Product Owner - CortAIx Factory

Thales is a global technology leader trusted by governments, institutions, and enterprises to tackle their most demanding challenges. From quantum applications and artificial intelligence to cybersecurity and 6G innovation, our solutions empower critical decisions rooted in human intelligence. Operating at the forefront of defence and security, aerospace and space, cybersecurity and digital identity, we’re driven by a mission to build a future we can all trust.

In Romania, we are advancing innovation through software engineering, research and development, delivering solutions in key markets in which Thales Group operates. Our engineers design, develop and integrate solutions that impact global industries – from fully operational systems and subsystems for naval warfare and maritime security operations, to air traffic management systems, satellite-based solutions, tactical indoor simulations, identity and biometric technologies and more.

By joining the CortAIx / ECC-Romania team, you will play a crucial role in revolutionizing AI technologies within the industry, addressing real-world challenges to support the armed forces, civil aviation, and aerospace sectors. These challenges include real-time detection and identification of mobile units, data fusion and situation simulation, detection of hazards, intrusions, and threats, decision support for operators, as well as monitoring and control of triggered actions. As a Proxy Product Owner / Scrum Master, your missions will notably include:

• Use Case team coaching

  • Help the team become predictable and manage its commitment based on existing data (at sprint, cycle and Use Case level).

  • Prepare and facilitate the team's Scrum rituals to make them constructive and productive, with a clear objective, associated indicators and follow-up actions.

  • Teach the team to manage its delivery flow and improve their feature lead time.

  • Help the team identify and reduce bottlenecks

  • Implement the monitoring and use of indicators. 

    • Make the team's work and indicators visible by setting up dashboards/information radiators.

    • Coach the team on how to use those indicators and make decisions based on them to improve their efficiency and value delivered

  • Help to remove obstacles and bottlenecks that prevent the team from delivering.

• Managing and monitoring progress

  • Manage the roadmap follow up, the value delivered regarding the planned commitment at cycle and sprint level.

    • Implement visual management tools 

    • Monitor the scope and its evolution (e.g. cycle burn-down)

    • Track budget consumption (man-days) against forecasts

    • Track product metrics

  • Implement risk monitoring

  • Report alerts as soon as necessary, and know how to ask the right people for help

  • Formalize information at the right level for the various stakeholders

• Proxy Product Owner

  • Maintain, prioritize, and refine the product backlog, ensuring it reflects the Product Owner’s vision and the team’s capacity.

  • Review and validate user stories and acceptance criteria, ensuring they are ready for development and meet business objectives

  • Act as the primary liaison between the Product Owner, development team, and other stakeholders, ensuring transparency and alignment

  • Ensure relevance of the delivered value by tracking operational value and operational gains

• Capitalize on and improve delivery practices within CortAIx 

  • Document best practices implemented within the teams to share with other CortAIx Factory teams. 

  • Share experiences and learnings within the CortAIx delivery community to help develop global CortAIx Factory skills.

Skills needed:

• Expertise in Scrum and Kanban and/or Lean Software Development 

• Indicators: velocity/throughput, cycle time/lead time, work in progress, burn down, burn up 

• Expertise in Scrum events and their facilitation 

• Mastery of visual management implementation 

• Mastery of different facilitation postures and tools 

• Knowledge of various retrospective formats, estimation workshops, brainstorming workshops, etc. 

• Ability to guide and coach the team in its practices 

• Jira (how to use and administrate project/board/workflow), Miro

• Organization of quarterly planning / PI planning  

• Roadmap follow-up tools 

• Risk monitoring 

• Dashboarding tools and indicator tracking 

• Expert in value driven Product Management

• Knowledge of techniques for (vertical) functional slicing of requirements into Epics/User Stories 

• Experience in leading User Story Mapping workshops for complex use cases

• Proficiency in writing Epics, User Stories, acceptance criteria, test scenarios (knowledge of BDD a plus)

• You have a basic understanding of software development processes, architectures, and technologies to facilitate effective communication with the team.

At Thales, we’re committed to fostering a workplace where respect, trust, collaboration, and passion drive everything we do. Here, you’ll feel empowered to bring your best self, thrive in a supportive culture, and love the work you do. Join us, and be part of a team reimagining technology to create solutions that truly make a difference – for a safer, greener, and more inclusive world.