Engineering Product Owner

ZEISS India

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Purpose of this position / Position summary

The Engineering Product Owner - Lifecycle owns requirement clarity, backlog readiness, and cross-functional execution for Refraction Product lifecycle management and sustaining-engineering topics in a regulated medical-device environment at Vision Care Solutions.

The role consolidates customer, service, quality, regulatory, product-management, UX, software, hardware, and systems-engineering inputs into traceable requirements, prioritized backlogs, and measurable lifecycle outcomes that improve product quality, usability, serviceability, and installed-base performance.

Primary duties and responsibilities

Lifecycle ownership and installation-base improvements

Own engineering coordination for lifecycle initiatives, installed-base enhancements, technical escalations, issue resolution, upgrades, and end-of-life actions.
Translate field feedback, complaint trends, CAPA inputs, service data, customer needs, and product priorities into clear lifecycle scope, milestones, risks, and success criteria.
Track closure effectiveness, customer impact, serviceability improvements, lessons learned, and benefit realization through agreed lifecycle metrics.

Requirement engineering and backlog ownership

Lead end-to-end requirement engineering, including elicitation, analysis, refinement, validation, signoff, and audit-ready documentation.
Convert high-level business, clinical, user, and technical needs into clear functional and non-functional requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria, and definition-of-ready expectations.
Maintain feature-to-user-story-to-acceptance-criteria traceability and ensure alignment with product intent, risk controls, verification strategy, design-transfer impact, and QMS expectations.
Own and prioritize the product/lifecycle backlog by balancing customer value, regulatory commitments, technical debt, security, usability, resource constraints, and delivery priorities.

UX, software delivery and agile execution

Collaborate with UX/UI, software, systems, hardware, architecture, test, and service teams to ensure requirements translate into feasible, user-centric, secure, and scalable solutions.
Create or review mockups, wireframes, screen flows, usability feedback, and workflow alignment before development where applicable.
Provide inputs for Agile ceremonies, sprint/program planning, backlog refinement, dependency resolution, MVP definition, roadmap planning, and release readiness.

Quality, regulatory, risk and compliance

Ensure lifecycle decisions are supported by documented rationale, traceable inputs, impact analysis, verification evidence, and appropriate quality records.
Partner with quality and regulatory teams on investigations, CAPA actions, risk management, hazard analysis, defect management, validation needs, privacy/security considerations, and release constraints.
Operate in line with applicable QMS/design-control expectations and relevant medical-device standards, including IEC 62304, ISO 13485, ISO 14971, FDA/MDR expectations, and Software as a Medical Device consideration where applicable.

Stakeholder leadership and decision support

Act as the central engineering interface between product management, business stakeholders, engineering teams, quality, regulatory, service, manufacturing, commercial, regional teams, suppliers, and external partners.
Communicate priorities, progress, risks, trade-offs, decision needs, and customer impact through concise dashboards, reviews, metrics, and leadership updates.
Use data-driven analysis to support prioritization, product maintenance decisions, troubleshooting, resource and budget planning, and continuous improvement.

Innovation and emerging technologies

Stay current with technology and industry trends and work with technical teams to introduce practical innovations that improve product outcomes and future readiness.
Identify opportunities to leverage AI/ML-enabled product capabilities and AI tools for requirement analysis, documentation efficiency, product insights, and user experience improvement.

Technical / domain skills

Strong requirement engineering, documentation, backlog management, stakeholder alignment, and product-definition skills.
Broad exposure to software delivery, systems engineering, hardware/software interfaces, product lifecycle management, and regulated product-development practices.
Working knowledge of Agile/Scrum/SAFe, sprint planning, backlog grooming, traceability, verification evidence, defect management, dashboards, and cross-functional delivery governance.
Ability to work with architecture and development teams, translate complex requirements, clarify legacy-system gaps, and drive development-ready backlog quality.
Strong analytical, problem-solving, communication, and influencing skills across global and cross-functional teams.

Education, experience and job specifications

Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Physics, or a related STEM discipline.
Typically 10 to 12 years of experience in software/product engineering, technical product development, lifecycle engineering, sustaining engineering, or regulated technology execution.
Minimum 3 to 5 years of experience as a Product Owner, Engineering Product Owner, Technical Product Owner, or equivalent requirement/product ownership role.
Hands-on experience in software development, systems engineering, hardware/software product development, or Agile delivery environments is preferred.
Experience in medical devices, digital health, optometry, ophthalmology, Vision Care, refraction/centration/diagnostic devices, clinical workflow solutions, or comparable regulated domains is preferred.

Preferred qualifications / certifications

SAFe PO/PM, PMP, ScrumMaster, Business Analysis, System Engineering, Lean, DFSS, or DFR certifications are advantageous.
Experience working with global teams, suppliers, OEM partners, contractors, external engineering providers, and cross-functional stakeholders is preferred.

Desired characteristics

Customer-focused engineering mindset with strong ownership of quality, usability, serviceability, security, compliance, and installed-base impact.
Clear, concise communicator who can influence leadership, technical teams, and business stakeholders without direct authority.
Structured, detail-oriented, and results-driven approach with the ability to manage ambiguity, competing priorities, and complex technical dependencies.
Collaborative leadership style with a continuous-improvement mindset and commitment to audit-ready execution.

Role expectations

This is an engineering ownership role accountable for lifecycle execution, requirement quality, backlog readiness, product-owner discipline, and cross-functional delivery clarity. Success requires technical judgment, QMS awareness, customer focus, stakeholder leadership, and the ability to drive decisions across global teams and regulated medical-device lifecycle programs.

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