Sr Scrum Master

Job Description

We have a position for a Sr Scrum Master with one of our clients in Atlanta, GA for an initial contract duration of 5 months. No third party candidates considered for this position.

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 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

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 successful. 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 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"
• Encourages brainstorming, creative thinking, open minds, equal voice and perspective sharing. Encourages the team to be confident and courageous, thinking outside the box.
• Collect and share transparent team metrics with teams, recommend new metrics for the team's context, and foster continuous improvement conversations using metrics

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.