System Product Owner

Location: Bucharest, Romania
As a System Product Owner within Thales, you will act as the primary interface between product stakeholders and the engineering team, ensuring that development activities remain aligned with product objectives, customer needs, technical constraints and delivery commitments.
1. Product Vision & Stakeholder Alignment
Contribute to the product vision and roadmap in alignment with the CPO, Initiative Owner and relevant stakeholders.
Understand customer and operational needs and translate them into clear functional and technical objectives.
Ensure alignment between system-level requirements, product priorities and engineering activities.
Act as the main functional and technical point of contact for the team, facilitating access to relevant experts when required.Collect and incorporate feedback from stakeholders, demonstrations and operational users.
2. Backlog Management & Requirements Decomposition
Own, maintain and prioritise the Team Backlog based on inputs from the CPO and Initiative Owner.
Support the decomposition of Initiatives into Epics, Epics into Features, and Features into coherent, actionable User Stories.
Ensure completeness, consistency and traceability of requirements across the development lifecycle.
Define and review User Stories and Acceptance Criteria in collaboration with engineering teams.
Continuously refine and prioritise backlog items according to business value, technical dependencies, risks and available capacity.
Accept or reject completed User Stories based on agreed Acceptance Criteria and Definition of Done.
3. Engineering Team Support & Agile Delivery
Provide continuous functional and technical clarification to the engineering team throughout the development cycle.
Collaborate with the Scrum Master to facilitate co-engineering activities, backlog refinement and Agile ceremonies.
Participate in team and Agile Release Train (ART) events, including planning, reviews and demonstrations.
Support technical decision-making, architectural alignment and the evolution of the Architectural Runway.
Identify and address functional dependencies, risks and impediments impacting delivery.
Promote Built-In Quality and ensure delivered solutions meet functional requirements and customer expectations.
4. Budget Ownership & Delivery Performance
Manage and monitor allocated budgets at Epic and Feature levels within Jira.
Ensure development scope and associated budgets remain aligned with agreed commitments.
Monitor functional and financial progress using EVM indicators and relevant delivery KPIs.Analyse deviations between planned and actual progress, identifying scope, cost and schedule impacts.
Conduct regular end-of-sprint reviews with the Initiative Owner to assess progress, budget consumption and potential scope adjustments.
Report delivery performance, financial status, risks and deviations to the IO, CPO and RTE.Contribute to corrective actions and prioritisation decisions to maintain delivery predictability.
5. Continuous Improvement & Feedback
Facilitate product and system demonstrations to gather feedback from internal and external stakeholders.
Incorporate lessons learned, customer feedback and operational insights into backlog priorities.
Promote continuous improvement in requirements quality, engineering collaboration and delivery practices.
Contribute to improving team autonomy, knowledge sharing and overall product quality.
PROFILE
You hold a Master’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science or a related technical field.
You have significant experience in Systems Engineering, Software Engineering or complex technical product development.
You have previous experience in Product Ownership, technical project management or system-level product development, ideally within an Agile environment.
You have a strong understanding of customer needs and the ability to translate them into clear technical and functional requirements.
You demonstrate strong analytical, problem-solving and decision-making skills, with the ability to manage complex systems and competing priorities.
You are an effective communicator, able to engage and align engineering teams, product stakeholders and management.
You are autonomous, proactive and comfortable taking ownership of technical and functional decisions within your scope.
You demonstrate a collaborative mindset, a customer-oriented approach and a commitment to continuous improvement.
COMPETENCIES
Systems Engineering & Technical Expertise
Solid understanding of Systems Engineering principles, requirements management, system architecture and functional decomposition.
Ability to analyse complex systems, understand dependencies between components and assess the impact of technical decisions.
Knowledge of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), UML and system modelling practices.
Understanding of system integration, verification, validation and qualification (IVVQ), as well as RAMT principles.
Familiarity with software development lifecycles, testing practices, configuration management and engineering quality standards.
Agile Product Ownership & Delivery
Strong knowledge of Agile methodologies and frameworks, including Scrum, Kanban and Agile at Scale.
Experience managing and prioritising backlogs, defining Features and User Stories, and establishing clear Acceptance Criteria.
Ability to translate Epics and Features into actionable development activities while ensuring functional and technical consistency.
Proficiency with Agile management tools, particularly Jira.
Ability to balance customer value, technical constraints, delivery capacity and project commitments.
Stakeholder & Financial Management
Ability to coordinate effectively with Coordinator Product Owners (CPO), Initiative Owners (IO), engineering teams and other stakeholders.
Understanding of budget allocation, cost tracking and financial performance monitoring at Epic and Feature levels.
Familiarity with Earned Value Management (EVM), progress reporting and variance analysis.
NICE TO HAVE
Experience in Air Traffic Management (ATM), Air Traffic Control (ATC) or other safety-critical systems.
Knowledge of complex, distributed and real-time software-intensive systems.
Experience working in international, multi-site engineering organisations.
Familiarity with SAFe or equivalent Agile-at-Scale frameworks.
Knowledge of aviation-related engineering standards and certification constraints.
At Thales, we’re committed to fostering a workplace where respect, trust, collaboration, and passion drive everything we do. Here, you’ll feel empowered to bring your best self, thrive in a supportive culture, and love the work you do. Join us, and be part of a team reimagining technology to create solutions that truly make a difference – for a safer, greener, and more inclusive world.
Thales is a global technology leader trusted by governments, institutions, and enterprises to tackle their most demanding challenges. From quantum applications and artificial intelligence to cybersecurity and 6G innovation, our solutions empower critical decisions rooted in human intelligence. Operating at the forefront of defence and security, aerospace and space, cybersecurity and digital identity, we’re driven by a mission to build a future we can all trust.
In Romania, we are advancing innovation through software engineering, research and development, delivering solutions in key markets in which Thales Group operates. Our engineers design, develop and integrate solutions that impact global industries – from fully operational systems and subsystems for naval warfare and maritime security operations, to air traffic management systems, satellite-based solutions, tactical indoor simulations, identity and biometric technologies and more.