Agile Coach

Agile Coach

Location: New York, NY Duration: 2 years Contract Position

We are looking to hire an experienced and dynamic Enterprise Agile Coaches to join our Agile Center of Excellence (CoE). As we lead the MTA-IT organization through its Agile Product Transformation, these critical consulting roles will require a blend of technical expertise, exceptional coaching skills, and deep knowledge of Agile principles. The role involves hands-on coaching, mentoring, and guiding - product teams, product leaders and stakeholders toward Agile maturity. This role is critical in driving technical excellence, and consistent tooling practices across product teams. Successful candidates will not only bring deep Agile coaching expertise but also demonstrate hands-on proficiency with DevOps practices, automation, Agile lifecycle tooling (Atlassian suite- configuring Jira & Jira Align at an expert level), and hands on scripting in PowerApps & PowerBI. This role will be expected to coach with a strong emphasis on adopting Agile methodologies, fostering collaboration, continuous improvement, and alignment with organizational goals. Reporting to the Deputy CTO and/or the Director of the Center of Excellence, this role is pivotal in driving Agile practices while ensuring alignment with the broader transformation strategy at MTA IT.

Technical coach should be able to:

• Configure Jira (Data Center and Cloud), Jira Align, Confluence, etc. at Expert level or higher
• Build and maintain integrations, workflows, custom scripts (e.g., using ScriptRunner, Automation for Jira), dashboards, and reporting views across Atlassian platforms.
• Develop internal frameworks and dashboards for delivery using Power BI and Power Apps.
• Facilitate engaging Agile workshops, technical tool walkthroughs, and DevOps- enablement sessions tailored to delivery teams.
• Train product teams on Agile tools usage, build best practices for version control, branching strategies, and tool-based governance.
• Collaborate with Product organization, and other stakeholders to standardize Agile tool usage and automate cross-team reporting.
• Serve as a bridge between Agile practice and technical excellence, aligning Agile enablement with center of excellence goals.

Key Responsibilities

• Agile Transformation Coaching: Support and provide coaching to large-scale Agile Product transformation initiatives, aligning with the organization's strategic objectives and delivering measurable outcomes.
• Collaborate with CoE leadership to create and execute a tailored Agile transformation coaching roadmap.
• Coach teams, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and other stakeholders on Agile frameworks (e.g., Scrum, Kanban, SAFe) to foster Agile maturity.
• Partner with product teams to adopt Agile and product-focused practices, enhancing delivery and business value.
• Act as a trusted advisor to teams and mid-level leadership, reinforcing Agile principles and practices.
• Training and Facilitation: Design and deliver interactive workshops, training sessions, and hands-on labs to upskill teams and leaders on Agile principles, tools, and practices.
• Educate teams on technical best practices, including DevOps, XP engineering practices (TDD, CI/CD, pairing), and Lean principles.
• Continuous Improvement: Promote a culture of learning and adaptation by embedding effective retrospectives and metrics-driven decision-making.
• Analyze team performance data to identify areas for improvement and recommend & implement actionable strategies.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Work closely with cross-functional teams to identify challenges in Agile adoption and provide tailored coaching support.
• Facilitate alignment and collaboration among teams and stakeholders to ensure a smooth Agile transformation journey.
• Best Practices Implementation and Tools: Standardize Agile practices, ceremonies, and workflows across teams. Leverage Jira, Confluence, Align and other Atlassian tools to enhance Agile process optimization, workflow streamlining and optimize reporting.
• Standardize and monitor metrics for team health, velocity, and overall transformation progress.

Desirable Skills

• 5+ years of hands-on experience configuring and administering Atlassian Jira (both Cloud and Data Center), Jira Align, and Confluence in enterprise environments.
• Strong background in DevOps practices, pipelines, CI/CD (Azure DevOps, Jenkins, GitHub Actions), and Agile engineering practices (TDD, BDD, pair programming).
• Experience in configuring Power BI reports, Power Apps, and custom data integrations for Agile tooling ecosystems.
• Solid scripting or configuration knowledge in Groovy, Python, or REST API integrations for Agile tool automation.
• Familiarity with enterprise security protocols, tool governance, and access control models.
• Experience building internal tooling accelerators or bots to support Agile delivery teams.
• Prior exposure to cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure) for Agile product delivery environments.
• Knowledge of ServiceNow Agile/DevOps integration, version control systems (Bitbucket, GitLab).
• Exposure to portfolio-level Agile coaching and Value Stream Mapping facilitation.

Education: Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field.

Experience: Minimum 5 years of software development experience. At least 8 years in Agile coaching roles. Proven experience coaching for Agile product transformations in large, complex environments.

Certifications: Certified Agile Coach (ICP-ACC, ICP-ATF), Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), SAFe Program Consultant (SPC), or equivalent credentials.

As an Agile Coach Consultant, you will play a critical role in supporting MTA-IT's Agile transformation journey, focusing on coaching teams and fostering collaboration. This is an opportunity to guide teams in adopting Agile practices, driving improved outcomes, and contributing to a transformative cultural shift within the organization. This position emphasizes coaching and collaboration without direct managerial responsibilities, aligning with the broader organizational strategy set by Center of Excellence for Agile maturity.