Hybrid Lead Agile Coach - Azure DevOps

The Stafford Gray Group; Town of Lansing (NY); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

The Stafford Gray Group is seeking a hands-on Agile Leadership Coach to guide multiple teams in Agile, Scrum, and Kanban, collaborating with management, Product Owners, Scrum Masters, and developers.

This hybrid role requires on-site presence in Lansing, MI two days per week with remote work the remaining days, focusing on coaching teams to adopt and sustain practical Agile practices and Azure DevOps processes.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in Agile delivery environments.
• 5+ years coaching Agile leadership, Scrum Masters, or Product Owners.
• Demonstrated experience coaching multiple teams simultaneously.
• Strong hands-on experience with Azure DevOps, specifically ADO Boards.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the lead Agile Coach across multiple teams with varying Agile maturity.
• Assess current Agile practices and identify opportunities to improve team maturity, consistency, and adoption.
• Coach teams on Agile principles, Scrum and Kanban practices, backlog management, prioritization, estimation, planning, and continuous improvement.
• Facilitate sprint and iteration planning, backlog refinement, daily stand-ups, sprint reviews and demos, and retrospectives.
• Help teams move from Agile terminology to consistently applying Agile practices in daily work.
• Identify impediments to Agile adoption and work with leadership on practical solutions.
• Coach managers and Product/Service Owners on effectively performing the Product Owner role.
• Improve how work is defined and prioritized, how backlogs are built and maintained, and how epics/features/user stories are written.
• Help establish clear business priorities, manage stakeholder expectations, and measure outcomes and team performance.
• Provide leadership with recommendations for improving Agile maturity and sustaining long-term adoption.
• Partner with Azure DevOps specialists to establish and mature ADO boards.
• Coach teams on Boards, Backlogs, epics/features/stories/tasks, Queries, Dashboards, and sprint planning.

Skills

Agile coaching

Azure DevOps

Scrum Master

Product Owner coaching

Stakeholder management

Facilitation

Communication

Tools

Azure DevOps

Job description

This is a hands-on coaching role. You will work directly with management, Product and Service Owners, Scrum Masters, and team members — coaching leaders on Agile and product ownership while working shoulder-to-shoulder with teams on their day-to-day execution and their ADO boards. Teams range widely in Agile maturity, and several are not traditional software-development teams.

On-site in Lansing two days per week; remainder remote.

AGILE LEADERSHIP AND COACHING

• Serve as the lead Agile Coach across multiple teams with varying Agile and Azure DevOps maturity
• Assess current Agile practices and identify opportunities to improve team maturity, consistency, and adoption
• Coach teams on Agile principles, Scrum and Kanban practices, backlog management, prioritization, estimation, planning, and continuous improvement
• Facilitate or coach teams through sprint and iteration planning, backlog refinement, daily stand-ups, sprint reviews and demos, and retrospectives
• Help teams move from using Agile terminology to consistently applying Agile practices in their daily work
• Identify impediments to Agile adoption and work with leadership on practical solutions

PRODUCT OWNER AND LEADERSHIP COACHING

• Coach managers and Product/Service Owners on effectively performing the Product Owner role
• Improve how work is defined and prioritized, how backlogs are built and maintained, and how epics, features, user stories, tasks, and acceptance criteria are written
• Help establish clear business priorities, manage stakeholder expectations, and measure outcomes and team performance
• Provide leadership with recommendations for improving Agile maturity and sustaining long-term adoption

AZURE DEVOPS ADOPTION

• Partner with Azure DevOps specialists and client teams to establish and mature ADO boards
• Coach teams on effective use of Boards, Backlogs, epics/features/stories/tasks, Queries, Dashboards, work-item management, and sprint and iteration planning
• Ensure ADO configuration and processes support each team's Agile operating model
• Establish consistent standards and best practices across multiple ADO teams

BACKLOG DEVELOPMENT AND TEAM EXECUTION

• Facilitate working sessions to build, organize, and refine team backlogs
• Help teams translate business objectives into actionable work items
• Improve story quality, acceptance criteria, estimation, prioritization, and definition of done
• Establish practical processes teams can continue using independently after the coaching engagement
• Help teams use metrics and dashboards to improve transparency, predictability, and decision-making

AGILE MATURITY AND CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

• Evaluate the Agile maturity of individual teams and leadership groups
• Develop actionable recommendations based on each team's maturity level
• Identify training and coaching needs for managers, Product Owners, Scrum Masters, champions, and team members
• Establish measurable Agile maturity goals and track progress
• Help develop longer-term coaching, training, and adoption roadmaps
• Build internal Agile champions capable of sustaining the practices after the engagement

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE

• 8+ years of experience working in Agile delivery environments
• 5+ years of Agile coaching, Agile leadership, Scrum Master, Product Owner coaching, or Agile transformation experience
• Demonstrated experience coaching multiple teams simultaneously
• Strong hands-on experience with Azure DevOps, specifically ADO Boards
• Experience establishing and managing Agile backlogs within Azure DevOps
• Strong understanding of Scrum, Kanban, Agile product management, backlog management, user story development, estimation and planning, Agile metrics, and continuous improvement
• Experience coaching Product Owners, Scrum Masters, managers, and senior leaders
• Demonstrated ability to assess team maturity and create practical improvement plans
• Strong facilitation skills and experience leading workshops with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Able to work on-site in Lansing, Michigan two days per week

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Agile coaching engagements within large enterprises or government and public-sector organizations
• Experience implementing Agile practices with teams that are not traditional software-development teams — business, operations, security, compliance, asset management, or shared services
• Enterprise Agile transformations or Agile Centers of Excellence
• Experience developing Agile maturity assessments and multi-year adoption roadmaps
• Familiarity with DevOps concepts and the relationship between Agile delivery and DevOps practices
• Certifications such as Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Professional Scrum Master (PSM), SAFe Practice Consultant (SPC), SAFe Agilist, PMI-ACP, or an Agile Coaching certification