Product Owner (Business Analyst)

Company Description

Citizant is a leading provider of professional IT services to the U.S. government. We seek to address some of our country's most pressing challenges in the areas of Agile application development, Enterprise Data Management, Enterprise Architecture, and Program Management support services - focusing on the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security and Treasury. We strive to hire only ethical, talented, passionate, and committed "A Players" who already align with the company's core values: Drive, Excellence, Reputation, Responsibility, and a Better Future. No matter how large we grow, Citizant will retain its collaborative, supportive, small-company culture, where successful team effort to address external and internal customer challenges is valued above all individual contributions.

About the Role

We are seeking a Product Owner (Business Analyst) to help lead the end-to-end delivery of digital products and capabilities-from concept and planning through deployment, integration, sustainment, and continuous improvement. This role partners closely with technical delivery teams, cybersecurity, data, and enterprise architecture stakeholders to ensure products are secure, compliant, user-ready, and mission-aligned.

You'll translate stakeholder needs into clear requirements and a prioritized backlog, support governance and lifecycle planning, and ensure delivery teams execute effectively through testing, releases, training, and ongoing enhancements.

Key Responsibilities

Own Product Planning and Governance

• Drive strategic alignment and lifecycle planning, including business case support, risk management, role clarity, governance mechanisms, comprehensive project plans, and stakeholder commitment (with appropriate approvals before development begins).
• Maintain a prioritized product backlog and support delivery planning aligned to mission needs, user feedback, and performance outcomes.

Requirements, User Experience, and Backlog Management

• Elicit and document functional and non-functional requirements, user personas, epics/user stories, and acceptance criteria.
• Collaborate on wireframes/mockups and ensure accessibility requirements are incorporated (e.g., WCAG / Section 508).
• Ensure requirements and workflow designs align to enterprise architecture, security, and data standards in coordination with cybersecurity, data, and enterprise teams.

Support Delivery, Integration, and Release Execution

• Partner with engineering teams to support development/configuration of applications, integrations, workflows, and APIs using approved technologies and secure coding/DevSecOps best practices.
• Support delivery teams through test planning and execution (unit, integration, regression, and UAT), including automation where feasible.
• Contribute to CI/CD and release-readiness activities, including deployment planning, release notes, and coordination with stakeholders.

Sustainment, Continuous Improvement, and Operational Readiness

• Support production operations, including monitoring, incident/problem awareness, and minor enhancements (in partnership with operations).
• Proactively help identify technical debt, performance issues, and opportunities for automation and simplification.
• Develop and deliver training, user guides, and support materials to enable day-to-day product use and ongoing operations.

Required Experience

• 10+ years product ownership/BA; 5+ years federal agile delivery; Agile delivery, requirements, backlog, UAT
• Proficiency with applicable project management tools and technology.
• Familiar with Microsoft-aligned products like Power Platform, M365/MS Teams, and AVD
• Expertise in Atlassian suite products, Azure, JAMF, Okta
• Experience serving as a Product Owner, Business Analyst, or hybrid PO/BA supporting digital product delivery (requirements ? backlog ? delivery ? release ? sustainment).
• Strong requirements skills: user stories/epics, acceptance criteria, backlog grooming/prioritization, stakeholder facilitation.
• Experience collaborating with engineering teams in secure SDLC/DevSecOps environments and supporting test/UAT planning.

Preferred / Strongly Desired

• Familiarity with CI/CD delivery concepts and release management coordination.
• Experience working with accessibility requirements (WCAG / Section 508).

Education

• Master's degree in Business, Information Systems, IT, Computer Science, or a related field (or equivalent relevant experience).

Certifications

• CSPO/PSPO; Agile, CMMI
• ITIL Foundation (helpful in operational/sustainment environments).

Security Requirements

• U.S. Citizenship required
• Ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust background investigation

Citizant offers a competitive benefits package, including:

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k)
• Generous PTO
• Company-paid life and disability insurance
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Tuition Assistance & Professional Development Program

Additional information

Citizant strives to be an employer of choice in the Washington metropolitan area. Citizant associates accept challenging and rewarding work and in return receive excellent compensation and benefits, as well as the opportunity for personal and professional development.

Citizant is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran status, or disability status.