Technical Product Owner

At Bayer we’re visionaries, driven to solve the world’s toughest challenges and striving for a world where ,Health for all, Hunger for none’ is no longer a dream, but a real possibility. We’re doing it with energy, curiosity and sheer dedication, always learning from unique perspectives of those around us, expanding our thinking, growing our capabilities and redefining ‘impossible’. There are so many reasons to join us. If you’re hungry to build a varied and meaningful career in a community of brilliant and diverse minds to make a real difference, there’s only one choice.

Technical Product Owner

Position Overview:

We are seeking a talented and highly motivated individual with a strong background and relevant experience to join Bayer’s Vegetable R&D Engineering and Automation Hub as a Technical Product Owner. The Engineering and Automation Hub carry out a mission to create data-driven end-to-end digital workflows that improve operational efficiency and support predictive breeding for the R&D organization.  

This technical product owner role combines traditional product ownership responsibilities with technical leadership and some primary scrum master duties. The ideal candidate will bridge the gap between technical implementation and product strategy, working closely with our software engineering team and collaborating with our digital enablement team to deliver high-quality digital solutions for our end-users. You will play a crucial role in developing and maintaining key projects in the Vegetable R&D portfolio. This involves cross-functional collaboration with a diverse, global group of plant breeders, genomic scientists, engineers, developers, and IT teams.  

Your Tasks And Responsibilities

Product Ownership & Agile Leadership 

• Manage and prioritize the product backlog, ensuring comprehensive, well-defined user stories  
• Lead technical refinement sessions with the scrum team to break down complex features into actionable user stories 
• Facilitate sprint ceremonies including planning, daily standups, reviews, and retrospectives 
• Drive sprint execution, monitor sprint progress and team velocity to ensure predictable delivery 
• Support the scrum team in maintaining high-quality standards and technical excellence  
• Oversee end-to-end execution of software development initiatives from conception to delivery 

Technical Planning & Implementation 

• Collaborate with engineers across the full software stack (cloud infrastructure, database, API, and frontend) while guiding backlog and story refinement 
• Lead strategic planning sessions to align technical roadmap with business objectives 
• Facilitate the creation of detailed technical work plans for new product development efforts 
• Support the development of comprehensive testing strategies, including functional testing and user acceptance testing plans 
• Champion best practices, ways of working, and continuous improvement within the software team 
• Leverage generative AI tools (e.g., Microsoft Copilot) to enhance productivity in user story creation, technical documentation, and requirement analysis 

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner closely with the Digital Enablement team to translate business requirements into technical specifications 
• Support Digital Specialists in gathering user feedback and defining requirements 
• Engage with stakeholders, users, and subject matter experts to ensure alignment on technical direction 
• Facilitate communication between technical and non-technical team members 
• Monitor relevant support channels, assist in communication with users, and assist in transferring support issues onto the backlog 
• Work with enterprise IT teams to ensure proper system integration and compliance with security policies and practices 

WHO YOU ARE (Education/Experience) 

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or a related discipline plus minimum of 5 years of experience 
• Proven experience as a product owner in an Agile Scrum environment working with a remote team using tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams 
• Strong experience working with Microsoft Azure Devops or JIRA for managing agile projects, tracking progress and ensuring completion of deliverables throughout the project lifecycle. 
• Track record of successful product delivery in a fast-paced environment 
• Preferred experience with advanced Plant Breeding methodologies (e.g., marker-assisted selection, high-throughput phenotyping) or willingness to learn Plant Breeding domain knowledge 

SKILLS (Technical & Soft) 

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English, with strong facilitation skills 
• Ability to work effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders 
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, with strong attention to detail 
• Strong technical mentoring and coaching abilities 
• Scrum certification (CSPO, PSPO, PMC or equivalent) 
• Strong technical background with understanding of full-stack development concepts 
• Experience with modern software development practices and tools 
• Preferred experience with cloud-based data warehouses and cloud infrastructure 
• Preferred experience with generative AI tools and LLMs for documentation generation, and product management tasks 

    YOUR APPLICATION      

This is your opportunity to tackle the world’s biggest challenges with us: Maintaining our health, feeding growing populations and slowing the rate of climate change. You have a voice, ideas and perspectives and we want to hear them. Because our success begins with you. Be part of something big. Be Bayer. 
 
Bayer welcomes applications from all individuals, regardless of race, national origin, gender, age, physical characteristics, social origin, disability, union membership, religion, family status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or any unlawful criterion under applicable law. We are committed to treating all applicants fairly and avoiding discrimination.
 

 

Location:

Spain : Cataluña : Barcelona  

Division:

Crop Science

Reference Code:

853729