Lead Product Owner, Service Operations

Union/Affiliation: Administrative and Professional Staff (APSA)
Pay range: $107,656 to $128,454 annually SFU Department Descr: IT Services - Academic Management Systems
Position Grade: 13
# of openings: 1
Biweekly Hours: 72

Who We Are

Simon Fraser University is a leading research university, advancing an inclusive and sustainable future. Our purpose – the essence of SFU – is to create and connect knowledge, learning and community for deeper understanding and meaningful impact. We are committed to fostering excellence, innovation, belonging and community in all that we do.

Academic Management Systems, part of IT Services at SFU, partners with Faculties and Faculty Relations to deliver systems that support academic operations. We are agile, cross-functional teams of analysts, developers, and QA specialists who thrive on collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement. Our focus is building user-centered IT solutions that simplify processes, improve efficiency, and enhance the SFU experience for faculty and staff.

SFU is embarking on a three-year digital transformation through the Integrated Faculty Management System (IFMS) program. This initiative will modernize and unify workflows across faculty and administrative domains, supporting long-term improvements in academic administration and advancing the university’s mission.

About the Role

The Lead Product Owner, Service Operations provides operational product leadership for eTRACS, SFU’s in-house faculty management system. This role owns the Operations product backlog and leads the prioritization of production issues, service requests, training, documentation, user support, and operational improvements. Working closely with other Lead Product Owners, technical teams, and faculty/central stakeholders, the role ensures that enhancements and new development is transitioned into sustainable operations with clear support processes, documentation, training, permissions, and service standards.

The ideal candidate is a service-minded product leader with experience supporting complex enterprise systems and, ideally, knowledge of faculty management workflows such as course planning, teaching assignments, workload, contracts, appointments, tenure and promotion, or related academic administration. They can bring structure to operational intake, triage, bug prioritization, production support, documentation, training, permissions, and service desk coordination. They communicate clearly, build trust with technical teams and end users and help distinguish urgent operational issues from enhancement requests. They are organized, collaborative, calm under pressure, and focused on keeping eTRACS reliable, usable, and well-supported.

Qualifications

Master's degree in Business Administration, Management Information Systems, Human Resources, Computer Science or a related discipline, including an advanced Product Owner certification (e.g., ACSPO) and eight years of related experience working with academic enterprise applications, preferably in post-secondary education or public domain, or an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.

• In-depth understanding of policies governing academic and human relations, collective agreements, academic planning, reporting, budget management, research and teaching in order to lead academic systems development and data services.
• Strong knowledge of enterprise system development and management, business analysis, IT project management, and system design.
• Strong understanding of Agile principles and practices; experience working in Agile frameworks (Scrum, Kanban) and familiarity with software development processes, tools (e.g., JIRA, Trello, Confluence, MS Teams).
• Strong business analysis skills.
• Strong product ownership skills, with proven ability to successfully manage a backlog.

What We Offer

At SFU, our goal is to ensure our people are valued and supported by promoting a healthy work-life balance, professional growth and development, as well as a safe and respectful workplace. We offer temporary employees who belong in the Administrative & Professional Staff Association (APSA):

• An additional 7% pay in lieu of benefits & 8% vacation pay
• Employer paid extended health & dental plans
• Professional development funds (minimum contract period of 1 year)
• Hybrid-work program for eligible positions

Additional Information

The assignment end date is March 31, 2028.