Product Owner: Market Maker & Options Clearing (VP)

About this role: Wells Fargo is seeking a Lead Business Execution Consultant, an experienced Product Owner (individual contributor) for planning, coordination, and delivering enhancements across Market Maker Clearing, Options Clearing, Trade Processing, Regulatory Reporting, Reconciliation, and Post-Trade Operations. The Product Owner manages product demand and the backlog, documents requirements, drives Agile delivery, coordinates stakeholders, leads testing and release readiness, and provides executive reporting to support successful execution of strategic, operational, and regulatory initiatives. In this role, you will: Lead delivery management activities for assigned product capabilities within the Securities and Prime Services organization, partnering with global product managers and technology teams to manage execution, dependencies, risks, and delivery commitments. Functional and Technical Skills  Product Ownership •  Execute the product roadmap across Market Maker Clearing, Options Clearing, Equity Clearing, Trade Processing, Reconciliation, Regulatory Reporting, and Post-Trade Operations. •  Evaluate business requests, operational needs, stakeholder feedback, control requirements, and regulatory obligations to prioritize the backlog and plan delivery. •  Manage the product demand and intake process, ensuring requests are documented, assessed, tracked, prioritized, and routed appropriately. •  Maintain visibility into product initiatives, outcomes, dependencies, milestones, capacity, risks, assumptions, and delivery commitments. •  Manage quarterly planning activities, including Big Room Planning (BRP), capacity reviews, dependency management, prioritization, and roadmap coordination. •  Partner with Product Managers to define intended outcomes, clarify scope and acceptance measures, evaluate solution options, and drive delivery from concept through implementation. •  Assess impacts across business processes, technology platforms, operating models, controls, regulatory reporting, and client or counterparty servicing. Agile Delivery and Requirements Management •  Create, refine, and maintain Capabilities, Epics, Features, User Stories, business requirements, acceptance criteria, and process flows in Jira. •  Partner with Business Analysts and Technology teams to translate complex business and operational needs into clear, testable, and actionable work items. •  Own backlog refinement and prioritization; lead or support sprint planning, story reviews, retrospectives, backlog reviews, and daily scrum meetings as needed. •  Track delivery progress, resolve gaps, and identify and escalate risks, issues, assumptions, and dependencies in a timely manner. •  Evaluate solution options and document impacts to clearing workflows, operational processes, controls, data, and downstream consumers. Testing, Release Readiness and Production Governance •  Lead or coordinate user acceptance testing, test planning, traceability, evidence management, defect triage, production validation, and post-implementation reviews. •  Coordinate implementation planning, release readiness, stakeholder communications, training materials, rollout activities, support procedures, and production preparedness. •  Ensure processes, controls, support procedures, business continuity considerations, and target operating models are documented and validated before implementation. •  Support root cause analysis, incident remediation, production issues, audit and compliance requests, and sustainable corrective actions. Stakeholder Coordination and Governance •  Coordinate Product, Technology, Operations, Finance, Risk, Compliance, Business, and Control stakeholders to drive delivery activities and decisions. •  Lead working sessions, planning meetings, governance reviews, execution checkpoints, and cross-workstream coordination. •  Maintain action, decision, issue, risk, assumption, and dependency logs; establish clear owners and drive timely resolution of blockers. •  Manage and respond to internal and external inquiries related to product capabilities, delivery commitments, controls, and ongoing initiatives. Process Improvement, Data, Automation and AI Enablement •  Identify and execute opportunities to simplify, standardize, automate, and scale product and operational processes. •  Use automation, analytics, workflow solutions, and AI-enabled tools to reduce manual effort, strengthen controls, improve delivery efficiency, and enhance decision-making. •  Develop dashboards, metrics, and management reporting covering roadmap delivery, testing, capacity, risks, controls, and operational readiness. •  Use AI-supported documentation, analysis, planning, testing, reporting, and communication judiciously, with appropriate review for accuracy, context, privacy, security, and regulatory requirements. Executive Communication •  Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to engage credibly with product specialists, clearing and operations teams, technology partners, control functions, and senior leaders across global businesses. •  Create concise, executive-ready presentations and updates that clearly explain business outcomes, delivery status, trade-offs, risks, dependencies, and decisions required. •  Translate complex clearing, platform, operational, and regulatory issues into clear, outcome-oriented conversations and practical recommendations. •  Build trusted relationships and strong communication channels across business, operations, product, technology, risk, compliance, and control partners. •  Influence without direct authority and drive alignment in a global, highly matrixed organization. Change Mindset, Collaboration and Ownership •  Work effectively at the intersection of clearing domain expertise, product ownership, business analysis, and delivery management. •  Demonstrate intellectual curiosity and seek to understand end-to-end business processes, technology platforms, data flows, controls, and operational workflows. •  Run toward complex problems, challenge assumptions constructively, identify root causes, and develop practical solutions. •  Collaborate across global teams to shape solutions, resolve dependencies, gain stakeholder alignment, and drive decisions through implementation. •  Operate with ownership, accountability, sound judgment, attention to detail, and a bias toward action, while managing multiple priorities with limited oversight. •  Demonstrate adaptability and continuous learning, including responsible adoption of emerging automation, analytics, and AI capabilities. Risk and Control Mindset •  Embed risk and control considerations into product design, backlog prioritization, requirements, testing, release readiness, and implementation. •  Ensure product capabilities and delivery processes comply with applicable regulatory, operational, governance, resiliency, data security, privacy, and internal risk-framework requirements. •  Identify and escalate delivery, operational, conduct, technology, data, and regulatory risks in a timely manner. •  Support audit, compliance, resiliency, control remediation, and business continuity activities, ensuring actions are traceable and sustainably closed. •  Ensure responsible use of AI and automation with appropriate awareness of data privacy, information security, ethical, governance, and regulatory requirements. Required Qualifications: 5+ years of Business Execution, Implementation, or Strategic Planning experience, or equivalent demonstrated through one or a combination of the following: work experience, training, military experience, education MBA or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience. 5+ years of mandatory experience across Capital Markets, Securities Processing, Equities, Listed Options, Clearing, Trade Processing, Post-Trade Operations, Product Management, or related functions. Experience supporting equity and/or listed options clearing workflows, with knowledge of trade lifecycle processing and operational controls. 5+ years of experience working with Agile delivery methodologies, Jira, business analysis, requirements management, backlog management, and cross-functional execution. Proven ability to manage multiple initiatives, solve complex problems, and deliver – from concept through implementation. Strong organizational, planning, analytical, problem-solving, negotiation, and stakeholder-management skills. Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to create executive-ready presentations and present information to persuade, educate, and enhance understanding at all levels. Ability to work effectively in a demanding, fast-paced, global environment, handling multiple priorities while maintaining quality, accuracy, integrity, accountability, and attention to detail. Advanced Microsoft Office skills, including PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Experience identifying and driving process improvements in complex environments. Desired Qualifications: Direct experience with Options Clearing, including listed options lifecycle events, OCC workflows, allocations, exercise and assignment, settlement, reconciliation, and related controls. Experience with Market Maker Clearing, Equity Clearing, Trade Processing, Regulatory Reporting, Reconciliation, or Post-Trade Operations. Experience consulting with internal clients and business partners and working successfully with all levels of leadership. Experience delivering regulatory, compliance, audit, resiliency, or control-remediation initiatives. Demonstrated success leveraging automation, AI tools, analytics, workflow technologies, dashboards, metrics, or low-code platforms to improve outcomes. Experience with front to back testing governance, operational readiness, production support, service management, quarterly planning, capacity management, prioritization, and delivery governance. Data mining, mod