Scrum Master

Scrum MasterFounded on a simple belief – do what's right for our clients and our people. TrueBridge leverages proven talent identification / attraction / screening solutions to match highly qualified IT and business professionals with great opportunities.We made the Staffing Industry Analyst's 'Fastest Growing' list in 2013 and 2014.Job DescriptionScrum Master/PM with financial services domain experience preferably with Investment Products like Brokerage or IRAs or related experience. Proficiency running in a new Agile environment.The Scrum Master will support one or more SCRUM teams within a very fast-paced and dynamic development environment. As a Scrum Master, the candidate will be a critical member of the core delivery team empowered to help high performing teams, build potentially shippable product for various investment themes at TIAA CREF.Key Responsibilities include but are not limited to:Schedule/facilitate sprint planning meeting(s) prior to the beginning of each spring using RTC Agile Tool. This involves Story estimation and detailed tasks creationMust have solid experience using RTC Agile Tool to manage all aspects of SCRUMWork with product owners and SCRUM teams to groom stories in advance of each sprintHelp the SCRUM team finalize Sprint Backlog during planning and communicate committed stories for the upcoming sprint to the Release Train Engineer or Senior Management and other stakeholders.Ensure that team vacations and holidays are reflected in available capacity/velocity and appropriate production and other support requirements are considered while determining the actual Sprint load.Schedule and facilitate daily stand up meetingsRepresent the team at the Scrum of Scrums (SoS) meeting to report progressFacilitate retrospective meetings at the end of each sprint – ensure highest priority retrospective points are followed up on and closed outCoordinate as needed with other PMs or technical managers the delivery of non-development components such as configurations, environments, job streams etc.Participate in Release retrospective (Inspect and Adapt) and cross team retrospectives (if needed)Ability to facilitate impediment resolution in a timely, cost effective mannerShield the SCRUM team from outside influences and interferences to ensure that the team does not get distracted and stays focused on Sprint and Release Objectives.Ensure that the SCUM team strives for continuous improvement by implementing action items identified during retrospectives, acquiring new skills – both technical and functional and increases velocity by getting increasingly efficient.Work with the team to support Product Owner and Product Manager for Feature level T-shirt size estimatesBe proactive in identifying dependencies on other teams for each release and drive meetings to discuss various dependencies and get these accepted in acceptable timelinesEnsures that all best practices such as – Regular JIRA updates, Appropriately sized and defined stories, Acceptance Criteria for various User Stories, Test Scripts/Execution, Release Notes preparation/communication, code refactoring and other agile engineering practices etc. are adhered to.Support budget aligned to resource planning.Provide project status via various formatsWork with our Quality Assurance(QA) Partners to ensure defects are assigned within 24hr SLA. Drive solution of defects with dev manager/tech lead.Be proactive, can operate on his/her own within the test to drive business outcomes.Escalate issues and risks to management as see fit to ensure successful delivery of the project/program.Hold weekly project calls with all stake holders. Publish meeting minutes in a timely manner.Communications skills are a mustPower Point – very goodExcel – ExpertQualificationsMust have 3+ years of prior Scrum Master Experience and overall 12+ years of experience in the industry with 5-7 years managing/leading multiple teams of size 8-15.Additional InformationAll your information will be kept confidential.