Carl Zeiss - Engineering Product Owner - Vision Care Solutions

Engineering Product Owner.

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 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.