Lead Agilist III

Job Title: Lead Agilist III
Job Location: Cincinnati, OH
Job Type: Contract

Job Description:

• Serve as a Scrum Master and Agile coach for one or more Agile Squads.
• Facilitate key Scrum ceremonies, including Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, Retrospectives, and Backlog Refinement.
• Coach Product Owners and Development Teams on effective Product Backlog management.
• Build and support high-performing, self-organizing Agile teams.
• Identify, manage, and remove team impediments and blockers.
• Coordinate with other Agile Squads, teams, and organizational stakeholders to resolve dependencies and challenges.
• Escalate issues and impediments to the appropriate teams when necessary.
• Create a trusting and psychologically safe environment where team members can openly raise concerns.
• Encourage continuous improvement through feedback, metrics, and inspect-and-adapt practices.
• Coach team members on Agile principles, Scrum practices, collaboration, and team dynamics.
• Facilitate communication and collaboration both within and outside the Agile Squad.
• Protect the team from unnecessary external interruptions and interference.
• Promote self-organization, accountability, innovation, and continuous learning.
• Support risk identification, dependency management, conflict resolution, and organizational change.
• Work effectively with Project Management, Business Analysis, QA/Testing, Development, Deployment, DevOps, and other technology disciplines.
• Apply Agile practices such as Kanban, Scrumban, Continuous Integration, Continuous Deployment, TDD, and automated testing where appropriate.
• Work with Information Security teams and understand security-related dependencies and requirements.
• Stay actively engaged with the Agile community and continuously develop Agile/Scrum knowledge.

Required Skills & Experience

• 5+ years of overall full-time business experience.
• 3+ years of Scrum Master experience; 5+ years preferred.
• Strong understanding of Scrum Framework and Agile principles.
• Proven experience building and coaching high-performing Agile teams.
• Demonstrated ability to identify and remove team and organizational impediments.
• Experience communicating with and influencing stakeholders outside the immediate team.
• Strong facilitation, coaching, mentoring, and conflict-resolution skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong problem-solving and critical-thinking abilities.
• Experience presenting, teaching, and facilitating at multiple organizational levels.
• Ability to build trust and strong working relationships.
• Experience working with Information Security teams.
• Experience or exposure to AI being embedded into business or technology solutions.
• Understanding of the Software Development Lifecycle, including requirements, design, development, QA/testing, deployment, and change management.
• Working knowledge of DevOps and modern software delivery practices.
• Ability to use empirical data, metrics, and feedback loops to drive continuous improvement.
• Ability to work effectively in a collaborative, team-oriented environment.
• Strong servant-leadership mindset.

Preferred Qualifications

• Agile/Scrum certification such as CSM, PSM, SAFe, or equivalent.
• Experience with Kanban, Scrumban, XP, Mob Programming, or other Agile frameworks.
• Experience with Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment and automated testing practices.
• Experience supporting enterprise-scale Agile transformations.
• Experience working in banking or financial services environments.
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.