Salesforce Product Owner

Department: Cross Functional Classification: Info Technology Spec 2 Job Category: Classified Staff Job Type: Full-Time Work Schedule: Full-time (1.0 FTE, 40 hrs/wk) Location: Fairfax, VA Workplace Type: Hybrid Eligible Sponsorship Eligibility: Not eligible for visa sponsorship Pay Band: 05 Salary: Salary commensurate with education and experience Criminal Background Check: Yes About the Department: In collaboration with the George Mason University community, and as part of the Office of the Provost, the Division for Enrollment Management optimizes student recruitment and retention by developing and implementing strategic enrollment plans, overseeing the admissions process, providing financial aid services, and managing the Mason Student Services Center—a centralized student services resource. The Division’s activities support the achievement of institutional enrollment goals by placing the student (and family) at the center of our work, supporting a culture of transparency, and leveraging data to inform decision-making About the Position: The Salesforce Product Owner serves as the critical bridge between business stakeholders in assigned university divisions and the technical development teams within the Patriot Connect / Salesforce Center of Excellence. This role ensures that Salesforce solutions are effectively designed, prioritized, and delivered to support institutional processes and student success outcomes across the full student lifecycle. Working within an Agile delivery model, the Product Owner owns and manages the product backlog for one or more assigned functional areas, such as student success (appointment scheduling), recruitment and admissions, event management, or case management, translating complex university operations into actionable user stories and acceptance criteria. The role collaborates closely with subject matter experts, business analysts, solution architects, and scrum teams to ensure the Salesforce platform continuously delivers maximum value. Responsibilities: Product Backlog Management & Agile Delivery: • Own, maintain, and continuously groom the product backlog for assigned functional area(s) within the Salesforce ecosystem; • Translate business needs into clear, well-scoped user stories with well-defined acceptance criteria, ensuring items are properly sized and sprint-ready; • Continuously prioritize backlog items based on business value, technical feasibility, regulatory requirements, and strategic alignment; • Collaborate with business analysts to ensure comprehensive and accurate requirements documentation; • Participate actively in all Agile ceremonies: sprint planning, daily standups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives; • Provide real-time clarification on requirements and make timely product decisions during active development cycles; • Conduct or support user acceptance testing to confirm deliverables meet defined business expectations and acceptance criteria; and • Manage intake processes using tools such as Agile Accelerator, Jira, Azure DevOps, etc., to track requests from submission through delivery. Stakeholder Engagement & Requirements: • Serve as the primary liaison between assigned functional unit(s) and the Patriot Connect product management team; • Conduct regular meetings with department heads, staff, and end users to understand business needs, pain points, and process improvement opportunities; • Facilitate requirements gathering sessions, workshops, user story mapping exercises, and process walkthroughs; • Build and maintain strong working relationships with key stakeholders to ensure ongoing collaboration, transparency, and buy-in; • Communicate product updates, release plans, sprint outcomes, and roadmap changes clearly to functional unit leadership and end users; • Advise stakeholders on Salesforce platform capabilities, best practices, constraints, and tradeoffs to support informed decision-making; • Champion user-centered design principles and advocate for optimal end-user experience in all solution decisions; and • Support change management efforts within assigned functional areas, including documentation of process changes and readiness activities. Cross-Functional Collaboration & Platform Alignment: • Collaborate actively with fellow Product Owners to contribute to the unified Salesforce platform roadmap maintained by the Head of Product Management; • Participate in regular product management team meetings to align priorities, resolve cross-functional conflicts, and maintain cohesive platform direction; • Coordinate cross-functional features and integrations that span multiple university divisions or Salesforce clouds; • Partner with solution architects to validate technical approaches, integration design decisions, and long-term scalability considerations; • Collaborate with IT teams on data integration, security, compliance, and identity requirements affecting assigned functional areas; • Work with the data and analytics team to define success measures, track adoption and usage, and identify opportunities for platform improvement; and • Balance competing functional unit needs and participate in trade-off decisions that benefit the overall platform strategy. User Experience & Process Optimization: • Analyze current business processes within assigned functional areas and identify opportunities for improvement through Salesforce solutions; • Conduct user research, gather stakeholder feedback, and synthesize findings to inform ongoing product decisions and backlog prioritization; • Document and communicate process changes resulting from new system implementations or enhancements; • Support training and adoption efforts for new features and functionality, partnering with change management and training resources as needed; and • Monitor post-release outcomes including adoption rates, efficiency gains, and user satisfaction to inform future prioritization. Platform & Domain Knowledge Development: • Maintain current knowledge of Salesforce platform capabilities, Education Cloud updates, and Salesforce release cycles that affect assigned functional areas; • Stay informed on higher education trends, student lifecycle best practices, and relevant regulatory requirements (e.g., FERPA, ADA); and • Participate in Salesforce community events, training, and certification activities as appropriate to the role. Required Qualifications: • Bachelor’s degree in related field, or the equivalent combination of education and experience; • Considerable experience in a Product Owner, Business Analyst, or related product or technology delivery role; • Demonstrated experience writing user stories, defining acceptance criteria, and managing a product backlog in an Agile or iterative delivery environment; • Experience working directly with business stakeholders to gather requirements, facilitate workshops, and translate needs into actionable technical specifications; • Experience collaborating within cross-functional teams including developers, architects, QA, and business representatives; • Experience using Agile delivery tools such as Jira, Azure DevOps, Smartsheet, or equivalent platforms; • Knowledge of product ownership principles and practices, including backlog management, user story writing, acceptance criteria definition, and sprint-based delivery; • Knowledge of Agile and Scrum methodologies, including familiarity with standard ceremonies (sprint planning, standups, reviews, retrospectives) and team roles; • Knowledge of Salesforce platform capabilities and core functionality sufficient to engage meaningfully with development teams and architect discussions; • Knowledge of higher education business processes, particularly within the student lifecycle (e.g., recruitment, admissions, advising, coaching, student success, event management, or case management); • Skill in translating complex business requirements into clear, actionable user storie