IT Product Owner - CDS Hearing Aid

Costco IT is responsible for the technical future of Costco Wholesale, the third largest retailer in the world with wholesale operations in fourteen countries. Despite our size and explosive international expansion, we continue to provide a family, employee centric atmosphere in which our employees thrive and succeed.

This is an environment unlike anything in the high-tech world and the secret of Costco’s success is its culture. The value Costco puts on its employees is well documented in articles from a variety of publishers including Bloomberg and Forbes. Our employees and our members come FIRST.  Costco is well known for its generosity and community service and has won many awards for its philanthropy. The company joins with its employees to take an active role in volunteering by sponsoring many opportunities to help others. 

Come join the Costco Wholesale IT family. Costco IT is a dynamic, fast-paced environment, working through exciting transformation efforts. We are building the next generation retail environment where you will be surrounded by dedicated and highly professional employees. 

Product Owners are responsible for defining requirements, assisting with the overall product roadmap/vision, and driving value for the team and business. Product Owners maximize the value of products by aligning the teams, vendors and backlog with the business and CDS needs. Product owners are responsible for the authoring of functional user stories which are used to support the day to day development, support of new features, deployments and capabilities. Product owners ensure the team's output directly delivers meaningful business and CDS outcomes and return on investment.

The Product Owner serves as an execution strategist for the CDS Hearing Aid Team, overseeing technical operations across all warehouse and corporate environments to drive high-velocity business value. They are responsible for the end-to-end performance of system and business critical applications, including the enterprise cloud service provider Sycle, navigating complex system integrations and architectural dependencies. As a technical leader, you manage the full delivery lifecycle—from pre-production and quality assurance to production releases—ensuring patches and new versions are robust and scalable enterprise-wide. You act as the bridge between diverse stakeholders, including Business, Vendors, CDS Infrastructure, CDS International, and Engineering pods, translating high-level business objectives into technical roadmaps. Additionally, you engineer the path forward through the design, testing, and maintenance of business services, while proactively refining technical requirements and architectural milestones based on functional vision.

If you want to be a part of one of the worldwide BEST companies “to work for”, simply apply and let your career be reimagined.

ROLE

• Defines highly technical requirements aligned to functional requirements defined within user stories.

• Develops system design requirements in applications (including updating 3rd party applications, team sites, and collaborative tools).

• Identifies and communicates improvement opportunities (functional and non-functional) to improve product quality and performance based on the input provided by technology team members (e.g., Systems Analyst, Full Stack Developers).

• Supports the root cause analysis and remediation process to resolve defects and/or issues reported by product/application teams and stakeholders.

• Supports the implementation of best practices for scalability, supportability, ease of maintenance, and system performance.   

• Manages vendors to ensure that quality expectations are met.

• Performs and resolves 2nd and 3rd Level troubleshooting of issues as they are escalated from the Service Desk, support vendors and business. Manages the vendor responses for patching and remediation. 

• Manages release cycles with current vendors regarding support and future releases for software and hardware.

• Supports new warehouse openings, relocations, and remodels to ensure the supported departments are fully operational.

• Possesses good organizational, time, and understanding of basic project management, with the ability to multi-task, prioritize, and stay well organized.

• Manages cost plans, purchase orders, identifies and remediates risks and invoice timing for our vendors.

• Submits and reviews Master Service Agreement MSAs, Statement of Works (SOWs), Order Forms etc. protecting the organization from delivery gaps.

• Manages the end-to-end delivery of projects, workstreams, or large-scale programs, ensuring alignment with strategic roadmaps and business objectives. 

• Fosters and manages stakeholder relationships at all levels, ensuring clear and concise communication regarding project status, risks, and outcomes.

• Translates technical concepts and project status into clear business terms for diverse audiences, including senior leadership.

• Defines the sprint plan based on the priority outlined within the overall product vision and roadmap. 

• Creates and authors user stories with detailed acceptance criteria written in the customers’ voice.

• Collaborates with the team to prepare the estimates for the user stories within the product backlog.

• Prioritizes the sprint backlog (as part of the sprint planning ceremony) based on the sequencing / ranking of features defined in the product roadmap.

• Drives the execution of user acceptance testing (UAT) activities with support from business and technology team members.

• Supports and participates in program level ceremonies including product increment (PI) planning sessions with input and consultation from the Product Manager.

• Performs functional reviews as part of sprint demos.

• Helps with the allocation of resources and provides teams with the necessary support to remediate impediments and reported issues.

• Creates reports highlighting the health of the overall delivery status to program leadership and various stakeholders.

REQUIRED

• Ability to learn supported systems and hardware in Hearing Aid, such as Sycle, NOAH, Interacoustics, Hardware/peripherals, audiometers Affinity, and Aurical.

• Excellent oral and written communication skills with the ability to communicate simply/clearly to both technical and non-technical personnel.

• Ability to provide rotating on-call support, including evening and weekend, holiday, and other duties for issues escalated from the Service Desk and business partners.

• Demonstrated strong organizational qualities and have a positive attitude with good interpersonal skills, a team player; able to work cooperatively with others, sharing ideas, and collaborating to achieve team goals.

• Ability to adjust positively to change in direction or assignments and able to work in a fast and dynamic team environment aligning CDS and business objectives with Team’s performance and operations goals. 

• Travel expected for support of warehouses and International meetings with stakeholders.

• Demonstrates a logical and structured approach to time management and task prioritization while effectively teaching and mentoring other members of the GHS teams.

• Knowledge of Smartsheet, ServiceNow, and ADO for executive reporting.

• Expert facilitation of PI Planning, Backlog Refinement, Sprint Retrospectives, problem solving, negotiating between competing priorities.

Recommended

• 7+ years of experience in Technical Program Management, Agile Delivery, or a related leadership role within a large-scale enterprise environment.

• Understanding of Hearing Aid Software/Hardware lifecycle management.

• Knowledge of HIPAA regulations for transactions, security, and confidentiality.

• Experience with system environments and deployments.

• Functional knowledge of Costco CDS systems and procedures, with ability to support, CDS computer equipment at Warehouses, Corporate, and Regional Offices.

• Bilingual English and Spanish skills are beneficial.

• Above general knowledge of Hearing Aid supported hardware, infrastructures, and systems.

• Windows OS environment (eg. Active Directory, Group Policy) Google Workspace. Microsoft MECM/SCCM and related services. SqlQuery, Linux, and programming language(s). Cloud Solutions (eg. Azure/GCP).

• Experience with Ticketing systems, Jira, SalesForce, ServiceNow (“CARTS”), ALM and similar for the management of incident/defect/system issues internally and externally. 

• Current Work experience with Hearing Aid Software/Hardware. 

• Troubleshooting experience with software/hardware including desktop PC’s, laptops, printers, and USB peripherals, windows OS, group Policies, and internet browsers.

• Successful internal candidates will have spent one year or more on their current team.

• Degree or Certifications in Computer Science. 

• Proven track record acting as a Chief Scrum Master for team members, business, and vendors.

• Familiarity with financial and procurement systems and the ability to learn Cost Plan and Purchase Order lifecycle.

• Vendor & Contract Management proficiency: Develop knowledge in the procurement lifecycle, focusing on the creation and negotiation of Master Service Agreements (MSAs), Statements of Work (SOWs), and Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

• Proficient in Google Workspace applications, including Sheets, Docs, Slides, and Gmail.

Required Documents

●      Cover Letter

●      Resume

California applicants, please click here to review the Costco Applicant Privacy Notice.

Pay Ranges: 

Level 1  - $90,000 - $115,000

Level 2  - $105,000 - $135,000

Level 3  - $130,000 - $160,000

Level 4  - $140,000 - $200,000

We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off, health benefits - medical/dental/vision/hearing aid/pharmacy/behavioral health/employee assistance, health care reimbursement account, dependent care assistance plan, short-term disability and long-term disability insurance, AD&D insurance, life insurance, 401(k), stock purchase plan to eligible employees.

Costco is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. Costco is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or any other legally protected status. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request to [email protected]

If hired, you will be required to provide proof of authorization to work in the United States. Applicants and employees for this position will not be sponsored for work authorization, including, but not limited to H1-B visas.