Scrum Master

Location & Work Arrangement

• City, State: Atlanta, Georgia
• Work Arrangement: Hybrid (2-3 days per week onsite)
• Team: IT Division

Contract Overview

This role is for a Contract position, focused on project delivery and team mentorship within a critical IT environment.

Role Summary: Drive Agile Transformation

Under broad supervision, you will manage projects through the full lifecycle and create collaborative partnerships with all internal and external team members to accomplish deliverables.

Specifically, the Scrum Master & Agile Coach will focus on facilitating and teaching IT Team Leads how to effectively run Scrum events, reinforce adopted Agile principles, manage incidents, analyze/remove impediments, and guide teams using both Scrum and Kanban frameworks to maximize productivity and ensure alignment with IT leadership prioritization.

This is a hybrid role requiring strong facilitation and coaching skills to empower groups to self-organize, use ticket tracking tools correctly, reinforce processes, and enhance collaboration while delivering value.

Key Responsibilities and Focus Areas

1. Facilitation and Coaching for IT Team Leads:

• Train and support IT Team Leads in confidently running all Scrum events (daily stand-ups, planning, reviews, retrospectives) and Kanban ceremonies.
• Coach alongside IT Team Leads to ensure team members are well-versed in both Scrum and Kanban principles, fostering self-organization and continuous improvement.
• Assist with ceremony refinement to promote best practices like effective story writing and task prioritization.
• Use daily observations to facilitate targeted trainings, education, and documentation to reinforce best practices and ensure team accountability.

2. Workflow and Impediment Management:

• Analyze and remove impediments that hinder team progress, training IT Team Leads on incident management and blocker resolution.
• Manage backlogs daily by collaborating with Technical Leads and IT Management to train on keeping a clear, well-maintained, and prioritization-aligned product backlog.
• Identify and incorporate dependency analysis into the team's ceremonies.

3. Continuous Improvement and Process Adherence:

• Facilitate continuous improvement through actionable retrospectives, ensuring changes are scheduled and implemented.
• Reinforce process adherence to the chosen frameworks (Scrum for developers, Kanban for infrastructure/operations).
• Implement and incorporate Kanban's operational functionality to create flexibility, enforce WIP limits, and document repeatable tasks for improved throughput.
• Drive team effectiveness by documenting all training and best practices in a living Working Agreement for team reference.

Skills and Qualifications (Minimum 5 Years of Experience)

• Required Certification: Agile Certifications are required (Scrum Master certification at minimum).
• Experience: At least 5 years working with Agile teams.
• Methodology Mastery: Strong knowledge of both Scrum and Kanban methodologies and their underlying principles.
• Soft Skills: Excellent facilitation, coaching, and mentoring skills, coupled with a Servant Leadership mindset.
• Problem Solving: Proven ability to analyze, identify, and resolve team impediments and conflicts.
• Tool Proficiency: Proficient in the Atlassian Suite (Jira, Confluence), ServiceNow (ITSM and Agile Modules), MS Teams, and Office365 (minimum 3 years of experience required).
• Communication: Strong communication skills for facilitating collaboration among team members, technical leads, architects, and stakeholders.