Job Description

The Scrum Master serves as a change agent and helps facilitate the scrum process, protects the team from interference, and removes obstacles so that the team can deliver the sprint goal. Working alongside the Product Owner, this role aligns the team with the vision, sprint goals, and other key objectives. They remove impediments, coach external distractions, and help create a safe working environment for the team. They are innovators who constantly seek continuous improvement to guide and build higher performing teams. The Scrum Master has a primary responsibility to help the self-organizing, self-managing team achieve its goals.

POSITION LOCATION:

This position is eligible for a hybrid schedule working in our Deerfield, IL office. Onsite days will be Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday with remote days being Monday and Friday. 

RESPONSIBLIITIES:

• Facilitates daily scrums, sprint reviews, retrospectives, and sprint planning meetings for two scrum pods. 
• Serves as a coach and mentor to the team, helping build a high-performing group and strengthening understandings of agile/scrum concepts and principles.
• Prioritizes transparency and communication to build trust with business leaders.
• Identifies and implements ways to strengthen agile teams and the organization through agile/scrum concepts and principles.
• Ensures agile team’s actions are aligned with the project goals and vision and that the agile team’s progress and successes are highly visible to all stakeholders.
• Assists the Product Owner and the agile team in identifying trade-offs between short- and long-term benefits to drive shared vision.
• Fosters communication and close cooperation between all team members, encouraging cross-training and mutual support.
• Works with other Scrum Masters to increase the effectiveness of the application of scrum in the organization.
• Shields the team from external interferences and removes all impediments to the team’s success.

SKILLS & ABILITIES:

• Understanding of flow metrics like cycle time, flow efficiency, cumulative flow, etc. and ability to implement what makes sense.
• Confident and skillful ability to navigate teams through roadblocks impeding delivery progress.
• Able to resolve conflicts within the team before they become an issue, i.e., strong mediator.
• Brings high-energy, passionate outlook, and the ability to positively influence those around them.
• Ability to build trust and rapport, creating a comfortable and effective work environment.
• Knowledgeable about various agile methodologies and skilled in coaching scrum and kanban teams.
• Excellent problem-solving, organizational, and analytical skills, with the ability to coach and mentor all roles on a scrum team.
• Skilled at navigating complex organizational structures and dynamics.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in relevant field.
• 4+ years in a Scrum Master position; proven experience with agile, scrum, and kanban.
• Agile Certifications, preferably via Scrum Alliance (CSM), Scrum.org (PSM I, PSM II, PSK I) or ProKanban.org (PK I).
• Extensive experience with JIRA/Confluence and other software to help agile teams visualize their work.
• Good understanding of technology-enabled business transformation, digital transformation, organizational transformation, and delivering enterprise-level IT and digital projects.
• Proven experience building trust with team members and ability to adapt quickly. 
• Experience facilitating meetings, identifying risks/dependencies/impediments, and handling multiple priorities at once.