Product Owner

About us

The Department of Government Services (DGS) was established on 1 January 2023 to improve everyone's experience of doing business and interacting with the Victorian government. We bring important day-to-day services together in one department to make things easy and seamless for Victorians and businesses. We are doing this by connecting and digitising our systems and platforms across state and local government as well as streamlining our corporate and procurement services.

About the role

Reporting to the Product Manager, you will be responsible for driving product development, continuous improvement, and customer-focused digital experiences. In this role, you will not only lead the product backlog for Engage Victoria but also ensure that business requirements are consistently aligned with citizen needs.

You will ensure that product enhancement is informed by analytics, customer feedback, and stakeholder insights. In addition, you will play a strategic role in shaping the product vision and executing the roadmap, ensuring alignment with DGS' whole-of-government digital goals. Alongside these responsibilities, you will collaborate closely with internal teams and external stakeholders across government and community organisations, working to enhance the Engage Victoria platform's value and usability.

At the same time, you will champion Agile practices and provide leadership during Scrum ceremonies, thereby driving team performance and building capability. You may from time to time be asked to contribute to the development of the other products within the Divisions scope.

About you

To be considered for the role, you must be able to demonstrate:

• At least 2 years' experience in managing product backlogs, prioritise features, and translate business needs into actionable user stories.
• Demonstrated success in delivering digital products that meet customer expectations while balancing technical feasibility and organisational priorities. Skilled at ensuring continuous product improvement through datadriven decision-making.
• Demonstrated strong stakeholder management skills, with experience collaborating across business units, technical teams, and external partners.
• Able to facilitate workshops, gather requirements, and build consensus to deliver shared outcomes. Skilled in managing competing priorities and handling difficult conversations with sensitivity and professionalism.
• Exceptional verbal and communication skills with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear, accessible language for non-technical stakeholders.
• Collaborative and approachable, fostering open dialogue across teams to build trust and achieve successfuloutcomes.
• Skilled at producing high-quality documentation, reports, and presentations.
• Strong focus on delivering products that improve customer experience and meet end-user needs.
• Experienced in applying user-centred design principles, gathering feedback, and conducting testing to ensure solutions are intuitive, accessible, and effective.
• Skilled at identifying opportunities for innovation, informed by user insights, data analytics,and industry trends.

Desirable Requirements

• Formal Agile Product Ownership certification
• Proficiency in writing user stories and producing documentation within Jira and Confluence.
• Knowledge of Content Management Systems (CMS) and web analytics platforms (e.g., Google Analytics or others) to support data-driven continuous improvement.
• Experience in User Acceptance Testing (UAT) with a strong focus on usability, accessibility, and security.
• Solid understanding of user experience (UX) principles and user-centred design thinking.

Key accountabilities

• Own and manage the product backlog, ensuring prioritisation reflects both citizen needs and government objectives.
• Define and communicate the product vision and roadmap, aligning with DGS strategic
• priorities and whole-of-government digital strategy.
• Continuously evaluate product performance using analytics, customer feedback, and stakeholder input to identify enhancements.
• Liaise with internal teams, other government departments, and key external stakeholders to gather insights and requirements.
• Facilitate pre-release product demos to agencies and community representatives tocollect actionable feedback.
• Lead and actively participate in all Agile ceremonies, providing guidance and mentoringto enhance the team's Agile capability.
• Translate business and user needs into clear user stories and acceptance criteria for development teams.
• Collaborate with developers, UX designers, and analysts to ensure technical feasibilityand compliance with Victorian Government digital standards.
• Coordinate and sign off on User Acceptance Testing (UAT) to ensure product featuresmeet user needs and quality standards.
• Use data-driven insights to identify opportunities for platform optimisation.

For specific responsibilities please review the attached position description.

This position is only open to applicants with relevant rights to work in Australia.

How to apply

Apply before the advertised closing date 11:59pm on 20th October. All applications should include:

• a resume; and
• a cover letter which addresses the key selection criteria (within three pages)

Other relevant information

The department is committed to providing and maintaining a working environment which is safe and without risk to the health of its employees and clients and consistent with the department's obligations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (OH&S Act), to support this DGS has a COVID-19 Vaccination policy which strongly recommends all DGS employees be fully vaccinated.

Preferred candidates will be required to complete a Pre-employment Declaration and Consent Form. Employment of successful candidates will be subject to a National Police Check.

DGS actively promotes diversity, inclusion and an equal opportunity workplace. We welcome applicants from all diverse backgrounds, including people with disabilities and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. All roles at DGS can be worked flexibly, however it may differ from role to role.