Agile Coach / Program Manager

Gilder Search Group

New York, Northern (NY, KY)

Hybrid

USD 96,000 - 110,000

Full time

4 days ago

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Job summary

Gilder Search Group is seeking an experienced Agile Coach to support adoption, transformation, and continuous improvement across MTA-IT. The role partners with product teams, technology leaders, and stakeholders to promote Agile principles, improve delivery, and raise organizational Agile maturity.

The candidate will have a track record of coaching within large enterprise environments, facilitating workshops, and using data-driven metrics to drive change.

Qualifications

10+ years of professional experience in Agile delivery, coaching, or transformation.
Proven Agile Coach or transformation role in large, complex organizations.
Strong Scrum and Kanban knowledge with enterprise-scale experience.
Ability to coach multiple teams and executive stakeholders.
Experience facilitating ceremonies, workshops and organizational change.
Knowledge of Agile metrics, governance, and performance analysis.

Responsibilities

Coach Agile teams, Product Owners, Scrum Masters, and leaders on Agile principles and ways of working.
Support enterprise-wide Agile adoption and transformation initiatives across the organization.
Assess current processes and recommend practical improvements to delivery effectiveness.
Facilitate Scrum and Kanban ceremonies, trainings, retrospectives, and planning sessions.
Promote cross-functional collaboration across technology, product, business, and security groups.
Identify impediments and advise on strategies to address them.
Establish Agile standards, tools, templates, and governance models.
Use Agile metrics to measure performance and guide data-driven decisions.
Provide guidance on Agile maturity assessments and transformation roadmaps.
Document processes, lessons learned, and continuous improvement initiatives.

Skills

Agile Coaching

Stakeholder Management

Facilitation

Leadership Influence

Organizational Change

Continuous Improvement

Tools

Jira

Confluence

Azure DevOps

Microsoft Teams

Agile PM Tools

Job description

Job Title: Agile Coach / Program Manager
Position: Agile Coach
Location: 2 Broadway New York, NY
Contract Duration: 9 Months
Start Date: September 8, 2026
End Date: June 7, 2027
Work Arrangement: Onsite/Hybrid as required
Pay Rate: $$70 to $80 per hour
Experience Level: Tier 4 – Senior/Expert Level

Job Summary

We are is seeking an experienced Agile Coach to support Agile adoption, transformation, and continuous improvement initiatives across MTA-IT.

The Agile Coach will work closely with product teams, technology leaders, project/program stakeholders, and business partners to promote Agile principles, improve delivery practices, strengthen cross-functional collaboration, and advance the organization's overall Agile maturity.

The ideal candidate will have demonstrated experience supporting Agile transformation initiatives within large, complex enterprise environments, with the ability to coach teams and leaders, facilitate workshops, introduce Agile best practices, and use performance metrics to drive continuous improvement.

This is a consultative and transformational role without direct people-management responsibilities. The Agile Coach will influence organizational change, facilitate collaboration, and help teams adopt sustainable Agile practices aligned with MTA-IT's strategic objectives.

Key Responsibilities

Coach and mentor Agile teams, Product Owners, Scrum Masters, project managers, leaders, and stakeholders on Agile principles, practices, and ways of working.
Support enterprise-wide Agile adoption and transformation initiatives across MTA-IT.
Assess current team processes, identify improvement opportunities, and develop practical recommendations to increase delivery effectiveness.
Coach teams in Agile frameworks and methodologies, including Scrum and Kanban.
Facilitate Agile ceremonies, workshops, training sessions, retrospectives, planning sessions, and other collaborative activities.
Help teams improve sprint planning, backlog management, prioritization, estimation, dependency management, and delivery predictability.
Promote cross-functional collaboration among technology, product, business, infrastructure, security, and other stakeholder groups.
Partner with leadership to identify organizational impediments and recommend strategies to address them.
Establish and promote Agile standards, practices, tools, templates, and governance models.
Use Agile metrics and performance data to identify trends, measure team effectiveness, and support data-driven decision-making.
Help teams establish meaningful metrics such as velocity, throughput, cycle time, lead time, sprint predictability, and defect trends.
Identify systemic barriers affecting delivery and facilitate solutions across teams and organizational functions.
Support continuous improvement initiatives and help teams develop sustainable improvement plans.
Encourage a culture of transparency, accountability, collaboration, experimentation, and continuous learning.
Assist teams and leadership in transitioning from traditional delivery approaches to Agile and/or hybrid Agile methodologies.
Provide guidance on Agile maturity assessments and organizational readiness.
Develop and deliver Agile training and educational materials for technical and nontechnical stakeholders.
Facilitate communication between product teams, leadership, and business stakeholders to ensure alignment between delivery activities and business objectives.
Support enterprise transformation programs by helping teams align Agile practices with broader organizational strategies.
Provide executive-level recommendations and status updates related to Agile transformation, organizational maturity, and delivery performance.
Document Agile processes, recommendations, lessons learned, and continuous improvement initiatives.
Promote consistent Agile practices while recognizing that different teams may require different approaches based on their products, technologies, and organizational needs.

Required Qualifications

10+ years of professional experience in Agile delivery, project/program management, Agile coaching, transformation, or a related discipline.
Demonstrated experience serving as an Agile Coach or in a comparable Agile transformation role.
Proven experience supporting Agile adoption or enterprise transformation initiatives within large, complex organizations.
Strong hands-on knowledge of Scrum and Kanban methodologies.
Experience coaching multiple Agile teams and working with Product Owners, Scrum Masters, project managers, technical teams, and executive stakeholders.
Demonstrated ability to facilitate Agile ceremonies, workshops, training sessions, and organizational change initiatives.
Strong understanding of Agile principles, Lean practices, continuous improvement, and organizational change management.
Experience using Agile metrics and reporting to evaluate team performance and delivery effectiveness.
Strong stakeholder management, facilitation, communication, and conflict-resolution skills.
Ability to influence teams and leaders without direct managerial authority.
Experience identifying organizational impediments and developing practical solutions.
Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
Experience working in large enterprise IT environments with multiple teams, dependencies, and stakeholders.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience leading or supporting enterprise Agile transformation programs.
Experience working with large public-sector, transportation, financial services, healthcare, or similarly complex enterprise organizations.
Experience with Agile maturity assessments and transformation roadmaps.
Experience with SAFe, Lean, DevOps, or other enterprise Agile frameworks.
Experience with Jira, Confluence, Azure DevOps, or similar Agile delivery platforms.
Experience developing Agile governance models, standards, and operating practices.
Experience coaching senior leadership and executive stakeholders.
Experience working with distributed or geographically dispersed teams.
Agile coaching or transformation certifications such as ICAgile, ICP-ACC, ICP-ATF, SAFe, CSM, CSP-SM, PMI-ACP, or equivalent.