Scrum Master

Talentify; Lansing (MI); On-site; USD 83,000 - 217,000; Full time

Job summary

Talentify in the United States seeks an experienced Scrum Master to coach and facilitate an energetic team, serving as a liaison among delivery, product management, and leadership to assure quality delivery of products and services. You will lead agile ceremonies, support strategic direction, and ensure a prioritized backlog.

The role requires seven years as a scrum master in insurance environments, a bachelor’s degree in a related field, and strong communication and risk-management skills.

Qualifications

• Understanding of agile frameworks (Disciplined Agile, SAFe, Scrum, Kanban).
• Strong analytical, problem solving and planning skills.
• Leadership to interact with all management levels.
• Stakeholder management, negotiation and communication.
• Iterative/incremental development fundamentals.
• Experience managing scrum backlog with agile tools.

Responsibilities

• Leads agile teams as scrum master and team member.
• Facilitates sprint planning, daily standups, demos, and retrospectives.
• Maintains a robust backlog with Product Manager/Owner input.
• Removes blockers and enables timely delivery of capabilities.
• Collaborates with product managers and senior management.
• Communicates team status and refines performance metrics.
• Manages cross-team dependencies and participates in CoP.
• Escalates issues requiring executive attention.

Skills

Agile/Scrum

Leadership

Stakeholder mgmt

Communication

Backlog management

Risk management

Negotiation

Confidentiality

Education

Bachelor's degree in business or technical field

CSM/SSM certification preferred

Tools

ServiceNow

Jira

Rally/Central Agile

VersionOne

Job description

The Scrum Master serves a vital role and is in the unique position to help coach, guide and facilitate an energetic and knowledgeable team. As the Scrum Master you will serve as a critical liaison between the product delivery team, product manager and senior management providing critical direction, communication and assuring the quality delivery of products and services to our customers.

• Leads one or more agile teams as the scrum master and team member.
• Employs best practices for agile/scrum methodology, while operating within the department’s overall SDLC Framework.
• Works collaboratively with the product managers and team members to give input and support to the strategic direction of the initiative.
• Motivates and supports team members and ensures they have the tools and knowledge to do their jobs and that all blocking issues are resolved quickly.
• Creates self-organizing agile teams and facilitates the delegation of tasks and responsibilities to appropriate team members.
• Acts as moderator for sprint planning, daily standups, sprint demos, and refactoring/reflection sessions.
• In partnership with the Product manager & Product Owner ensure a robust, prioritized backlog is available.
• Supports Product Manager in understanding and communicating team effectiveness and performance.
• Communicates team status to all internal stakeholders and continuously refines/improves metrics by working with the team.
• Coordinates cross team dependencies with other Scrum master’s and participate in Agile Community of Practice (CoP).
• Escalates issues that require executive attention.
• Discovers opportunities to support organizational initiatives and develops strategies and programs to promote initiatives.
• Participates in the development of programs as a strategic partner that supports the company plan as directed by leadership.
• Provides planning, project coordination, and management for the development of organizational initiatives, while concurrently facilitating efficient operations to meet current and future business needs within the organization.
• Responsible for balancing workload to optimize the effectiveness of project development and management.
• Performs analysis to determine root cause of challenges and provides solutions for improved operational and process performance.

EDUCATION

• Bachelor’s degree in business or a technical discipline (Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering) required.
• Continuous learning, as defined by the Company’s learning philosophy, is required.
• Certification or progress toward certification (CSM, SSM) is highly preferred and encouraged.

EXPERIENCE

• Seven years of progressive responsibility as a scrum master/agile project manager in an insurance environment.
• Proven experience as a scrum master on several successful software development projects involving multiple developers is preferred.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Clear understanding of one of the agile frameworks and key best practices (Disciplined Agile, SAFe, Scrum, Kanban etc.).
• Strong analytical, problem solving and planning skills.
• Must demonstrate leadership ability to effectively interact with all levels of management.
• Stakeholder Management, Negotiation and Communication skills.
• Understanding of the fundamentals of iterative and incremental development.
• Ability to help manage scrum team backlog and priorities using agile based tools (ServiceNow, Jira, Rally/Central Agile, Version1, etc.).
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and mentoring skills.
• Ability to effectively present budgetary and/or cost information and respond to questions as appropriate.
• Demonstrable conflict resolution skills.
• Demonstrable risk management and mitigation skills.
• Knowledge of tools used to assist with scrum team planning (ServiceNow, Jira, Agile Manager, Version1, etc.).
• Ability to be flexible as projects are often non-routine and require re-prioritizing of workload.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality.
• Ability to perform other assignments as required by senior management.
• Knowledge of workers compensations industry preferred.

PAY RANGE

“Actual compensation decision relies on the consideration of internal equity, candidate’s skills and professional experience, geographic location, market and other potential factors. It is not standard practice for an offer to be at or near the top of the range, and therefore a reasonable estimate for this role is between $82,800 and $217,100.”

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. We will not tolerate discrimination or harassment in any form. Candidates for the position stated above are hired on an "at will" basis. Nothing herein is intended to create a contract.