Department:
Technology
Our Company Promise
We are committed to provide our Employees a stable work environment with equal opportunity for learning and personal growth. Creativity and innovation are encouraged for improving the effectiveness of Southwest Airlines. Above all, Employees will be provided the same concern, respect, and caring attitude within the organization that they are expected to share externally with every Southwest Customer.
Job Description:
The Sr. Product Owner leads the strategy, design, and delivery of core HR and payroll capabilities that support Southwest Airlines’ People operations. They'll partner with business and Technology Teams to translate complex requirements into scalable Workday solutions that drive compliance, accuracy, and operational efficiency. They'll prioritize enhancements, define detailed requirements, manage the product roadmap, and partner closely with the development Team while serving as the Customer proxy to ensure solutions align with program priorities and maintain technical integrity. The Sr. Product Owner is excited to mentor Product Owners and Associate Product Owners and reduce risk, improve the Employee experience, and strengthen the Company’s ability to support a dynamic and growing workforce.
This Dallas-based role is offered as a remote workplace position, which may require onsite presence / travel for trainings, meetings, conferences, etc. Outside of those required visits, the majority of your working time may be spent in an approved remote location within the Dallas - Fort Worth area.
We’re committed to fair hiring practices and to making employment decisions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, age, military or veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other legally protected characteristics.
Responsibilities
- Provide innovation and the end-to-end launch of integrated solutions/products across multiple Agile Teams
- Collaborate with Business Partners and Product Managers to co-develop a roadmap and drive products and features from concept to launch in a fast-paced environment across multiple Agile Teams
- Work with senior stakeholders and customers across the organization to inform the product vision, strategy, features, and prioritization
- Translate product roadmap features into well-defined product requirements including features, user stories, and acceptance test criteria across multiple products or complex solutions
- Turn data insights into products with actionable outcomes to the ultimate customer
- Oversee the design, construction, and implementation of integrated solutions ensuring functionality meets business requirements
- Coach and mentor other Product Owners across multiple Agile Teams to build, refine, prioritize and maintain their Team backlogs
- Review, approve, and drive iteration content by prioritizing user stories and accept user stories as complete
- Define and prioritize solutions to complex issues and effectively communicate dependencies, risks, issues and cope for complex solutions
- Coach and mentor Product Owners and Scrum Masters in the successful delivery of Scrum ceremonies such as iteration planning, iteration reviews, and demos
- May perform other job duties as directed by Employee's Leaders
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
- Ability to make decisions independently and demonstrate skills to support, guide, and mentor other Product Owners in the same business domain
- Ability to understand technical issues across multiple business systems and how business areas interact in order to drive toward the best solutions
- Ability to be analytical and problem solve with a high attention to detail
- Ability to show initiative by anticipating risks, issues and opportunities, and escalating them accordingly, while mentoring and coaching
- Skilled in presentation, facilitation, communication, and negotiation across multiple stakeholders and levels in the organization
- Ability to search for opportunities, focus on business value and the Return On Investment and act proactively on possible risks and threats
- Ability to effectively manage complex tasks that are not well defined
- Ability to balance priority, risk, value, learning opportunities and dependencies and effectively uses product / Team backlog to manage them
- Ability to effectively communicate complex problems, risks, progress, or new ideas to diverse Stakeholders and influence direction
- Knowledge of industry trends and new technologies in order to provide innovative product guidance to the Business or Product Manager
- Expertise in Agile including the value and principles, and how they are applied in enterprise environments
Education
- Required: High School Diploma or GED
- Required: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information systems or similar fields of study or equivalent advanced level experience
Experience
- Required: Advanced-level experience, seasoned and specialized knowledge in:
- Agile and Scrum software development methodologies
- Business analysis, project management or software development delivering enterprise products and solutions
- Preferred: Deep functional expertise in Workday HCM and Payroll, including Core HCM, Compensation, Time Tracking, Absence, and Payroll processing.
- Preferred: Hands‑on experience with Workday configuration, EIBs, calculated fields, business processes, security, and report development.
- Preferred: Strong understanding of end‑to‑end payroll operations, compliance requirements, tax handling, off‑cycle processing, and payroll funding workflows.
- Preferred: Experience working with or guiding Workday integrations (Payroll Interface, PECI, WECI, Orchestration, Studio, Core Connectors, integrations, etc.).
- Preferred: Ability to partner closely with business stakeholders to identify and propose Advanced AI‑driven Workday features, aligning them with business needs and adoption readiness.
- Preferred: Experience reviewing Workday R1/R2 release notes, assessing downstream impacts, and building a forward‑looking product roadmap based on new capabilities.
- Preferred: Skilled in writing clear business requirements, user stories, and acceptance criteria, especially for AI‑enabled or workflow‑enhancing features.
- Preferred: Ability to influence and guide business partners toward scalable, strategic solutions that balance user experience, compliance, and long‑term maintainability.
- Preferred: Proficiency with Agile or SAFe frameworks, including backlog prioritization and cross‑functional delivery.
- Preferred: Experience collaborating with vendor partners, peers, offshore teams, and cross‑functional Workday support groups.
- Preferred: Strong analytical skills with the ability to assess data impacts, validate payroll results, and support troubleshooting.
- Preferred: Experience with supporting tools and tech stack such as Jira, Azure, XRay, DevOps, and SharePoint.
Physical Abilities
- Ability to perform work duties from [limited space work station/desk/office area] for extended periods of time
- Ability to communicate and interact with others in the English language to meet the demands of the job
- Ability to use a computer and other office productivity tools with sufficient speed and accuracy to meet the demands of the job
Other Qualifications
- Must maintain a well-groomed appearance per Company appearance standards as described in established guidelines
- Must be a U.S. citizen or have authorization to work in the United States as defined by the Immigration Reform Act of 1986
- Must be at least 18 years of age
- Must be able to comply with Company attendance standards as described in established guidelines
- Must be able to travel and /or attend Company and non-Company facilities and remote locations such as remote-based offices as necessary
Pay & Benefits
Competitive market salary from $119,900-$133,200 per year* depending on qualifications and experience, with opportunity for future pay increases based on performance and market movement. For eligible leadership and individual contributor roles, additional bonus opportunities are available and awarded at the discretion of the company.
Benefits you’ll love:
- Fly for free, as a privilege, on any open seat on all Southwest flights (your eligible dependents too)
- Southwest will help fund your Retirement Savings Plan with Company contributions up to 9.3% of your eligible earnings**
- Potential for annual ProfitSharing contribution in the Southwest Retirement Savings Plan- when Southwest profits, you profit***
- Competitive health insurance for you and your eligible dependents (including pets)
- Southwest offers health plan coverage options that start from the very first day of employment. You will have 30 days to select and enroll in your health plan with coverage retroactively available to your first day of employment.
- Explore more Benefits you’ll love: https://careers.southwestair.com/benefits
*Pay amount doesn’t guarantee employment for any particular period of time
**401(k) match contributions are subject to the plan’s vesting schedule and applicable IRS limits
***ProfitSharing contributions are subject to plan’s vesting schedule and are made at the discretion of the Company
Southwest Airlines is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
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