What part will you play? If you’re looking for a place where you can make a meaningful difference, you’ve found it.
The work we do at Markel gives people the confidence to move forward and seize opportunities, and you’ll find your fit amongst our global community of optimists and problem-solvers. We’re always pushing each other to go further because we believe that when we realize our potential, we can help others reach theirs.
Join us and play your part in something special!
The Product Owner for the Workers Compensation team is responsible for maximizing the value delivered through ongoing enhancements, defect remediation, and incremental improvements to the Workers Compensation platform. This role serves as the primary bridge between business stakeholders and delivery teams, ensuring priorities are clearly defined, work is well‑sequenced, and outcomes align with business objectives and underwriting needs. The Product Owner owns the team backlog end‑to‑end and is accountable for clarity, prioritization, and acceptance of delivered work.
Key Responsibilities
Product Ownership & Backlog Management
- Own and manage the Workers Compensation backlog, ensuring work items are clearly defined, prioritized, and aligned to business value.
- Translate enhancement requests, operational needs, and stakeholder feedback into well‑written epics, features, and user stories with clear acceptance criteria.
- Make priority trade‑offs to balance enhancements, defects, technical debt, and operational work.
- Serve as the single point of accountability for backlog readiness and delivery acceptance.
Business Partnership & Value Delivery
- Ensure enhancements improve usability, efficiency, accuracy, and overall platform effectiveness.
- Communicate vision, priorities, and progress clearly to stakeholders and the delivery team.
- Validate that delivered work meets acceptance criteria and achieves intended outcomes before acceptance.
Agile Execution & Team Collaboration
- Actively participate in Agile ceremonies, including backlog refinement, sprint planning, reviews, and retrospectives.
- Provide timely clarification and decisions to keep the team moving and reduce delivery friction.
- Collaborate with Business Analysts, Agile Delivery Lead, and technical team members to support effective solution design and execution.
- Monitor delivery progress and proactively identify risks, dependencies, or impediments.
Continuous Improvement & Operational Excellence
- Identify opportunities to streamline processes, reduce manual effort, and improve overall platform efficiency through targeted enhancements.
- Use metrics, feedback, and operational insights to inform backlog prioritization and continuous improvement.
- Support production readiness, release coordination, and post‑deployment validation as needed.
Required Qualifications
- 5+ years of experience in a Product Owner, Business Analyst, or similar product delivery role, preferably in insurance or financial services.
- Strong understanding of Agile delivery practices and backlog management.
- Experience supporting enhancement‑driven teams (vs. greenfield product builds).
- Ability to translate complex business needs into actionable backlog items.
- Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.
- Experience working closely with technology teams to deliver system enhancements.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with underwriting platforms, policy systems, or operational insurance tools.
- Familiarity with Policy Administration systems, workflow and/or operational platforms.
- Experience balancing BAU work with enhancement and improvement initiatives.
- Familiarity with NCCI and Bureau knowledge
Key Competencies
- Ownership and accountability
- Decisive prioritization
- Business and technical fluency
- Clear communication and collaboration
- Continuous improvement mindset
#LI-Hybrid
#LI-SY
US Work Authorization
US Work Authorization required. Markel does not provide visa sponsorship for this position, now or in the future.
Pay information:
The base salary offered for the successful candidate will be based on compensable factors such as job-relevant education, job-relevant experience, training, demonstrated competencies, geographic location, and other factors. The base salary range for the Product Owner position is $92k/year - $127k/year with a 15% bonus potential.
Markel Group (NYSE – MKL) a fortune 500 company with over 60 offices in 20+ countries, is a holding company for insurance, reinsurance, specialist advisory and investment operations around the world.
We’re all about people | We win together | We strive for better
We enjoy the everyday | We think further
In keeping with the values of the Markel Style, we strive to support our employees in living their lives to the fullest at home and at work.
All full-time employees have the option to select from multiple health, dental and vision insurance plan options and optional life, disability, and AD&D insurance.
We also offer a 401(k) with employer match contributions, an Employee Stock Purchase Plan, PTO, corporate holidays and floating holidays, parental leave.
Are you ready to play your part?
Choose ‘Apply Now’ to fill out our short application, so that we can find out more about you.
Caution: Employment scams
Markel is aware of employment-related scams where scammers will impersonate recruiters by sending fake job offers to those actively seeking employment in order to steal personal information. Frequently, the scammer will reach out to individuals who have posted their resume online. These "job offers" include convincing offer letters and frequently ask for confidential personal information. Therefore, for your safety, please note that:
Markel is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate or allow discrimination on the basis of any protected characteristic. This includes race; color; sex; religion; creed; national origin or place of birth; ancestry; age; disability; affectional or sexual orientation; gender expression or identity; genetic information, sickle cell trait, or atypical hereditary cellular or blood trait; refusal to submit to genetic tests or make genetic test results available; medical condition; citizenship status; pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions; marital status, civil union status, domestic partnership status, familial status, or family responsibilities; military or veteran status, including unfavorable discharge from military service; personal appearance, height, or weight; matriculation or political affiliation; expunged juvenile records; arrest and court records where prohibited by applicable law; status as a victim of domestic or sexual violence; public assistance status; order of protection status; status as a smoker or nonsmoker; membership or activity in local commissions; the use or nonuse of lawful products off employer premises during non-work hours; declining to attend meetings or participate in communications about religious or political matters; or any other classification protected by applicable law.
Should you require any accommodation through the application process, please send an e-mail to the rarecruiting@markel.com.
No agencies please.
