Product Owner

Practice Group / Department:

Job Description

Norton Rose Fulbright is a global law firm with more than 3,000 lawyers advising clients across locations in the United States, Europe, Canada, Latin America, Asia, Australia, Africa and the Middle East. We provide the world's preeminent corporations and financial institutions with a full business law service.

With over 50 offices and 7,000 employees worldwide, our culture is the thread that connects us, as well as our values of unity, quality and integrity. Our strategy and culture are connected - defined by shared ambition, global collaboration and a one-team mindset. We believe pioneering work happens when people are empowered to think beyond boundaries, explore new opportunities and grow through diverse experiences.

Alongside the right skills and experience, we look for people who are innovative, commercially minded, and motivated by the impact of the work they do - ready to share in our ambition and help shape what comes next.

Because while individuals can do well, together we achieve something extraordinary.

The Role

The Finance Systems Team is responsible for supporting the core EMEA finance system (Aderant Sierra), including time, billing, expenses, vendors, tax and reporting. We are seeking an experienced Product Owner, with Aderant and Finance Operations experience, to join our EMEA team.

This is a key role in driving and supporting the function of the firm's EMEA finance systems and will engage stakeholders and translate business needs to manage backlog and deliver required features, and ongoing improvement, encompassing user support, application support, operational support, project work, development and testing, change control and documentation.

Key Responsibilities

• Team Management: help build a team and oversee the daily work, performance and development of that team.
• Collaboration and Stakeholder Management: act as the key interface among Finance and Accounting, IT and business stakeholders to ensure alignment, delivery and improvement of financial systems services and application(s).
• Vendor Management: engage and work with third party providers and support, including management of financial system subscriptions, and collaboration on platform maintenance and optimisation activities.
• Business Process Management: understand financial processes and regulations, and supervise documentation of user support processes, procedures, policies, templates and reports in line with the firm's management requirements and standards.
• Application Management: oversee provision of application support, including tracking query volumes, response times and delivery standards, and scheduled and batch processing of necessary tasks and reporting such as period-end reporting and close.
• User Requirements Planning and Management: identify, assess and select opportunities and user requirements for process and system enhancements and testing, and translate these into technical specifications for related integrations, customisations and user support.
• Project and Continuous Improvement Management: provide careful oversight, prioritise and plan delivery of technical solutions and product customisations, which meet business needs, have maximum usability and provide fit-for-purpose operations.
• Release Management: plan, schedule and control the release of application updates and customisations, coordinating with other relevant parts of the business.

Skills and Experience Required

We are seeking a confident, proactive, and solutions-oriented individual with experience working with financial systems and finance operations, ideally within a law firm or other professional services environment.

You will need to be able to communicate effectively with a range of stakeholders at all levels across the business, particularly in Finance and Accounting, and IT departments.

You'll also need the following skills and experience:

• Ideally degree educated in finance, accounting and/or information systems management and/or 10+ years of experience in similar roles.
• Experience managing a team with a diverse range of skills and experience.
• A solid understanding of core finance processes (general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, budgeting, forecasting, reporting).
• Experience and/or expertise in finance practice management systems (FPMS).
• Experience with in a law firm or other professional services environment.
• Some experience or background in technical change management and control, including working within structured ITSM frameworks, such as ITIL.
• Prior experience using Aderant Expert or Sierra is highly advantageous, however, work with other finance systems and/or ERP platforms is also suitable (e.g. SAP, Oracle, D365, Workday, Net Suite or similar).
• Knowledge and/or experience with Agile would be helpful.
• Strategic and operational decision-making skills.
• Solutions-orientated and proactive approach to work.
• Able to demonstrate high levels of discretion, sensitivity and…