Specialist Product Manager

At CN, we work together to move our company—and North America—forward. Be part of our Information & Technology (I&T) team, a critical piece of the engine that keeps us in motion.

From enterprise architecture to operational technology, our teams use the agile methodology to automate and digitize our railroad ensuring our operations run optimally and safely and our employees can focus on value-added tasks. You will be able to develop your skills and career in our close-knit, safety-focused culture working together as ONE TEAM.

The careers we offer are meaningful because the work we do matters. Join us!

Job Summary

The role of Specialist Product Manager is to assess and fully understand the business needs and translate those needs into business and technical requirements.

The Specialist Product Manager must have a strong mix of technical and business acumen and be capable of assessing the cost/benefit of a feature so they can collate a product backlog and prioritize a roadmap that best serves the business.

The Specialist Product Manager works closely with the business and I&T stakeholders to operationalize these roadmaps for initial development, and lifecycle evolution/enhancements of the product.

The Specialist Product Manager supports the full lifecycle of the product and as such seeks regular customer feedback related to the product to understand and improve customer satisfaction and net promoter scoring.

The Specialist Product Manager must ensure the product, and related enhancements meet business needs based on their comprehensive understanding of the user journey and pain points.

Main Responsibilities

Business Partnering

· Create trusted relationships between the Business and I&T organization, ensuring that there is a clear communication channel between the two and that product expectations are aligned

· Work to understand the business processes, tools and all related pain points and priorities

· Translate business and operations feedback into solutions through product requirements, product plan, and roadmap that is aligned to the business vision

· Work with the business, service offering managers, and product owners to capture and develop pipeline of product opportunities, cost optimizations, and innovative ideas

· Work with the business to build business cases (including the need for change / objective, strategic alignment, benefits, high-level implementation plan, financial analysis, risks, etc.), and were necessary promote business sponsorship

· Support the annual and 3 year rolling capital planning exercise to ensure product is capitalized to deliver expected benefits to the business

· Provide business leaders with insight into innovative technologies that can disrupt or enhance business models / capabilities and be capable of building out business case to prove the idea

· Measure satisfaction through various feedback channels and KPI’s (e.g. Net Promoter Score)

· Based on satisfaction results, develop an action plan to address issues and escalate to leadership, as appropriate

Product Life-Cycle Management

· Work with service operations and or the business to capture, translate and enrich business requirements for new and existing products and related services to ensure continued utility

· Engage with key stakeholders to achieve a shared vision of product goals and priorities and socialize with all stakeholders

· Develop a product roadmap aligned to business needs and priorities

· Monitor and analyze technical components to identify potential issues and new capacity requirements for future demands of the Business

· Build working models of the product for demonstration purposes or as part of the development process to enable faster feedback loops, engage end users earlier and jumpstart implementations

· Work with cross-functional teams to ensure innovation productization / realization into new products

· Employ appropriate techniques to capture requirements and manage them on an on-going basis through the project lifecycle

· Analyze competitive and alternative products so as to understand what capabilities the product must have to delight internal and external customers

· Maintain a product lifecycle perspective, and facilitate the balancing of short-term achievements with long-term goals

· Be able to understand the lifecycle of a product and when the time is right to transition functionality and decommission

Evolving Product Management Discipline

· Prioritize product development activities to ensure alignment to both the business and technology strategies

· Support prioritizing new products and related projects and programs

· Facilitate the definition and tracking of key metrics related to the product (e.g., performance, financials, ROI, etc.)

· Collaborate with Specialist Product Managers and other stakeholders (e.g., procurement, security, architects, innovation) to avoid duplication and manage dependencies as required

Requirements

Education/Certification/Designation

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, business administration or equivalent degree or experience

Skills/Knowledge

· Business acumen, and the ability to communicate with executives, business domain stakeholders and technical staff alike

· Experience with capital planning, creating statements of work, business requirements documents

· Excellent leadership, influence, communication, presentation, and facilitation skills

· Effective planning, presentation, and organizational skills

· Excellent analytical and technical skills with cloud platforms, data strategies

· In-depth knowledge of product management & business analysis (Certification is an asset)

· Familiarity with the principles of DevSecOps / Agile software delivery

· Ability to develop a product vision and execute to make that vision a reality

· Experience with railroad operations, dispatching, and or telecom is an asset

· Knowledge of critical systems and system engineering is an asset

Experience

· Minimum 10 years overall work experience

· Minimum 5 years demonstrating technical leadership qualities and/or overseeing deliverables

· Minimum 5 years of experience in a Product Management or business analysis, or related role

· Experience of engaging senior leaders and other stakeholders to support business decisions

· Experience in shaping, building, scaling and sustaining products

· Experience in diverse roles and increasing responsibilities across Business and I&T, although a business-only career is acceptable if business roles included sufficient technology focus

· Minimum 3 years working in or with Design Thinking and Lean / Agile software delivery teams.

Working Conditions

· This role may require occasional business travel in accordance with CN policy for meetings (10-20% of time)

About CN

CN is a world-class transportation leader and trade-enabler.

Essential to the economy, to the customers, and to the communities it serves, CN safely transports more than 300 million tons of natural resources, manufactured products, and finished goods throughout North America every year. As the only railroad connecting Canada’s Eastern and Western coasts with the Southern tip of the U.S. through a 19,500 mile rail network, CN and its affiliates have been contributing to community prosperity and sustainable trade since 1919.

CN is committed to programs supporting social responsibility and environmental stewardship. At CN, we work as ONE TEAM, focused on safety, sustainability and our customers, providing operational and supply chain excellence to deliver results.

At CN, we are dedicated to building North America’s safest, most inclusive and sustainable railroad, which includes reflecting the communities in which we operate.

Research shows that candidates from underrepresented groups often don’t apply unless they feel they fit the job posting at 100%. Even if you don’t see yourself in every job requirement listed in a posting, we still encourage you to apply.

If you require an accommodation for the recruitment process (including alternate formats of materials, accessible meeting rooms or other accommodations), please reach out to our team at cnrecruitment@cn.ca.

As an equal employment opportunity employer, all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, and other protected status as required by applicable law. We thank all applicants for their interest, however, only candidates under consideration will be contacted.

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