Product Manager

Summary

Are you a Japanese insurance industry professional with crossover business knowledge and technical capability? Do you have great interpersonal skills, the ability to dig into detail and a focus on customer value? Are you looking for a new challenge? Then join us at Guidewire Software and help build the next generation of insurance solutions for the Japanese market.

Our APAC development centres are responsible for developing and delivering software that leverages and extends the business value of our Core Product suite to global insurance markets. Our centres include teams delivering key market-specific and business-specific functionality as a critical layer of added value designed to meet the varying needs of our diverse customer community.

The Product Owner is responsible for bridging the gap between business needs and technical solutions in Guidewire’s product development environment collaborating with cross-functional teams, ensuring that technical solutions align with business requirements.

The Product Owner plays a critical role defining user stories, acceptance criteria, and facilitating communication between UX, development teams, product managers and other internal stakeholders.

Job Description

As a key member of our team you will:

• Collaborate with stakeholders to understand business objectives, processes, and requirements.

• Work closely with Product Managers, Business Analysts and development teams to refine the product backlog and define user stories with clear acceptance criteria.

• Assist the product manager to facilitate requirement-gathering sessions, workshops, and stakeholder interviews.

• Assist the product manager with impact analysis and feasibility assessments for new initiatives and product enhancements.

• Act as a representative of Product Management ensuring alignment and understanding by technical teams.

• Support Agile ceremonies, including sprint planning, backlog grooming, daily stand-ups, and retrospectives and assist in identifying process improvements.

• Define data, workflow, and system interaction requirements as needed.

• Validate solutions by performing user acceptance testing (UAT) and assisting in the resolution of defects.

• Develop and maintain documentation, including user stories, process flows, and system diagrams and contribute to customer documentation

• Work with quality teams to ensure requirements are testable and meet business expectations.

We have a work environment that encourages individual initiative, experiments with new ideas for continuous improvement, and lets great people do great work by minimizing the hassles of hierarchy and bureaucracy. You must be self-motivated and able to work with minimal supervision while collaborating in a team environment, communicating effectively with developers, business analysts and product managers.

Required Skills & Qualifications:

• Educational Background: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Business Administration, or a related field.

• Experience: 3+ years of experience in a Product Owner or similar role within an Agile development environment. Insurance industry experience.

• Technical Skills:

  • Strong understanding of software development life cycle (SDLC) and Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, etc.).

  • Experience with tools like Aha, Jira, Confluence, and other Agile project management tools.

  • Basic understanding of databases, APIs, system integrations, and data analysis.

  • Ability to read and interpret technical documents, system architecture diagrams, and wireframes.

  • Knowledge of coding, SQL, XML, JSON, or scripting languages is a plus.

• Business & Analytical Skills:

  • Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.

  • Ability to translate complex business requirements into implementable user stories.

  • Strong attention to detail with a focus on delivering high-quality solutions.

  • Previous work in the insurance industry is highly valued

• Soft Skills:

  • Good communication and stakeholder management skills.

  • Ability to work collaboratively in a cross-functional team.

  • Facilitation and negotiation skills.

  • Self-motivated, proactive, and adaptable to change.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Certification in Agile methodologies (e.g., Certified Scrum Master, Certified Scrum Product Owner, PMI-ACP, IIBA Agile Analysis Certification).

• Experience in cloud-based solutions, SaaS platforms, or enterprise software development.

• Familiarity with UI/UX principles and user-centered design methodologies.

This role is ideal for professionals who thrive in dynamic, fast-paced environments and are passionate about delivering high-quality software solutions that meet both business and user needs.

About Guidewire

Guidewire is the platform P&C insurers trust to engage, innovate, and grow efficiently. We combine digital, core, analytics, and AI to deliver our platform as a cloud service. More than 540+ insurers in 40 countries, from new ventures to the largest and most complex in the world, run on Guidewire.

As a partner to our customers, we continually evolve to enable their success. We are proud of our unparalleled implementation track record with 1600+ successful projects, supported by the largest R&D team and partner ecosystem in the industry. Our Marketplace provides hundreds of applications that accelerate integration, localization, and innovation.

For more information, please visit www.guidewire.com and follow us on Twitter: @Guidewire_PandC.

Guidewire Software, Inc. is proud to be an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. We are committed to an inclusive workplace, and believe that a diversity of perspectives, abilities, and cultures is a key to our success. Qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, citizenship, marital status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, or disability. All offers are contingent upon passing a criminal history and other background checks where it's applicable to the position.