Scrum Master with Product Owner

Job Title: Scrum Master with Product Owner
Location: Chicago, IL
Employment Type: Contract

Job Summary

Client is seeking an experienced Scrum Master with Product Owner expertise to support strategic initiatives for United Airlines. The ideal candidate will be responsible for facilitating Agile delivery, driving collaboration across cross-functional teams, managing product backlogs, and ensuring successful execution of business and technology initiatives. This role requires a strong understanding of Agile methodologies, stakeholder management, and product ownership within a fast-paced enterprise environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as Scrum Master for one or more Agile teams, ensuring adherence to Scrum principles and Agile best practices.
• Facilitate Agile ceremonies, including Sprint Planning, Daily Stand-ups, Sprint Reviews, Retrospectives, and Backlog Refinement sessions.
• Work closely with business stakeholders, product managers, and development teams to define product vision and roadmap.
• Own and prioritize the product backlog based on business value, customer needs, and organizational priorities.
• Write and maintain user stories, acceptance criteria, and functional requirements.
• Collaborate with engineering, QA, UX, and business teams to ensure timely delivery of high-quality solutions.
• Identify, track, and remove impediments that impact team productivity.
• Monitor sprint progress using Agile metrics such as velocity, burndown charts, and sprint reports.
• Communicate project status, risks, dependencies, and milestones to leadership and stakeholders.
• Drive continuous process improvement and foster a culture of collaboration, accountability, and transparency.
• Coordinate releases and ensure successful delivery of product increments.
• Support change management and Agile transformation initiatives across teams.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Business Administration, or a related field.
• 7+ years of experience in Agile project delivery.
• 4+ years of experience as a Scrum Master.
• 2+ years of experience performing Product Owner responsibilities.
• Strong understanding of Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, and Agile methodologies.
• Experience managing product backlogs and prioritizing features based on business value.
• Experience facilitating Agile ceremonies and coaching Agile teams.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Experience working with cross-functional teams in large enterprise environments.
• Proficiency with Agile tools such as Jira, Confluence, Azure DevOps, or similar platforms.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and organizational skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in the airline, travel, transportation, or logistics industry.
• Experience working with digital transformation or customer-facing applications.
• Knowledge of cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform.
• Familiarity with DevOps, CI/CD, and modern software development practices.
• Experience supporting distributed or global Agile teams.

Certifications

• Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) Preferred
• Professional Scrum Master (PSM I/II) Preferred
• Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) Preferred
• SAFe Scrum Master (SSM) or SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager (POPM) Nice to Have