Product Owner, WHODrug

What we do and why it is important
Uppsala Monitoring Centre (UMC) is a centre for international service and scientific research in the field of pharmacovigilance. We are the WHO Collaborating Centre for International Drug Monitoring and have managed the technical and operational aspects of the WHO Programme for International Drug Monitoring (PIDM) since 1978. As an independent, non-profit organisation, we support the World Health Organization, regulatory authorities, and other stakeholders who share our vision of advancing medicines safety. Through research and development of new scientific methods, we explore the benefits and harms of medicines for patients and offer products and services used by health authorities and the pharmaceutical industry worldwide.

Why we are looking for you
Demand for UMC products is growing, with more markets opening up and new opportunities emerging every day. We need another product owner with knowledge and experience in software development to help us keep pace with developments in emerging markets and align our product features with internal and external expectations.

What you will do and why
In this role, you will work with the commercial side of our product portfolio as well as services around WHODrug Global and standardised medicinal product information. You will be mainly responsible for understanding and supporting our strategies, objectives, and overall activities. This entails promoting awareness of pharmacovigilance, the WHO PIDM, and UMC Products and Services, ensuring organisational buy-in and support, and embracing the contribution of the product portfolio to overall organisational success. You will be an ambassador for the products in our portfolio and represent the organisation to external parties. You will act as a leader within our organisation and contribute to a positive working environment while promoting a culture of excellence, continuous improvement, and putting customers first. In this sense it is important that you apply lean and agile principles: Build, Measure, Learn.

You will be responsible for:

- Supporting the portfolio manager in transforming customer needs to roadmaps and product backlog items.
- Managing the product backlog in compliance with roadmaps, time constraints, budget, and prioritisations.
- Providing a single point of contact to the development team to handle their questions, priorities, and concerns.
- Supporting the product portfolio manager in promotion and onboarding.

What you will do day-to-day:

- Cooperating with the product specialist and product manager to develop the product.
- Being the go-to-person for the development team.
- Communicating with users about products and receiving feedback.
- Analysing external feedback and creating organisational buy-in for new features.
- Cooperating with experts in regulatory authorities and the pharmaceutical industry to understand their requirements.


Qualifications you will need to have:

- Bachelor or master’s degree in engineering, data science, or similar field.
- Extensive experience with developing software-based products and/or SaaS solutions.
- Experience working within agile settings and understanding of and familiarity with system engineering concepts, MVP, and business model canvas and product canvas tools.
- Experience of working in a regulatory environment and communicating with different industries.
- Experience with product planning processes and product feature development.
- Experience with or at least working knowledge of quality and compliance standards to help ensure our products are developed in accordance with those standards.


Qualities we would like you to have:

- Exceptional communicative skills - the ability to communicate clearly, motivate and inspire enthusiasm, listen, interpret, and translate customers' needs.
- Happy, optimistic, and positive mindset, combined with a strong self-confidence and self-reflection, to step up and drive change.
- Proactive attitude in dealing with problems head-on and moving forward even if processes are not formally in place.
- Ability to build credibility by interpreting internal stakeholders' concerns, creating buy-in for solutions, and adapting the value message for customers accordingly.
- Analytical skills to anticipate and resolve problems and the pragmatic attitude to pursue resolving actions.
- Creativity to develop solutions and new product innovations based upon internal and external stakeholders' feedback.
- Commercial and service-minded philosophy to serve and develop our customers.
- Commitment, drive, but most of all the social skills to work as part of a team.


It is an advantage if you have:

- Experience of working with or an active interest in a pharmaceutical/CRO/life sciences industry or similar.
- Any language skills in addition to English.


Questions about this job?

For questions about the position, you are warmly welcomed to contact our recruiting partner Rolf Kusch at rolf@peopsrelations.se, M: +46 (0)722-14 52 44.
UMC follows a collective agreement. You can reach the Union representatives by calling the UMC switchboard at +46 (0)18-65 60 60.

More about UMC

Located in the heart of Uppsala, three minutes away from the central station, we are currently around 140 employees and consultants and have generous employee-benefit policies.