Scrum Master

Job Role: Scrum Master
Location: Minneapolis, MN 55402, Hybrid 3 days onsite. Core hours 9-3pm
Duration: 5-month contract with possible extension 

JOB DESCRIPTION

Team leader and another member of the team will be on interview. 2 rounds over Teams.

Group of 12 agilist direct reports to the team leader. In addition to that, there is a senior agilist they will work with in collaboration with 2 other groups.

Self-direction is crucial. Appropriate level of experience is important with a positive attitude. Able to work inside a large organization.

As an Agilist / Scrum Master, you will act as a leader and on-team coach for multiple scrum teams. We have multiple opportunities open at various levels based on experience.  We are looking for a dynamic, collaborative personality that can champion the cause of the agile movement within the organization.

You are passionate about leading change, helping shift mindset and influence culture change. Fostering new ways of thinking, new ways of working and building new capabilities that will help unlock new possibilities. You possess strategic vision and tactical mastery and combine it with an entrepreneurial spirit to get it done. You will play a fundamental role in achieving our ambitious objectives and work closely with partners across product teams to design innovative solutions and balance challenging priorities and demands. You are laser-focused on operational excellence and customer satisfaction, and you'll need to wear many hats, so flexibility and a can-do attitude are critical! 

Primary Responsibility:

• Embrace the agile mindset, advocate and champion agile across the Technology organization by challenging, coaching, and guiding teams using agile principles.
• Provide creative solutions to agile transformation issues: resistance to change, limited resources, conflicting priorities, lack of accountability.
• Ability to utilize agile methods in a flexible manner that often includes traditional project management which can include hard deadlines/fixed dates at times.
• Understand the various agile frameworks, events and artifacts (i.e. Scrum, Kanban), where they are fit for purpose and how to implement/apply with new and existing teams.
• Manage and facilitate team event including quarterly product planning, product owner syncs, backlog refinement, estimating and sizing efforts, release planning, sprint planning, standups and retrospectives. 
• Facilitate and coach to draft, track progress and continuously improve on Objective and Key Results (OKRs).
• Coach teams and leaders in agile principles and practices, roles and responsibilities, and frameworks.
• Foster a continuous improvement environment to build high-performing, agile teams.
• Track and report on metrics for teams to measure progress, effectiveness of agile adoption, and agile maturity of the teams.
• Guide product management teams in their role, defining MVPs, developing product charters, product community maps, product roadmaps and release plans, story mapping, writing stories and backlog prioritization and management.
• Train and mentor other Agilists on the role of the Agilist and participate in communities of practice for Agilists to share, learn and grow.

Basic Qualifications

- Bachelor's degree in computer science or related field, or equivalent work experience

- Five or more years of experience in Agile technology delivery

- Five or more years of experience in Software Delivery Life Cycle (SDLC) teams

Preferred Skills/Experience

- Strong knowledge of Agile values, principles, and practices and Scaled Agile frameworks

- Ability to drive delivery and take initiative

- Excellent interpersonal skills (communication, collaboration, leadership, conflict resolution)

- Experience as an Agilist managing multiple teams simultaneously

- Experience with agile tools such as JIRA, Confluence, Dragonboat, MURAL

- Certified Scrum Master (CSM) certification or similar certification a plus

- Experience with distributed teams, in multiple time zones

- Demonstrated ability to partner and communicate effectively with non-technical team members, resolving contradictory objectives, and unifying teams

- Possess the ability to influence others, implement change, and standardize processes in a complex business environment

- A passion for mentoring and growing the potential of others

- Great teammate - should be ready to go beyond to help the immediate team and do not be averse to not shy away from asking for help if needed

- Demonstrated growth mindset

- Positive attitude and ability to inspire the team toward continuous improvement

- Experience with outcomes-based planning and delivery (i.e., OKR)

- Ability to partner with Product, Tech, UX and other disciplines

- Experience with Product Discovery tactics

- Direct experience with big room / quarterly product planning and cross-team coordination

- Understanding fundamentals of iterative and incremental development

- Experience successfully delivering solutions on an aggressive schedule

- Ability to work in ambiguity and iterate to a solution – can estimate and solve basic business problems without explicit direction

- Creative, flexible, and willing to continuously change and evolve

- Demonstrated program-level collaboration and system architecture understanding

- Experience in business analysis, product management or product development