
• New hires (Level 4-7) must have 9 months of continuous service with the company before they are eligible to post on other roles.  Once this new hire time in position requirement is met, the associate will have a minimum 6 months’ time in position before they can post for future non-exempt roles.  Employees, level 8 or greater, must have at least 18 months’ time in position before they can post.  All internal employees must consistently meet performance expectations and have approval from your manager to post (or the approval of your manager and HR if you don’t meet the time in position or performance expectations).

Legal authorization to work in the U.S. is required.  We will not sponsor individuals for employment visas, now or in the future, for this job opening. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status. 

Our Commitment:

When you join us, you’ll be part of an inclusive culture where your individual skills, experience, and voice are not only heard – but valued. Together, we’re building a future where we can all belong, connect, and turn ideals into action. More than 50% of our workforce is engaged in our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), where community and passion intersect to offer a safe space to learn and grow.

This starts when you choose to apply for a role at Synchrony. We ensure all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status. We’re proud to have an award-winning culture for all. 

Reasonable Accommodation Notice:

• Federal law requires employers to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities. Please tell us if you require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job or to perform your job. Examples of reasonable accommodation include making a change to the application process or work procedures, providing documents in an alternate format, using a sign language interpreter, or using specialized equipment.
• If you need special accommodations, please call our Career Support Line so that we can discuss your specific situation. We can be reached at 1-866-301-5627.   Representatives are available from 8am – 5pm Monday to Friday, Central Standard Time

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