Product Owner

We are seeking a Product Owner for a 12-month contract role in McLean, Virginia to drive the product vision and strategy for Master Data Management (MDM) capabilities within the Multifamily division. This position bridges business stakeholders and technology teams to ensure authoritative, consistent, and trusted master data across the enterprise, supporting critical data modernization and governance initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Set and communicate a clear product vision and strategy for MDM capabilities to key stakeholders and cross-functional teams
• Own end-to-end MDM product strategy from inception, defining business value through improved data quality, reduced redundancy, and trusted data assets in production
• Ensure alignment of MDM product features and user stories with the MDM and Data Product Roadmap, prioritizing work accordingly
• Continuously improve and refine the backlog with the team, ensuring clarity, accurate estimation, and prioritization of items related to data matching, merging, survivorship rules, and data stewardship workflows
• Drive customer-centered design by considering data consumer pain points, data quality metrics, and usability test results to deliver well-positioned MDM solutions
• Define and refine master data domains (e.g., counterparty, property) and their associated governance models
• Drive sprint and release planning in collaboration with the Scrum Coach and technology teams
• Partner with Development Leadership to design modular and reusable MDM solutions, including match/merge logic, hierarchy management, and data stewardship capabilities
• Define and monitor data quality KPIs, stewardship SLAs, and master data health metrics to drive continuous improvement
• Serve as the principal contact and subject matter expert for Master Data Management in enterprise-wide data modernization efforts
• Interact with data consumers, data stewards, data owners, and internal technology customers to obtain feedback, validate solutions, and refine approach

Qualifications

• Required

• 5 or more years of Product Owner experience

• 5 or more years of data-related experience with a focus on master data management, data delivery, and data governance disciplines

• Experience with MDM concepts including golden record creation, match/merge/survivorship rules, data stewardship, hierarchy management, and reference data management

• Experience delivering large, complex change management projects involving multiple teams, especially those focused on data governance frameworks and master data standardization

• Hands-on data analysis skills to support data profiling, data quality assessment, data mapping, data querying, and duplicate identification

• Experience working in Agile methodology teams and with agile-related tools

• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities, particularly around data quality root cause analysis

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with ability to present to management and facilitate meetings with data stewards, data owners, and technical teams

• Experience with data-focused technologies including relational databases, non-relational databases, on-premises and off-premises solutions, and MDM-specific architectures (registry, consolidation, coexistence, centralized)

• Preferred

• Understanding of the mortgage industry, preferably commercial or multifamily real estate and underlying loan lifecycles