About Northern Trust:

Northern Trust, a Fortune 500 company, is a globally recognized, award-winning financial institution that has been in continuous operation since 1889.  

Northern Trust is proud to provide innovative financial services and guidance to the world’s most successful individuals, families, and institutions by remaining true to our enduring principles of service, expertise, and integrity. With more than 130 years of financial experience and over 22,000 partners, we serve the world’s most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.

The Agile Project Manager will report to the Head of Finance Data Automation and will facilitate the planning, delivery and continuous improvement of Agile teams. This role collaborates with team members across both Finance and Technology, providing mentoring and coaching on Agile principles and practices. In addition, this role is a servant leader who enables team success by removing impediments and implementing effective ways of working that foster continuous improvement and collaboration.

A successful candidate will be a strong individual contributor who has business and technology experience, strong PM and communication skills, can organize stories & features across multiple teams and report progress challenges and items of opportunity to executives. This role will take the strategic vision and workshops, asks of clients and business partners, and document the journeys. The Agile Project Manager will centralize the roadmaps of all the Finance teams to drive efficient delivery of governance, strategy and innovation priorities. This role is based in Chicago but has global responsibilities and stakeholders.

Major Duties:

• Create empowered, self-organizing, high-performing cross functional teams by serving as the team’s servant leader.
• Mentor the team and the Product Owner on Scrum and Agile best practices.
• Continuously improve team productivity and facilitate completion of work.
• In collaboration with the team and Product Owner, regularly assess the Agile maturity of the team, identify improvement opportunities, and implement the improvements at a pace that is sustainable and comfortable for the team and the organization.
• Coach the team on the value and methods of developing cross-functional skills.
• Facilitate planning and regular Release Planning workshops.
• Coach the Product Owner on creating and maintaining a continuously prioritized Product Backlog of stories with clear acceptance criteria and high-level estimates.
• In collaboration with the team, facilitate the creation of team agreements which minimally include a Definition of Done (DOD) and a Definition of Ready (DOR).
• Able to facilitate open, fact based discussions, build consensus and reach decisions.
• Carries out moderately complex activities and initiatives involving multiple disciplines and/or ambiguous issues.

Knowledge:

• Excellent oral and written communication skills, time management and individual and team building skills. Strong interpersonal skills, able to establish strong working relationships and promote bi-directional communication within and across teams and programs.
• Good leadership and organizational skills, skilled in facilitation, continuous improvement, empowerment, transparency, building trust and servant leadership. Able to effectively manage challenging situations through negotiation and conflict resolution.
• Expertise in Agile principles and practices, with strong technical and / or business knowledge. Provides comprehensive, in-depth consulting and leadership to team and partners at a high technical level.
• Strong understanding of all facets of the software development life cycle including planning, development, quality assurance, change management and release management.
• Strong understanding of software development methodologies and fundamentals (Agile, SCRUM, Kanban, Waterfall, etc.) Strong knowledge and experience with Agile techniques such as Continuous Integration, automated testing, test-first approaches such as TDD, ATDD, etc., pairing, Agile games, etc.
• Able to organize, moderate and demonstrate Agile industry best practices. Experience with developing and executing plans, meeting deadlines, coordinating timelines and efforts and applying advanced principles, theories and experiences.

Experience:

A College or University degree and 10+ years relevant proven work experience of Agile practical usage in the role of Scrum Master is required.

Experience with Agile Lifecycle Management (ALM) tools (JIRA, Rally/CA Agile Central, VersionOne, etc.) preferred. Certified Scrum Professional and/or certified Scrum Master preferred.

#LI-Hybrid

Salary Range:

Salary range is a good faith estimate of base pay. Northern Trust provides a comprehensive benefits package including retirement benefits (401k and pension), health and welfare benefits (medical, dental, vision, spending accounts and disability), paid time off, parental and caregiver leave, life & accident insurance, and other voluntary and well-being benefits. Northern Trust also provides a discretionary bonus program that may include an equity component.

Working with Us: 

As a Northern Trust partner, greater achievements await. You will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture in an organization where financial strength and stability is an asset that emboldens us to explore new ideas.

Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company committed to assisting the communities we serve! Join a workplace with a greater purpose.

We’d love to learn more about how your interests and experience could be a fit with one of the world’s most admired and sustainable companies! Build your career with us and apply today. #MadeForGreater 

Reasonable accommodation

Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please email our HR Service Center at [email protected].

 
We hope you’re excited about the role and the opportunity to work with us. We value an inclusive workplace and understand flexibility means different things to different people.

Apply today and talk to us about your flexible working requirements and together we can achieve greater.