Lead Agile Coach - Azure DevOps

Stafford Gray; Town of Lansing (NY); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Stafford Gray is seeking an experienced Agile Leadership and Coaching professional to lead Agile transformation across multiple teams, coach Product Owners and Scrum Masters, and partner with Azure DevOps specialists to mature ADO boards.

The role requires coaching across teams with varying Agile maturity, facilitating ceremonies, improving backlog management, and delivering practical, measurable outcomes while working on-site in Lansing, Michigan two days per week.

Qualifications

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

Responsibilities

• Provide Agile leadership across multiple teams with varying maturity.
• Assess current Agile practices and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Coach teams on Agile principles, Scrum and Kanban, backlog management, prioritization, estimation, planning, and continuous improvement.
• Facilitate sprint planning, backlog refinement, stand-ups, reviews/demos, and retrospectives.
• Help teams move from Agile terminology to consistent practices.
• Identify impediments to Agile adoption and work with leadership on solutions.
• Coach managers and Product/Service Owners on performing the Product Owner role.
• Improve how work is defined, prioritized, and how epics, features, user stories, tasks, and acceptance criteria are written.
• Help establish business priorities, manage stakeholder expectations, and measure outcomes.
• Provide leadership with recommendations for improving Agile maturity and sustaining adoption.
• Partner with Azure DevOps teams to mature ADO boards and configurations across teams.
• Ensure boards, backlogs, epics/features/stories/tasks, queries, dashboards, and work-items support Agile operating models.
• Establish standards and best practices across multiple ADO teams.
• Facilitate sessions to build and refine team backlogs and translate business objectives into actionable work items.
• Improve story quality, acceptance criteria, estimation, prioritization, and definition of done.
• Create practical processes teams can use after engagement and help teams use metrics for transparency.

Skills

Agile coaching

Team leadership

Facilitation

Azure DevOps

Backlog management

Stakeholder management

Communication

Coaching leaders

Tools

Azure DevOps (ADO Boards)

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