Product Owner - Finance functionality for ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software on Salesforce platform
Location:
Bangalore, India - Hybrid
Company Overview:
Rootstock Software is a global provider of Manufacturing Cloud ERP, empowering hundreds of manufacturers to turbocharge their operations in today’s dynamic, post-pandemic world. Natively built on the Salesforce Platform, Rootstock delivers a futureproof solution to scale your enterprise for rapid growth. With it, manufacturers gain the agility to continually transform their businesses to meet evolving customer needs, navigate emerging challenges, and accelerate success. The connectivity of Rootstock gives manufacturers 360° visibility to collaborate with suppliers, trading partners, and the broader value chain.
We are currently seeking a dynamic and experienced Product Owner to join our team in Bangalore, India. NOTE: The office space is yet to be built, but the expectation is that once built the candidate will be able to work from the office as needed. Virtual daily communication is expected with the team.
Position Overview:
As a member of the Product Ownership development team at Rootstock, you will play a pivotal role in shaping and delivering innovative Finance-related ERP solutions on the Salesforce Lightning platform. You will be responsible for translating customer needs and market trends into actionable product features. Working closely with other departments, you will drive the development of high-quality software that meets the evolving Finance demands of the ERP industry. You are expected to be located in Bangalore, India, where you will work daily with our software engineers and quality analysts as well as online meetings with our members in the US.
Key Responsibilities:
- Product Quality and Evolution
- Collaborate with stakeholders to establish product features and enhancements needed
- Prioritize and maintain the product backlog in collaboration with input from various teams
- Maintain a comprehensive internal product roadmap aligned with business goals and market trends
- Help coordinate product releases and deliver timely, high-quality features as planned. Work closely with product management, development, QA, and UX teams to ensure successful product delivery.
- Backlog Grooming, Implementation and Documentation
- Continuously refine the backlog based on evolving requirements and market dynamics. Stay informed on industry best practices and emerging technologies to ensure product competitiveness
- Maintain backlog using JIRA in association with Scrum/Agile principles via Epics, User Stories, Bugs, Tasks, etc… Product Owners are also required to possess technical knowledge relating to table/component relationships and how to break down development into properly sized sprint level story delivery.
- Implement development using established Sprint cycle schedule
- Act as a liaison between business stakeholders and technical teams to foster clear communication and alignment
- Perform stakeholder product demos
- Create/maintain training materials, and other documentation to support development and roll-out. Experience with creating and maintaining Confluence pages as reference material a plus.
Qualifications:
Strong understanding of Finance concepts, processes, and market trends in relation to ERP software requirements. Experience with Rootstock software is preferable, however, established experience in Finance functionality in other ERP systems such as SAP, Oracle, JD Edwards, etc... is welcome. This is crucial to success to this role and will be closely vetted, so do not apply unless you are fluent with Finance functionality related to ERP and can professionally demonstrate this knowledge to our team. Knowledge required in the following sample areas:
- General Ledger: Understanding of general ledger functionalities, including journal entries, account reconciliation, and financial reporting.
- Accounts Payable: Knowledge of accounts payable processes, including invoice processing, payment scheduling, and vendor management.
- Accounts Receivable: Familiarity with accounts receivable processes, including billing, collections, and customer account management.
- Budgeting & Forecasting: Experience with budgeting and forecasting tools within ERP systems, including variance analysis and financial planning.
- Fixed Assets: Understanding of fixed asset management, including asset tracking, depreciation, and asset disposal.
- Cash Management: Knowledge of cash management functionalities including bank reconciliation.
- Taxation: Familiarity with tax compliance and reporting requirements, including sales tax, VAT and other Global tax structures. Familiarity with 3rd party tax products such as Avalara a plus.
- Financial Reporting: Understanding of financial reports, including balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements. Familiarity with common/frequent auditing areas relating to finance.
Bachelor's degree in a relevant field (Accounting/Finance); MBA or equivalent is a plus. CPA or similar professional Finance or Accounting certification is a definite plus. Proven experience (3+ years) as a Product Owner or similar SME role in the ERP industry. Product Owner certification a plus. Proven experience with Scrum development principles and backlog maintenance using JIRA. Excellent organization, communication, presentation and interpersonal skills (English). Ability to thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced environment including the ability to work several hours a day which overlap with US EST/PST time zones. Salesforce Lightning Platform experience a plus.
Ideal Candidate:
The ideal candidate will have at least a few years of product owner experience as a FIN SME in an ERP software company utilizing the Scrum/Agile development approach. Rootstock is a global ERP provider, thus experience on a global scale is preferred, such as the various tax structures available (ex: US tax vs VAT, usage of third-party tax software such as Avalara), familiarity with currency conversion and rounding issues, consolidation of different financial entities/companies and related reporting needs are several key areas of interest.
Also, the Product Owner role has direct impact on what features are to be worked on and steers the direction of the product, so this person possesses the knowledge/ experience/ confidence to help establish why something needs to be prioritized ahead of other issues versus why something is not to be worked on immediately / placed on the backlog for future consideration, or is considered an enhancement request and needs to be submitted as such. This person also has experience working with outward facing Product Managers to establish priorities and taking on the internal implementation of the development activity to deliver on those expectations. The ideal candidate will also have experience working with Support/Services teams to triage reported issues/bugs then add them into the development queue for timely fixes as needed based upon established priority and severity guidelines. NOTE: We are not looking for project managers or services personnel who worked on a few Finance-related projects/customizations... these roles may require knowledge about the FIN functionality but are lacking the experience with working directly with the engineers, QAs and release teams and the nuances on managing the different perspectives and intricacies of the teaming environment which Product Owners possess.
Typical Week:
The Product Owner is in constant communication with stakeholders and their engineering team via slack channels as well as daily/weekly meetings. They follow a certain #week sprint cycle involving Backlog Grooming, Daily Standups, Sprint Start/End/Demo/Retrospective sessions. A large portion of their time is spent identifying upcoming needs such as Support Bugs and Development features, prioritizing them, and ensuring the issues are fully vetted, properly documented and then effectively presented to the team.
They also ensure the JIRA bugs and stories reflect the proper format and details and are properly updated with notes relating to ongoing discussions/decisions throughout the development lifecycle. The product owner is required to thoroughly understand the existing functionality to help triage bug disposition versus working as designed and can answer functional questions from the team to clarify the expectations of the software before development begins. Understanding the functionality is crucial, but also a basic understanding of the technical side of things such as schema/tables/components is very important as well, as it relates to successfully negotiating with the team and breaking down functional areas into development stories that can be delivered within the sprint. Grooming/ Development/ Testing/ Demoing/ Documentation are typically part of a common work week for a Rootstock Product Owner. Mentoring sessions are also common for our new hires to ensure proper habits / procedures / functional clarity / role expectations are clearly conveyed and delivered upon.
Benefits:
We offer our team members competitive compensation, world class benefits, work life balance (flexible schedules, telecommuting, vacation time off), and the opportunity to work alongside an amazing and supportive team! Rootstock values diversity and is an Equal Opportunity Employer.If you are passionate about shaping the future of ERP solutions and possess the skills and experience to excel in this role, we invite you to join our team at Rootstock. Please submit your resume and cover letter.
