Associate Digital Product Owner

The Associate Digital Product Owner will support the strategy, development, enhancement, and ongoing management of our custodial platform capabilities and experiences. This role will partner closely with business stakeholders, technology teams, operations, risk and compliance partners, and third-party providers to identify opportunities, translate business needs into actionable requirements, and deliver solutions that improve the advisor and associate experience.

This position is ideal for someone who enjoys solving complex problems, connecting business needs with technology solutions, and working across teams to drive improvements from idea through implementation.

The Associate Digital Product Owner will assist with managing product backlogs, defining and refining user stories, coordinating testing and implementation activities, monitoring platform issues, and supporting the ongoing evolution of the Custodial Platforms product roadmap.

Key Responsibilities

Product Ownership & Delivery

• Support the management and prioritization of the product backlog based on business value, user needs, operational impact, and strategic priorities.
• Translate business needs and platform opportunities into clear user stories, requirements, and acceptance criteria.
• Participate in backlog refinement and other Agile product-development activities.
• Partner with technology teams to clarify requirements, address questions, and help ensure solutions meet business expectations.
• Coordinate and support User Acceptance Testing (UAT), including test planning, issue tracking, validation, and business sign-off.
• Assist with validating features and enhancements prior to production release.

These responsibilities align closely with the organization''s existing Product Owner expectations around backlog management, story refinement, sprint planning, UAT, IT partnership, and production-release acceptance.

Custodial Platform Management

• Develop a strong understanding of custodial platforms, capabilities, integrations, workflows, and associated business processes.
• Support platform enhancements, defects, maintenance activities, vendor initiatives, and ongoing modernization efforts.
• Evaluate requests and platform issues to understand business impact, dependencies, risk, and potential downstream effects.
• Partner with internal stakeholders and external providers to research issues and identify appropriate solutions.
• Help maintain product and platform documentation, requirements, process flows, release information, and related artifacts.

Stakeholder & Vendor Partnership

• Build productive relationships with business, operations, technology, risk, compliance, and support teams.
• Serve as a point of coordination between business stakeholders and technology partners for assigned capabilities and initiatives.
• Work with third-party providers and custodial partners as needed to understand product capabilities, upcoming changes, defects, and enhancement opportunities.
• Communicate product changes, risks, dependencies, decisions, and implementation considerations to stakeholders.
• Help ensure operational readiness for new capabilities and platform changes.

Cross-functional collaboration, third-party vendor engagement, and operational readiness are also called out in the current internal Product Owner/Experience Owner framework.

Product & Experience Improvement

• Gather feedback from users and stakeholders to identify pain points and opportunities to improve the experience.
• Use data, feedback, and business insights to help prioritize enhancements and measure outcomes.
• Research platform capabilities and potential solutions to support product recommendations.
• Identify opportunities to simplify processes, improve self-service capabilities, reduce manual work, and create more consistent user experiences.
• Support continuous improvement of the overall custodial platform ecosystem.

Qualifications Required

• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and organizational skills.
• Ability to translate business needs into clear requirements and actionable work.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and work effectively across business and technical teams.
• Strong attention to detail while maintaining awareness of broader business objectives.
• Demonstrated ability to build relationships and collaborate with stakeholders across an organization.
• Curiosity and willingness to learn complex platforms, processes, and technologies.

Preferred

• Experience working in financial services, wealth management, brokerage, custody, fintech, or a related industry.
• Experience with product management, business analysis, technology delivery, operations, or platform management.
• Familiarity with Agile/Scrum product-development practices.
• Experience developing user stories, requirements, acceptance criteria, or process documentation.
• Experience participating in UAT or technology implementations.
• Experience working with third-party technology or financial-services providers.

About Us

What we give you in return:

Not many teams can say that they support people's dreams coming to life. We happen to do that every day. And as important as we know your career is, we recognize that there's a whole lot more to life. To ensure that our employees can make the most of their time outside of working hours, we offer a competitive salary and for full-time roles, a benefits package including:

• Inclusive health, dental, vision, and life insurance plans built to support diverse lifestyles, offer preventative care, and protect against hardship.
• Easy access to mental health benefits to meet our team members and their families where they are.
• 20+ days of paid time off (PTO), paid holidays, and 2 paid wellness days to give our employees the time they need to stay close with their loved ones, recharge, and give back to their communities.
• 401(k) savings plan with a generous company contribution (up to 5%), and access to a financial professional to offer our employees the opportunity to plan-ahead for a strong financial future well beyond their working years.
• Paid parental leave to support all team members with birth, adoption, and fostering.
• Health Savings and Flexible Spending Account options to help you save money on healthcare, daycare, commuting, and more.
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP), LifeLock, Pet Insurance and more.
• Paid caregiver leave to provide time away from work when caring for an ill or recovering family member.
• Additional benefits such as an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), identity theft protection (LifeLock), pet insurance, and other voluntary benefits to provide extra peace of mind

About Cetera

Cetera Financial Group (Cetera) is a leading network of independent retail broker-dealers and registered investment advisers empowering the delivery of objective financial advice to individuals, families, and company retirement plans across the country through trusted financial advisors and financial institutions. Cetera is one of the largest independent financial advisor networks in the nation and a leading provider of retail services to the investment programs of banks and credit unions.

Advisor support resources offered through Cetera include award-winning wealth management and advisory platforms, comprehensive broker-dealer and registered investment adviser services, practice management support, and innovative technology.

Cetera Financial Group (Cetera) is a network of independent retail firms, including those that are members of FINRA/SIPC: Cetera Advisors LLC; Cetera Wealth Services, LLC (formerly known as Cetera Advisor Networks); Cetera Investment Services LLC (marketed as Cetera Financial Institutions or Cetera Investors); and Cetera Financial Specialists LLC. Entities registered as investment advisers with the Securities and Exchange Commission include Cetera Investment Management LLC and Cetera Investment Advisers LLC. Cetera''s principal office is located at 655 W. Broadway, 11th Floor, San Diego, CA 92101. Avantax Planning Partners, Inc. is an SEC registered investment adviser within the Aretec Group, Inc. (dba Cetera Holdings, an affiliate of Cetera). All the referenced entities are under common ownership.

Cetera Financial Group is committed to providing an equal employment opportunity for all applicants and employees. For us, this is the only acceptable way to do business. Accordingly, all employment decisions at Cetera Financial Group, including those relating to hiring, promotion, transfers, benefits, compensation, and placement, will be made without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, citizenship, age, physical and/or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic characteristics, religion, religious dress and/or grooming, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, U.S. military status, political affiliation, or any other class protected by state and/or federal law.

Agencies please note: this recruitment assignment is being managed directly by Cetera's Talent Acquisition team. We will reach out to our preferred agency partners in the rare instance we require additional talent options. Your respect for this process is appreciated.

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