Principal Product Owner

About us

Every day, National Grid delivers safe, reliable energy to millions of homes and businesses across the UK and US. As the energy landscape evolves our mission is to lead the transition to a more sustainable future.

IT and Digital supports this mission by providing innovative technology services to our business units. Embracing Agile and digital-first approaches, our teams drive efficiency and deliver new capabilities that meet the needs of our customers.

This role plays a vital part in helping National Grid deliver clean, fair, and affordable energy for all. You'll be supported in your professional growth as part of a diverse, customer-focused global team.

National Grid is hiring a Principal Product Owner for IT Service Management (ITSM) & IT Operations Management (ITOM).  This is a hybrid opportunity open to our Waltham, MA and Brooklyn, NY offices.

Job Purpose

As the Product Owner for ServiceNow IT Service Management (ITSM) & IT Operations Management (ITOM), you act as the bridge between needs and wants of the IT operations customer, and the vendor’s capability roadmap. Representing the voice of the customer, you prioritize the Agile team backlog to maximise the delivery of value.

With deep ServiceNow ITSM & ITOM expertise and good knowledge of the Scale Agile Framework (SAFe), you turn complex requirements into actionable features that drive continuous improvement across the service lifecycle.

As a Principal Product Owner, you will manage and mentor other Product Owners.

Key Accountabilities

• Define solutions that are desirable, viable, feasible, and sustainable to meet the needs of ITSM & ITOM enterprise service owners, consumers, and stakeholders.
• Bridge the gap between ServiceNow’s ITSM & ITOM capability roadmap, market trends, organizational capability, and the operational customer’s needs and desires.
• Translate ServiceNow’s ITSM & ITOM workflow capabilities into opportunities to create business value and address operational needs.
• Manage intake and demand across ITSM & ITOM service owners and consumers, negotiating with the ServiceNow Platform Team for delivery of the backlog.
• Advocate for and maintain the ITSM & ITOM feature backlog to ensure value is delivered to the enterprise by implementing features that solve problems and deliver benefits.
• Challenge legacy ITSM processes and propose improvements aligned with emerging platform capabilities.
• Design and run Proof of Concept and Proof of Value initiatives to explore the feasibility and desirability of new features and capabilities.
• Support change initiatives to transform IT operations by advocating digital enablement of IT Service Management, IT Operations Management, and the introduction of AI agentic workflow automation.

Principal Product Owner – generic responsibilities

• Serve as the primary liaison between the customer and the Agile Team, ensuring that the team backlog reflects the most valuable work.
• Prioritize backlog items using economic prioritization techniques (e.g., WSJF) to maximize customer value and minimize time-to-market.
• Translate customer needs, business goals, and stakeholder feedback into clear, actionable user stories and enablers.
• Collaborate with Platform Owners to align team-level work with the broader product vision and roadmap.
• Apply Design Thinking and Lean UX to deeply understand user personas, pain points, and desired outcomes.
• Conduct Gemba walks, empathy interviews, and journey mapping to uncover unmet needs and inform backlog refinement.
• Use hypothesis-driven development to validate assumptions through MVPs and prototypes.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to synthesize insights into a shared vision and roadmap.

Qualifications

ServiceNow Expertise

• Deep understanding of ServiceNow ITSM and ITOM modules, including:
• Incident, Problem, Change, Request, and Knowledge Management
• Event Management, Service Mapping, and AIOps (CMDB Discovery is preferable not essential)
• Familiarity with ServiceNow’s platform architecture, scripting, and integration capabilities.
• Experience with ServiceNow’s roadmap and release cycles.
• Experience with Service Now’s Common Service Data Model

Certifications Required

• ServiceNow Certified Implementation Specialist – ITSM
• ServiceNow Certified Implementation Specialist – ITOM
• SAFe® Product Owner/Product Manager (POPM)
• ITIL® 4 Foundation or higher

Certification Preferred

• ServiceNow Certified System Administrator (CSA)

Agile & Product Skills

• Proven experience as a Product Owner in a scaled Agile environment (preferably SAFe).
• Strong backlog management, story writing, and prioritization skills.
• Ability to balance technical constraints with customer value.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills.

Management Experience

• At least two years’ experience of line management in a cooperate environment
• At least two years’ experience of directing small teams

More Information

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