Scrum Master

Certified Scrum Master - IT PMO

Contract opportunity

Raleigh, NC (Hybrid - 3 days onsite)

SMART IT People has a contract opportunity for a Certified Scrum Master in Raleigh, NC that can work onsite 3 days/week.

CSM Certification required

Project management, release management, specifically handle change control requests, speaking to the release and managing it, and familiarity with change control preferred.

QUALIFICATIONS   

- High energy and solid work ethic, with motivational and leadership qualities.    

- Hands-on experience in coding/software development preferred, but not required.   

- Solid knowledge and understanding of Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe); facilitation, situational awareness, conflict resolution, continual improvement, empowerment, and increased transparency.     

- Experience in project management, agile tooling software (JIRA, Rally), Confluence, SharePoint, Azure devops, and familiarity with ServiceNow ITBM along with diagramming tools.    

- Working knowledge of non-Scrum Agile approaches: XP, Kanban, Crystal, FDD, etc., preferred but not required.   

- Excellent oral and written communication skills. 

- Must be able to communicate at all organizational levels, including working with senior management, leadership to provide status updates, deliver requirements and report details at correct level.  

- Coach employees and stakeholders to understand and enact Agile and empirical product development.  

- Considerable experience and understanding of challenges with scaling agile teams across organizations, and capability of identifying and addressing dysfunctional patterns caused by external forces that do not understand the values and principles of Agile or the importance of providing teams with an environment for agility.    

EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE  

- Bachelor's degree and/or equivalent experience.  

- 5-8 years of Scrum Master experience in a US India Matrix team environment  

- At least 2-4 years’ experience in tech industry and delivering customer value.  

- Technical and hands-on experience at coding/software development is preferred, but not required.   

- Have an Agile mindset and capability to drive Agile best practices and principles for multiple Agile teams.   

- General understanding of DevOps, Continuous Integration / Continuous Development (CI/CD), and automation concepts preferred, but not required.    

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES  

- None officially to start, but your leadership will be welcomed and recognized.     

CERTIFICATIONS, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS  

- CSM (Certified Scrum Master) required. 

- CPO (Certified Product Owner) preferred but not required. 

- SAFe Certified preferred but not required.   

Job description:
The Scrum Master (SM) is responsible for understanding Agile best practices and principles to employ within an Agile team. The SM is a true leader who serves and takes ownership of guiding, overseeing up to two Agile teams in delivering their overall objectives through facilitating ceremonies, and other key meetings to foster an appropriate level of collaboration. The SM may also assume mentorship of an Associate Scrum Master.

We value our customers, who are can-do people that have the same passion in building great products, and foster a collaborative, fun, open and diverse culture.  As a SM, you will be a key team member of a growing and innovative organization, while being involved in our technology platforms contributing to excellent customer experience.  

A true leader who serves by organizing and facilitating Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, etc.) as part of the development team and removing blockers in enabling the team to complete sprint scope and commitments (Scrum) and adhere to Work in Progress Limits (Kanban).

Demonstrate passion for Agile in delivering value. 

Help the Agile team (Scrum/Kanban) with self-organization and autonomy. 

Add team value and collaborate on solutions while building relationships with the organization. 

Ensure daily, weekly, and monthly agile ceremonies take place, with efficiency and discipline.  

Partner with Engineering Managers, Product Managers, Product Owners to protect the team from outside distractions and priorities. 

Exhibit due diligence identifying blockers and developer divergences from sprint scope/goals; work with product managers and/or owners, other stakeholders, and team members toward resolutions.  This will include redirecting incoming interference from stakeholders who may deal directly with engineers to address valid concerns. 

Partner vigorously with product owners and the engineering team in their quest to do everything possible to ensure customer satisfaction.  

Participate in Scrum of Scrum (SoS) meetings for cross-team coordination and collaboration. 

Foster communication, create channel for the team as well as help translate “lingo.” 

Support your product owners, so they understand what they need to know about changes within the team.  

Demonstrate clear communication, transparency; a clear, consistent source of trustworthy information; facilitate discussion, good decision making and conflict resolution.   

Guide the team and mentor on becoming self-organizing.

Work hard to build trust within the team; foster an open environment to help resolve issues and hold accountability.  

Apply Agile principles at levels that fit the circumstances and group dynamics.   

Facilitate workload and lead by example. Seek consensus and help the team to be greater than the sum of its parts.  

Know and care about the likes and dislikes of the team members and customers to improve their experiences and efficiency.  

Works with the Product owner to align team with the product vision, sprint goals, and other necessary information.

Communicates organizational impediments to leadership and clears impediments for the team.

Ensures the Product Owner knows how to arrange the Product Backlog to maximize value and teach techniques for effective Product Backlog management and health.

Champions continuous improvement activities to reduce waste and increase productivity; coaches teams to conduct continuous improvement events.

Partners with other SMs to increase the effectiveness of Agile practices in the organization.

Creates an environment of collaboration with the teams that allows for open dialogue and productive solutions for resolving conflicts.

Follow the principles and governance of the Enterprise PMO in delivering business objectives.

To apply, please send your resume in MS Word format to: alice@smart-itpeople.com with job title in subject line.