CRM Product Owner

Howden is a global insurance group with employee ownership at its heart. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and no-limits mindset, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team comprised of 24,000 employees spanning over 56 countries.

People join Howden for many different reasons, but they stay for the same one: our culture. It’s what sets us apart, and the reason our employees have been turning down headhunters for years. Whatever your priorities – work / life balance, career progression, sustainability, volunteering – you’ll find like-minded people driving change at Howden.

CRM Product Owner – Salesforce

Location: Central London (Hybrid: 2–3 days onsite per week)
Reports to: CRM Product Manager
Travel: Occasional international travel

About the role

We’re looking for a Product Owner to help shape the future of Salesforce CRM at Howden. This role is central to ensuring our Salesforce platform continues to support our growth, client service, and operational excellence across a global, entrepreneurial business.

Working closely with the Product Manager, Business Analyst, and technical delivery teams, you will own and prioritise the Salesforce CRM product backlog—focusing on value, outcomes, and smooth delivery. You will make prioritisation decisions, ensure clarity across the team, and help guide enhancements from concept to release.

Key responsibilities

• Support the Product Manager in shaping and delivering the Salesforce CRM roadmap, evolving the roadmap to ensure alignment with business objectives, scalability and growth.
• Own and prioritise the product backlog, making value-based decisions.
• Act as Scrum lead for the team, facilitating agile ceremonies, managing delivery cadence, removing blockers, and promoting continuous improvement across the delivery lifecycle
• Define user stories for change requests and enhancements, partnering with regional business units to understand needs and translate requirements into scalable, user-focused solutions, leveraging Salesforce modules. 
• Work with the Business Analyst to refine user stories and ensure they are ready for development.
• Work closely with Salesforce admins, developers, and analysts during sprints to clarify requirements and review completed work, ensuring it meets acceptance criteria and delivers business value.
• Ensure developments align with defined user stories and perform product owner acceptance testing of delivery in alignment with Howden’s data governance, compliance, security standards, and best practices.
• Promote standardisation and reusability, developing global templates, components, and best practices to ensure efficiency and consistency. 
• Facilitate alignment between IT, business, and Salesforce partners, ensuring collaboration, transparency, and continuous feedback. 
• Support and shape training, communications, and change management initiatives to enhance user confidence and engagement. 
   
• Communicate roadmap updates, release plans, and prioritisation decisions to stakeholders.

What you’ll bring

• Experience as a Product Owner, Business Analyst, or similar role within a Salesforce or CRM environment.
• Proven experience in supporting large-scale, global Salesforce implementations, ideally across multiple business units or regions. 
• Strong understanding of Salesforce ecosystem (Sales Cloud, Marketing Cloud, etc.).
• Ability to prioritise effectively and manage a complex, evolving backlog.
• Demonstrated success in building relationships with a variety of stakeholders, influencing decisions, and aligning cross-functional teams around shared objectives. 
• A strong sense of business value, user needs, and practical delivery.
• Ability to write clear requirements and work within agile delivery teams.
• Highly organised with strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.

Desirable

• Strong understanding of Salesforce CRM and Marketing Cloud
• Experience working in a complex or multi-business-unit environment.
• Familiarity with integrations, data management, or AppExchange tools.
• Knowledge of insurance, broking, underwriting, or financial services.

What success looks like

• Clear, well-managed backlog and smooth delivery of Salesforce enhancements.
• High user satisfaction and increased adoption of CRM features.
• Strong collaboration across business and technical teams.
• Delivering improvements that support sales effectiveness and operational efficiency.

Why Join Howden?

At Howden, you’ll be part of a collaborative, people-first organisation with the freedom to make an impact. You’ll work with talented colleagues across the globe and play a pivotal role in improving the tools that support our business every day.

A career that you define. At Howden, we value diversity – there is no one Howden type. Instead, we’re looking for individuals who share the same values as us:

• Our successes have all come from someone brave enough to try something new

• We support each other in the small everyday moments and the bigger challenges

• We are determined to make a positive difference at work and beyond

We're committed to providing reasonable accommodations at Howden to ensure that our positions align well with your needs.  Besides the usual adjustments such as software, IT, and office setups, we can also accommodate other changes such as flexible hours* or hybrid working*.

If you're excited by this role but have some doubts about whether it’s the right fit for you, send us your application – if your profile fits the role’s criteria, we will be in touch to assist in helping to get you set up with any reasonable adjustments you may require.

*Not all positions can accommodate changes to working hours or locations. Reach out to your Recruitment Partner if you want to know more.