Scrum Master

V.L.S. Systems - Richmond, VA

Full-time - Mid Level

Richmond, VA

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

About the position

As a Scrum Master, you will play a pivotal role in facilitating Agile practices within the team and ensuring that the Scrum process is followed effectively. Your primary responsibility will be to collaborate with various product owners and teams to understand their needs and translate them into actionable requirements. You will provide leadership, coaching, and support to the Scrum Team, fostering an environment that encourages collaboration and continuous improvement. You will coordinate Agile ceremonies, including Sprint Planning, Daily Standups, Retrospectives, Sprint Demos, Story Refinement, and Release Planning. Working closely with your team, you will help define the vision and create a product roadmap that aligns with this vision. Additionally, you will assist the product owner in managing the product backlog, prioritizing tasks based on changing requirements and project timelines. Your role will also involve establishing an effective working environment for the teams, helping to remove obstacles, and protecting the team from outside interruptions. You will ensure a strong relationship between the team and the product owner, as well as with other stakeholders. By exemplifying a Lean-Agile mindset through servant leadership, you will anticipate challenges, identify risks, and recommend solutions. You will track and report team velocity and other project metrics, supporting changes that promote continuous improvement and increase the productivity of the Scrum Team. Ultimately, your goal will be to ensure that the teams are practicing core Agile principles and adhering to the agency's Agile standards, delivering business value effectively and efficiently.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with product owners and teams to understand and translate their needs into requirements.
• Provide collaboration, facilitation, leadership, and coaching to support the Scrum Team and the Scrum process.
• Coordinate Agile ceremonies such as Sprint Planning, Daily Standups, Retrospectives, Sprint Demos, Story Refinement, and Release Planning.
• Define the vision for the team and create the product roadmap based on this vision.
• Aid the product owner in managing the product backlog and prioritizing tasks based on changing requirements and project timelines.
• Establish an effective working environment for the teams and help remove obstacles.
• Protect the team from outside interruptions and distractions.
• Ensure a good relationship between the team and product owner, as well as with others outside the team.
• Exemplify a Lean-Agile mindset through servant leadership.
• Anticipate challenges, identify risks, and recommend mitigations and solutions.
• Track and report team velocity and other project metrics.
• Support changes and promote continuous improvement to increase the productivity of the Scrum Team.
• Collaborate effectively with product owners and end-users to deliver business value.
• Ensure teams practice core Agile principles and adhere to agency Agile standards.

Requirements

• Thorough understanding of Agile software development life cycle and hands-on experience working with development teams.
• 5-10 years of practical experience serving as Scrum Master with a solid comprehension of Agile values, principles, methodologies, and the development lifecycle.
• Ability to identify cross-team dependencies and align work optimally.
• Ability to work with customers, understand their business practices, and manage their expectations.
• Ability to set clear performance standards and hold team members accountable while keeping the team engaged and on track.
• Track progress of team performance utilizing appropriate metrics and foster adoption of a high-performing Agile culture by working closely with the Leadership team.
• Strong interpersonal, communication, mentoring, and servant leadership skills with a proven ability to remove impediments from the team.
• Ability to foresee potential conflict and bring existing conflicts to positive resolution.
• Ability to balance competing demands for quality, scope, and schedule.
• Ability to analyze and document business and system processes.
• CSM Certification required.

Nice-to-haves

• PSM Certification desired.