Data Product Owner

ABOUT US:

Kestra Holdings offers industry-leading wealth management platforms for independent wealth management professionals nationwide. With an innovative culture that celebrates independence, the company seeks to redefine the future of the advisory industry through superior service, cutting-edge technology, and preeminent resources that every financial professional needs to succeed in the market now and in the years to come.

Kestra Holdings companies collectively oversee $123 billion in assets under administration (AUA) and support more than 2,400+ independent financial professionals across the country in delivering comprehensive securities, trust, and investment advisory services to their clients. Located in the "Silicon Hills" of Austin, Texas, Kestra Holdings offers an experience as unique as the city in which it operates.

Kestra is seeking a customer-focused, detail-oriented Data Product Owner to support the development and delivery of our enterprise data platform. Reporting to the Manager of Data Product Management, this role is focused on translating business needs for data into actionable work for our scrum teams and managing the backlog and implementation process.

The Product Owner serves as a liaison between business stakeholders and the development team, ensuring technical solutions align with Kestra's business objectives. A successful Product Owner balances strategy, governance, and implementation and effectively facilitates productive conversations between all impacted stakeholders - executives, engineers, analysts, product teams, and external customers.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Collaborate with Digital, Data, and Product leadership to execute the vision and roadmap for Kestra's enterprise data platform, including reporting, analytics, and data product capabilities.
• Develop a deep understanding of Kestra's data strategy, source systems, and end-to-end data workflows to inform backlog prioritization and delivery.
• Translate business and analytical needs into clear, actionable backlog items for scrum teams, focusing on data ingestion, data model enhancements, platform modernization, and data product development.
• Break down large-scale data initiatives - such as adding new data sources or building shared data assets - into manageable user stories and work with technical leads to ensure readiness for implementation.
• Prioritize features, enhancements, and enablers in the data product backlog based on business value, technical dependencies, and PI commitments.
• Facilitate backlog refinement sessions and maintain a well-groomed, continuously evolving backlog that reflects current priorities and team capacity.
• Participate in design and architecture discussions to ensure solutions meet analytical needs, support reusability, and align with data governance and quality standards.
• Act as the primary liaison between business users, data analysts, data engineers, and developers to ensure consistent understanding and delivery of business needs.
• Coordinate dependencies and share learnings across the Product Owners and teams to support enterprise alignment across the data ecosystem.
• Collaborate with the release manager and QA to support production deployments and communicate release notes to business stakeholders.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND/OR ABILITIES:

• Well-versed in agile practices such as Scrum and Kanban.
• Strong analytical mindset with the ability to gather, document, and translate business and data requirements into Epics and User Stories with clear acceptance criteria.
• Solid understanding of data management principles, including data ingestion, data warehousing, data modeling, data quality, and governance.
• Ability to write SQL queries for data validation, analysis, and acceptance testing.
• Strong collaboration skills with the ability to align business stakeholders and data engineers around a shared understanding of priorities and technical feasibility.
• Adept at breaking down complex, ambiguous data problems into actionable components that align with enterprise objectives.
• Skilled at facilitating technical and business discussions, driving alignment, and making informed decisions that consider multiple perspectives.
• Effective communicator - both written and verbal - with the ability to explain data concepts and project impacts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to manage competing priorities, adjust plans in response to change, and maintain delivery focus in a dynamic environment.
• Empathy and active listening skills to understand stakeholder needs and user pain points, driving the creation of valuable, user-centered data solutions.
• Comfortable working across multiple teams and business units, coordinating dependencies, and ensuring consistent delivery within a broader data product portfolio.
• Strong sense of ownership, accountability, and a proactive mindset focused on outcomes and continuous improvement.

PARTNERSHIP AREAS:

• Data Engineering
• Product Management
• Business Intelligence
• Information Technology
• Domain-area teams such as Finance, Marketing, Compliance, Operations, etc.

EDUCATION AND/OR EXPERIENCE:

• Bachelor's degree in Information Systems, Computer Science, Data Analytics, Business, or related field; equivalent work experience will be considered.
• 3+ years of experience as a Product Owner or Business Analyst supporting data platforms, enterprise reporting, or analytics solutions in an Agile environment.
• Hands-on experience with cloud-based data platforms, ideally within the Microsoft Azure ecosystem (e.g., Azure Data Factory, Azure Synapse, Data Lake) and Databricks.
• Strong familiarity with data warehousing concepts, data ingestion processes, and data product lifecycle management.
• Proficient in using product and collaboration tools such as JIRA and Confluence for backlog management and team communication.

CERTIFICATIONS:

• None required

INTERNAL APPLICANT POLICY:

Internal applicants must be in good standing and have a minimum of 1 year of service with Kestra. Internal applicants must also have a minimum of 1 year service in current role unless approved by EVP.

BENEFITS:

Full health, vision, dental. 401(k) plans along with a host of voluntary plans such as car insurance, legal services and more.

DISCLOSURE

By applying to a job at Kestra Financial, Inc., you are agreeing to the following statements:

• You acknowledge that if hired, Kestra Financial, Inc. may, obtain and use background information concerning your credit, character, general reputation, personal characteristics, work habits, performance and experience for evaluation for your potential employment.
• It is the policy of Kestra Financial to ensure equal employment opportunity without discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, identity or expression, age, disability, marital status, citizenship, national origin, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law. Kestra Financial prohibits any such discrimination or harassment.

KESTRA VALUES:

Our Mission is Powering Financial Independence, enabling the growth and success of investing clients and the advisors who serve them. We do that by living our values: SERVE, MAKE IT HAPPEN, and ONE TEAM.