Scrum Master - Remote / Telecommute

Job Title: Scrum Master - Remote / Telecommute

Job Location: Richmond, VA

Job Type: Contract

Job Overview:

• This is a Scrum Master / Agile team coach role supporting data services teams. Candidates must demonstrate experience working with multiple Scrum teams in a Scaled Agile Release Train.

Requirement/Must Have:

• Bachelor's Degree or equivalent experience as a Scrum Master with a minimum of 5+ years Agile methodology experience in a large enterprise environment.
• Experience serving as a Scrum Master within IT operations, infrastructure, or data environments.
• Demonstrated experience coaching operational or data teams with unplanned work, improving team maturity, flow stability, and delivery predictability.
• Hands-on experience configuring and managing workflows in Jira Software.
• Familiarity with enterprise data services.

Responsibilities:

• Facilitate successful delivery of business value within an agile framework.
• Plan, lead, organize, and motivate cross-functional teams.
• Facilitate and help coordinate Agile ceremonies (PI Planning, iteration planning, daily stand-ups, iteration reviews, demos, and retrospectives).
• Partner with the Product Owner and team to ensure ceremonies and ad hoc meetings are valuable, purposeful, efficient, and well organized.
• Identify barriers to achievement and address their removal with a sense of urgency.
• Use a variety of techniques to foster innovation and collaboration, ensuring all voices are heard.
• Foster consensus-based decision making within the team.
• Collaborate with Product Owners to support short and long-term release planning and keep work backlog healthy and prepared for execution.
• Maintain a healthy and safe team working environment.
• Pursue results with the team focused on optimizing delivery.
• Champion the continuous improvement mindset and see failures as opportunities for growth.
• Use quantitative and qualitative evidence-based data to identify, address problems and evaluate efficacy of solutions.
• Act as a change agent to drive the acceptance and adoption of agile using a structured approach.
• Ensure visibility and effective interactions using ceremonies and tools that facilitate speedy responses to impediments.
• Connect the team with the right stakeholders as needed to ensure the team continually has everything they need to plan and work effectively.
• Responsible for understanding and applying risk management discipline in decision making.

Nice to Have:

• Experience in scaled Agile frameworks (e.g., SAFe).
• Thorough understanding of SAFe/Scrum metrics.
• Understanding of operational metrics such as lead time, cycle time, throughput, aging work, and cumulative flow diagrams.
• Experience aligning team reporting to enterprise portfolio structure.
• Relevant agile certifications (CSM, CSP, ICA-ACC, etc).

Skills:

• Strong facilitation skills in fast-paced operational environments.
• Ability to coach technical engineers in Agile practices.
• Comfortable operating within PI boundaries and delivery of commitments.
• Ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders without authority.
• Data-driven mindset with strong analytical capabilities.