Senior Product Owner

Head of Product Design & Requirements

EXPERIENCE

10-15+ years

TYPE

Full-time

LOCATION

Chennai/ Trivandrum

STAKEHOLDER FOCUS

US-based business and client teams

About the Role

Avestar is seeking a senior, business-led Product Owner to establish and lead the complete Product Design and Requirements function for its technology platform. This role will own the journey from product discovery and requirement collection through solution definition, backlog readiness, acceptance and post-release improvement.

The position will act as the primary bridge between US-based stakeholders, business users, clients, leadership, UX, engineering, QA, data, operations and compliance teams. The successful candidate must combine strong product judgement with exceptional communication, facilitation and documentation skills.

ROLE MANDATE Build a disciplined product function that converts business needs into transparent, validated and development-ready product requirements.

Key Responsibilities

1. Product Vision, Strategy & Roadmap

- Define and maintain the product vision, roadmap and release priorities in alignment with business goals and customer needs.
- Convert strategic objectives into measurable product themes, initiatives and outcomes.
- Assess market developments, user feedback and competitor capabilities to identify opportunities for improvement and innovation.
- Present roadmap options, trade-offs, dependencies and investment needs to executive leadership.

1. Product Discovery & Requirement Collection

- Own the end-to-end requirement collection process across US stakeholders, business teams, clients and internal functions.
- Lead discovery workshops, stakeholder interviews, process walkthroughs, design reviews and requirement validation sessions.
- Understand the underlying business problem before defining features or solutions.
- Capture functional, non-functional, data, reporting, security, compliance and operational requirements.
- Maintain complete traceability from business objective to requirement, user story, acceptance criteria and release.

1. Product Design & User Experience

- Own business workflows, user journeys, process maps, screen requirements and functional solution design.
- Partner with UX/UI designers to develop wireframes, prototypes and intuitive user experiences.
- Validate designs with users and stakeholders before development begins.
- Ensure consistency in terminology, navigation, interaction patterns and product behaviour across modules.
- Balance usability, business value, risk, scalability and engineering feasibility in product decisions.

1. Product Backlog & Agile Delivery

- Create, structure and maintain a prioritized product backlog with clear epics, features,



user stories and acceptance criteria.
- Apply transparent prioritization based on business value, client impact, risk, dependency, urgency and delivery effort.
- Lead backlog refinement and actively participate in sprint planning, reviews, demonstrations and retrospectives.
- Provide timely clarification to engineering and QA teams throughout the delivery lifecycle.
- Accept or reject completed features against approved requirements and agreed acceptance criteria.

1. Stakeholder & US Client Communication

- Act as the senior product contact for US-based business stakeholders and client-facing teams.
- Lead structured discussions across time zones and communicate clearly with both technical and non-technical audiences.
- Present product concepts, prototypes, roadmap updates, decisions, risks and release outcomes with executive-level clarity.
- Manage expectations, resolve conflicting priorities and document decisions, assumptions and scope changes.
- Demonstrate strong listening, questioning, negotiation and meeting facilitation skills.

1. Department Leadership & Product Governance

- Build and lead the Product Design and Requirements department, including Product Owners, Business Analysts and UX resources as the function grows.
- Define templates, quality standards, review checkpoints and approval workflows for product documentation.
- Establish governance for requirement intake, impact assessment, prioritization, change control and release readiness.
- Mentor team members and create a culture of ownership, customer focus, clarity and accountable execution.
- Define product KPIs and use adoption, usage, quality and stakeholder feedback to drive continuous improvement.

Required Experience & Qualifications
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, Business, Finance or a related discipline.
- 10-15+ years of relevant experience across Product Management, Product Ownership, Business Analysis, Solution Consulting or enterprise software delivery.
- Proven ownership of complex B2B SaaS, FinTech, WealthTech, banking, investment, financial-services or enterprise platforms.
- Demonstrated experience establishing or leading a product requirements, business analysis or product design function.
- Strong experience working directly with US-based clients, senior stakeholders and distributed delivery teams.




- Expertise in requirement elicitation, process mapping, workflow design, user stories, acceptance criteria and solution documentation.
- Practical command of Agile/Scrum product delivery and the software development lifecycle.
- Ability to understand APIs, integrations, data flows, permissions, reporting and non-functional requirements sufficiently to guide product decisions.
- Exceptional written and verbal English communication, presentation, facilitation and stakeholder-management skills.

Preferred Experience
- Experience with investment management, wealth management, family office, capital markets, banking or financial operations.
- Working knowledge of Jira, Confluence, Azure DevOps, Figma, Miro, Lucidchart or Monday.com.
- Exposure to AI-enabled products, workflow automation, analytics and data-intensive platforms.
- Experience leading globally distributed teams and collaborating across India-US working hours.
- CSPO, PSPO, PMI-PBA, CBAP or an equivalent product/business-analysis certification.

Leadership Competencies Expected -

Communicates concise recommendations, decisions and trade-offs with confidence and clarity.

Separates genuine user problems from requested solutions and makes value-led priority decisions.

Breaks complex needs into coherent workflows, requirements, dependencies and measurable outcomes.

Builds consensus across clients, business teams and technology functions without relying on authority.

Drives issues to closure, maintains decision discipline and remains accountable for product outcomes.

Combines empathy for users with a practical understanding of business, operational and control needs.

Success Measures

- Product priorities and roadmap decisions are transparent, evidence-based and aligned with agreed business outcomes.
- Requirements reach engineering with clear scope, validated workflows, documented dependencies and testable acceptance criteria.
- Rework caused by requirement gaps, ambiguity or late stakeholder alignment is reduced.
- US stakeholders receive timely, clear and credible communication on product decisions, risks and delivery status.
- Product adoption, user satisfaction, release quality and delivery predictability improve over time.
- The Product Design and Requirements team operates with consistent standards, clear accountability and effective governance.

Why Join Us?

- Own and shape the complete Product Design and Requirements function.
- Work closely with US-based stakeholders and senior leadership.
- Influence the direction of a growing financial technology platform.
- Lead high-impact product initiatives from discovery through adoption.
- Build a scalable product discipline and mentor the next generation of product talent.

📌 Senior Product Owner (Chennai)
🏢 Avestar Advisory
📍 Chennai