Vacancies at Cigna

About the Role

The Product Owner is accountable for maximizing value delivery at the Scrum Team level by translating product strategy and priorities into high-quality, executable backlog items. Working in close partnership with the Agile Product Manager (APM), the Product Owner ensures customer needs, business outcomes, and delivery commitments are effectively balanced and realized through predictable, high-quality delivery. The Product Owner acts as the voice of the customer for the Scrum Team and plays a critical role in enabling continuous improvement and value realization.

The role is responsible for IOH backend products across Mainframe and Financial Services domains, including payments, billing, eligibility, and finance operations, supporting internal business processes and integrations. A key focus area will be driving the delivery of reliable, compliant, and scalable capabilities for payment processing, financial reporting, and data integrity, including integration with external vendors and internal platforms and addressing the needs of internal IOH stakeholders such as operations, finance, claims, eligibility, and back-office teams.

Ideal candidate must possess a broad base of skills and knowledge spanning technology, financial operations and healthcare administration within International Health, user experience design, and agile development practices. The individual will work with multiple stakeholders to determine the business and technology objectives for their team and ensure solutions deliver tangible business value.

Key Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with the Agile Product Manager to support product vision, roadmap, and outcomes aligned with business strategy and customer needs.
• Ensure delivery progress and milestones are visible to keep roadmaps relevant and timely.
• Act as the voice of the customer for the Scrum Team, ensuring backlog priorities reflect customer value.
• Translate release train backlog priorities into clear, value-focused team backlog priorities.
• Support Agile Product Manager in the refinement of features.
• Lead the decomposition of features into user stories and ensure ongoing refinement with developers, testers, and business subject matter experts.
• Own Jira backlog quality and approve user stories before moving to Done/Accepted.
• Lead PI planning cycles and objectives to enable predictable execution at team level.
• Collaborate with Scrum Master, QA, and UAT teams to track delivery, quality, and predictability metrics.
• Ensure analytics are in place to monitor utilization, customer experience, and delivery performance.
• Share actionable insights with the Agile Product Manager to drive product evolution and improvement.
• Foster a growth mindset and a psychologically safe team culture.
• Demonstrate an Agile mindset focused on learning, feedback, and value validation.
• Partner with stakeholders to maintain alignment and manage dependencies.
• Drive continuous improvement through data-informed decision making.
• Collaborate with Customer Experience and UX/UI design teams to ensure the customer voice is embedded at all stages of the product delivery cycle.

Required Competencies:

• Strong business and delivery acumen.
• Customer-centric mindset and empathy.
• Ability to translate strategy into executable outcomes.
• Ownership, accountability, and attention to quality.
• Collaboration and stakeholder management skills.
• Continuous improvement and data-driven mindset.

Required Skills and Experience:

• Bachelor’s Degree required
• Strong English language skills required
• Experience working in JIRA tool or an equivalent (preferred)
• Knowledge of agile methodology [preferred/required] (depending on needs, but candidate must either have deep industry / business experience OR Agile delivery experience)
• Experience within healthcare preferred [preferred/required] (depending on needs, but candidate must either have deep industry / business experience OR Agile delivery experience)
• Both technically deep and business savvy enough to interface with cross-functional partners
• Proven ability to develop strong working relationships and establish a high level of credibility across functional and lines of business
• High attention to detail and proven ability to manage multiple, competing priorities simultaneously
• Demonstrates strong decision-making skills and problem-solving techniques
• Demonstrates ability to work independently and as part of a collaborative team in a fast paced and changing environment
• Strong adaptive capability; ability to approach problems pragmatically and creatively in the phase of changing circumstances, resources and direction
• Some degree of flexibility to work with International Health stakeholders across multiple regions and time zones
• Agile Certification: SAFe Product Owner / Product Manager (pre or post hire)

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Key Responsibilities

Provider Relationship Management

• Develop, manage, and strengthen relationships with healthcare providers, including hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, laboratories, and physician groups across assigned African markets.
• Serve as the primary relationship owner for a portfolio of providers, ensuring high levels of engagement, satisfaction, and partnership.
• Conduct regular provider meetings, business reviews, and site visits to maintain strong working relationships and identify improvement opportunities.

Provider Onboarding & Education

• Lead provider onboarding activities and ensure providers are fully informed on operational processes, billing requirements, digital tools, policies, and service standards.
• Deliver provider training and education in both French and English as required.

Operational Support & Issue Resolution

• Manage provider inquiries, complaints, escalations, payment concerns, and service-related issues through effective cross-functional collaboration.
• Resolve provider challenges in a timely and professional manner while maintaining positive provider relationships.
• Support providers in understanding reconciliation outcomes and resolving billing and payment-related queries.

Performance Management & Network Development

• Monitor provider performance, service delivery, operational KPIs, and reimbursement trends to identify risks and opportunities.
• Analyze provider data and market trends to support network optimization, affordability initiatives, and access-to-care objectives.
• Partner with the Africa Network Management team to identify network expansion opportunities and address service gaps.

Strategic & Market Intelligence

• Maintain a strong understanding of healthcare market dynamics, provider landscapes, and regulatory developments across Africa.
• Provide regular market intelligence and recommendations that support network strategy and business objectives.
• Share insights and best practices with regional and global stakeholders to drive continuous improvement.

Reporting & Stakeholder Management

• Prepare business reports, presentations, provider performance updates, and network management reports.
• Represent Africa Network Management during provider engagements, regional initiatives, and strategic discussions.
• Collaborate effectively with stakeholders across multiple countries, functions, cultures, and time zones.

Required Qualifications

Location Requirement: Must be currently based in Senegal or have authorization to work in Senegal.

Language Requirement (Essential): Full professional fluency in both French and English is mandatory.

The successful candidate must be able to:

• Conduct provider meetings and negotiations in both French and English.
• Prepare professional reports, presentations, and communications in both languages.
• Engage confidently with providers and stakeholders across Francophone and Anglophone Africa.
• Navigate multicultural environments where bilingual communication is critical to success.

Applications from candidates who do not possess professional fluency in both French and English will not be considered.

Experience

• Minimum of 3 years' experience in Provider Relations, Provider Network Management, Network Operations, Healthcare Operations, Account Management, or a similar provider-facing role.
• Experience working with healthcare providers and managing external stakeholder relationships.
• Exposure to regional or multi-country healthcare environments is highly desirable.

Skills & Competencies

• Strong relationship management skills with the ability to build and maintain effective partnerships with healthcare providers and internal stakeholders.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and negotiation skills in both French and English.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities, with experience interpreting data and identifying improvement opportunities.
• Highly organized, detail-oriented, and able to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office applications, particularly Excel; experience with CRM or provider management systems is advantageous.
• Self-motivated, accountable, and results-driven, with the ability to work effectively both independently and within multicultural, cross-functional teams.

Additional Requirements

• Willingness and ability to travel up to 20% of working time across Africa.
• Ability to work effectively across multiple countries, cultures, and time zones.
• Passion for delivering exceptional service and strengthening provider partnerships.
• Commitment to improving healthcare access, provider experience, and network performance across Africa.