Product Owner, Telecom - Distribution & Industrial

Job Description Summary

Position Summary

We are seeking an experienced and technical Product Owner to own and drive the product backlog and lifecycle for our D&I wireless and edge portfolio. In this role, you will act as the Content Authority for the backlog, bridging customer needs, industry standards, and R&D execution. You will partner closely with systems engineering, R&D, NPI (New Product Introduction), and global cross-functional teams to deliver secure, highly reliable industrial wireless and edge platforms for utility and critical infrastructure customers.

Job Description

• Location: Massy or Hybrid in France with 3 days in Massy office
• Reports To: Senior Product Manager
• Segment: Grid Automation / Digital & Infrastructure (D&I)

Key Roles & Responsibilities

1. Backlog Ownership & Requirements

• •Backlog Management: Own and maintain the product backlog; translate portfolio strategy and multi-year roadmaps into prioritized epics, features, and enablers.
• •Content Authority: Make explicit trade-offs across scope, cost, schedule, and quality, ensuring a release-ready backlog ahead of each planning cycle.
• •Requirements Definition: Translate customer insights, field feedback, and standards obligations into clear, testable system requirements—including non-functional requirements (coverage, latency, availability, cybersecurity, environmental ratings).
• •Traceability & Change Control: Maintain requirements traceability and change control; assess and communicate the impact of scope changes on committed release plans.

2. Product Execution & Lifecycle

• •Portfolio Ownership: Own backlog and release execution across wireless platforms, including:
• •Private LTE / PLTE Core & RAN
• •Wireless Edge devices and industrial IoT platforms
• •Edge Applications for Distribution Automation (e.g., Smart RTU, protocol conversion)
• •Broadband power line communications
• •Microwave and narrowband radio systems

• •R&D & NPI Partnership: Act as the "voice of the customer" to R&D and NPI program teams. Lead backlog refinement, support Program Increment (PI) Planning and NPI tollgate reviews, and validate delivered value against acceptance criteria and the Definition of Done.
• •Architecture & Dependencies: Partner with System Architects to balance feature content against architectural/platform enabler work, managing cross-team and supplier dependencies.
• •Release Rhythm: Pace release content to portfolio operating rhythms, including multi-generation product plans, business plans, and NPI cycles.
• •Compliance & Security: Ensure product security, safety, certification, and type-approval requirements are integrated into the backlog (e.g., FCC/ISED/CE, 3GPP, IEC 62443, IEEE 1613).
• •Sustaining & EOL: Prioritize sustaining content (field issues, firmware maintenance, security patches, obsolescence-driven redesign) alongside new development; support product End-of-Life and installed-base migration plans.

3. Cross-Functional Collaboration

• •Alignment: Drive alignment across Technology/R&D, Global Supply Chain (GSC), Sourcing, Services, Quality, and Commercial teams on backlog priorities and release commitments.
• •Team Leadership: Partner with Technical Coordinators, Team Product Owners, and Scrum Masters to ensure team-level stories reflect customer needs and system intent.
• •Business Strategy: Support the Senior Product Manager with business case inputs, cost targets, and pricing structures for new platform content, while contributing to competitive and technology analysis.

4. Commercial & Customer Engagement

• •Voice of the Customer: Lead requirement workshops, pilots, field trials, and user acceptance testing with distribution utility and industrial customers.
• •Sales Enablement: Support global commercial teams, ITO (Inquiry-to-Order), and OTR (Order-to-Remittance) with release content, roadmap clarity, configuration guidance, and technical support arbitration.
• •Go-to-Market: Contribute to launch readiness, value propositions, sales enablement materials, and conference papers focusing on product and solution use cases.

Required Qualifications

• •Education: Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Telecommunications, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
• •Experience: Minimum 8 years of experience in product ownership, product management, systems engineering, or technical development within the Utility/Industrial Communication segment in a multicultural environment.
• •Domain Expertise: Prior experience in the telecom industry with a strong focus on wireless communications (e.g., PLTE/LTE/5G, Wi-Fi, microwave backhaul, mission-critical wireless networks, IP, Cloud).
• •Agile Acumen: Demonstrated experience defining and prioritizing requirements and backlogs in an Agile or SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) environment.
• •Global Collaboration: Proven experience working successfully with global teams and customers.
• •Modern Tools: Experience using AI-driven tools for requirement drafting, data analysis, or process automation.

Desired Characteristics

• •Certifications: SAFe POPM, CSPO, or equivalent product ownership certification.
• •Industry Knowledge: Understanding of energy, industrial, and transportation sectors; familiarity with distribution automation, SCADA, AMI, or Distributed Energy Resources (DER) communications.
• •Specialized Tech: Experience with Broadband Powerline communication (e.g., IEEE 1901) or licensed microwave link engineering.
• •Protocols & Standards: Familiarity with industrial protocols (DNP3, MQTT, IEC 60870-5-101/104) and product security/hardened-equipment standards (IEC 62443, NERC CIP, IEEE 1613, IEC 61850-3).
• •Tooling: Proficiency with requirements and product management tooling (Jira, Airfocus, Azure DevOps, Polarion, or DOORS).
• •Work Style: Schedule flexibility to collaborate effectively across global time zones, and a willingness to travel up to 40%.
• •Process Improvement: Lean process or transformation experience.

Rôles et responsabilités clés

1. Gestion du backlog et des exigences

• •Gestion du backlog : Gérer et tenir à jour le backlog produit ; traduire la stratégie de portefeuille et les feuilles de route pluriannuelles en epics, fonctionnalités et catalyseurs (enablers) hiérarchisés.
• •Autorité sur le contenu : Effectuer des arbitrages explicites entre la portée, le coût, le calendrier et la qualité, afin de garantir un backlog prêt pour la publication avant chaque cycle de planification.
• •Définition des exigences : Traduire les retours des clients, du terrain et les obligations normatives en exigences système claires et testables, y compris les exigences non fonctionnelles (couverture, latence, disponibilité, cybersécurité, indices environnementaux).
• •Traçabilité et gestion des modifications : Maintenir la traçabilité des exigences et le contrôle des modifications ; évaluer et communiquer l'impact des changements de périmètre sur les plans de version engagés.

2. Exécution du produit et cycle de vie

• •Propriété du portefeuille : Assurer la responsabilité de l'exécution du backlog et des versions sur l'ensemble des plateformes sans fil, notamment :
• •Cœur et RAN LTE Privé / PLTE
• •Appareils de périphérie sans fil (Wireless Edge) et plateformes IoT industrielles
• •Applications de périphérie pour l'automatisation de la distribution (ex. : Smart RTU, conversion de protocoles)
• •Communications par courants porteurs en ligne (Broadband power line communications)
• •Systèmes radio à micro-ondes et à bande étroite

• •Partenariat R&D et NPI (Introduction de nouveaux produits) : Agir en tant que « voix du client » auprès des équipes de R&D et des programmes NPI. Diriger l'affinage du backlog, soutenir la planification des incréments de programme (PI) et les revues de jalons NPI, et valider la valeur livrée par rapport aux critères d'acceptation et à la définition du « Fait » (Definition of Done).
• •Architecture et dépendances : Collaborer avec les architectes système pour équilibrer le contenu fonctionnel et le travail d'activation arc