Agile Coach

Agile Coach

Supervises, guides, and/or instructs subordinate staff. Analyzes user requirements, procedures, and problems to automate business processes, upgrade or modify existing systems, and review system-wide capabilities, workflow, and scheduling limitations.

The Georgia Department of Transportation’s IT Division (GDOT) is at the forefront of digital transformation, leveraging cutting-edge technologies to enhance transportation systems and improve the lives of Georgia’s citizens. As the technology enabler of GDOT’s mission, our IT division plays a crucial role in driving innovation, efficiency, and effectiveness across all aspects of the department’s operations. From intelligent transportation systems to data-driven decision-making tools, we provide the technological foundation that empowers GDOT to deliver on its commitments to safety, mobility, and sustainability.

We are seeking an experienced coach to help transition our existing work practices to a full embrace of agile methodology, from the top down. The agile coach will mentor and guide our employees in how to figure out the best solutions for their specific departmental challenges. This person will analyze our organization’s existing infrastructure and implement improvements to help streamline processes and create efficiencies. Ultimately, the agile coach will play a key role in long-term strategy across GDOT IT, helping our teams deliver better products and services in a faster, more efficient manner.

Responsibilities

• Facilitate learning and development among employees through individual and team coaching
• Coach senior managers in agile practices to ensure adoption of best practices from the top down
• Communicate agile principles, scrum practices, and overall operating model across the organization
• Champion the use of metrics and other objective measures by teams
• Undertake daily follow-ups with individual team members to ensure projects are on track and goals are being met
• Maintain objectivity regarding issues and how to troubleshoot them by applying agile principles
• Hold stand-up meetings with cross-functional teams to review project status
• Support leadership in understanding and participating in good agile practices
• Facilitate the development of working agreements between teams and departments to improve cross-functional collaboration
• Guide the organization in implementing structured prioritization frameworks based on business value
• Assist in establishing clear escalation paths and practices to reduce workflow interruptions
• Help teams develop strategies for managing technical debt within agile frameworks
• Support the formation and maintenance of stable teams with clear ownership boundaries

Objectives of this role

• Work with project teams to analyze current systems and processes and design a strategy for adopting agile best practices
• Guide teams in how to stay on track with agile techniques, fine-tuning their approach to ensure that overall strategy is being met
• Lead agile workshops for people of various technical disciplines, as well as for key stakeholders
• Promote a culture of continuous improvement, setting goals and milestones and assigning responsibility
• Drive cultural change by championing an agile mindset, and ensure the organization is adhering to industry best practices
• Work directly with Scrum Masters, Team Leads, and the PMO to nurture a healthy and productive agile environment

Required skills and qualifications

• Five or more years of experience as agile coach
• Experience in using scrum, kanban, and knowledge of how agile scales best
• Track record of implementing agile techniques in different work cultures and environments
• Experience in running agile projects of varying size and complexity, even in a hybrid waterfall environment
• Strong skills for leading, educating, and coaching
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Heightened personal skills to resolve conflicts and enable people of different skills to work well together
• Ability to work directly with people in any position, regardless of technical skill or title
• Able to recognize patterns within team dynamics and proactively work to avoid or remove them
• Experience breaking down organizational silos and improving collaboration between development and operations teams
• Demonstrated success in shifting organizations from reactive to proactive approaches
• Knowledge of techniques for integrating quality assurance throughout the development lifecycle
• Experience implementing value-based prioritization frameworks
• Track record of successfully managing organizational change in environments with entrenched practices

Preferred skills and qualifications

• Certification as agile coach or scrum master
• Experience in coaching at large organizations or Fortune 500 companies
• Educational background in computer science, business management, and/or project management
• Previous management experience