Senior Scrum Master

Job Description:
Our Client is looking for an experienced Lean/Agile practitioner to join our Enterprise Technology team in Atlanta, GA. This person has the primary responsibility of facilitating the formation, learning and growth of multiple cross-functional delivery teams in developing a Lean/Agile mindset, adopting and continuously improving practices in their context, and guiding teams and leaders to enable the effective flow of delivery across the end-to-end value stream while leading delivery of a high profile, highly dependent project. As a servant-leader, the Senior Scrum Master plays a key role in planning, facilitation, supporting teams, managing inter-team and inter-train dependencies, removing impediments, providing team coaching and mentorship, visualizing the Lean value stream to optimize for flow, and working with other Lean/Agile practitioners to exchange learnings at scale.

Job Description

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Lean/Agile Events Facilitation

• Facilitate contextual adoption of the Scrum Framework, including daily scrum, sprint planning, backlog refinement, sprint reviews & retrospectives, and other related team and intra-team meetings
• Facilitate contextual adoption of Lean Thinking, including visualization and continuous optimization of delivery flow using the Kanban Method
• Facilitate and participate in scaled events, including cross-team planning, delivery synchronization, and systems-level inspect & adapt
• Sustain and promote usage of information radiators for the immediate and dependent teams and broader organization

Planning

• Prepare and facilitate quarterly, release, and sprint planning with the product owner and the team
• Guide Feature and Story-level refinement to the Definition of "Ready" in preparation for the next quarter and upcoming sprints
• Work with the team and Product Owner/Managers to maintain a healthy backlog and rolling short and mid-term planning for upcoming releases
• Proactively track and facilitate feature and story level dependencies with other teams and trains

Team Support

• Able to put ego to the side and the "desire to control" the team by teaching and mentoring increasing levels of self-organizing behavior
• Engage the organization to remove impediments to the team's ability to perform by working closely with the team and stakeholders, including product owners/managers, leadership, and other teams
• Support communication of delivery progress, gaps, and obstacles with a wide variety of stakeholders; coach product owners/managers to play an active role in stakeholder engagement
• Facilitate cross-team orchestration, tracking and following up with internal and external dependencies
• Act as a buffer between external distractions and the focused environment the team needs to be effective. Where beneficial, protect the team and minimize disruptions
• Forms and guides teams to high performance by helping the team navigate interpersonal conflicts, challenges, and opportunities for improvement and growth. Create and sustain an environment of psychological safety and trust among team members, and between the team and the larger organization
• Works with team to co-create and refine team working agreement, definition of "ready", and definition of "done"
• Collect and share transparent team metrics with teams, recommend new metrics for the team's context, and foster continuous improvement conversations using metrics
• Encourages brainstorming, creative thinking, open minds, equal voice and perspective sharing. Encourages the team to be confident and courageous, thinking outside the box.

Advice and Guidance

• Coaches the team on Lean, Agile, and Scrum principles with a goal of continuous improvement. Able to subtly observe team dynamics, recognize strengths and growth opportunities of individual team members and her/himself, and invite team members into coaching conversations to inspire learning and growth.
• Promote teamwork to enable Lean flow of value and achieving sprint goals
• Participate in scaling Lean/Agile adoption throughout adjacent areas of the organization.

Job Requirements

• Candidates are ideally based in the metro Atlanta, GA area
• 5+ years experience applying both the Scrum Framework and Kanban Method in growing high performing teams as a fulltime practitioner
• Experience as a Scrum Master and/or Kanban Coach at an organization that is committed to Lean-Agile as its core approach for delivering business value
• Experience and core values are our top selection criteria; however, certifications help represent one's desire to build knowledge. Some certifications to be considered include LeanKanban Unversity's TKP, Scrum.org's PSM, Scrum Alliance's CSM
• Experience guiding Lean/Agile team journeys in the context of Enterprise Risk and Security services risk mitigation strategies
• Willing and able to receive constructive feedback and advice with a growth mindset
• Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills, particularly in a virtual video environment over Microsoft Teams
• Manages time extremely well, can quickly sense when an issue needs to be discussed or triaged
• Ability to dive into the details when applicable, ask probing questions with curiosity, and sense when and how to take action to enable the team's growth