Senior Scrum Master, IT Proj Management

Ascensus - Newton, MA

Full-time

Newton, MA

Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles

About the position

At Ascensus, technology is more than just a solution; it powers the business that helps millions of people save for what matters—retirement, education, and healthcare. As a Senior Scrum Master in IT Project Management, you will work with scrum team(s) to ensure effective application of Agile practices and the Scrum framework to project execution. Your role will involve modeling and promoting Agile values and principles while advocating for positive refinements in existing practices to create better alignment with agile principles. You will guide the team and organization on how to leverage Agile/Scrum practices and values to maximize the delivery of business value, ensuring that the team operates in a trusting environment where issues can be raised without fear of blame or retribution. In this position, you will track and publish prescribed team metrics, guide the team on applying self-organizing and self-corrective behaviors, and remove impediments to facilitate efficient completion of assignments. You will champion collaborative discussions, decision-making, and problem-solving, while also assisting with internal and external communication to improve transparency. Your responsibilities will include coordinating participation in scrum ceremonies and longer-term planning exercises, supporting the Product Owner in applying the scrum framework, and continually enhancing your own domain knowledge of systems, products, and industry. You will also be responsible for planning and executing project implementations, identifying and mitigating project risks, ensuring that the Definition of Done (DOD) and Definition of Ready (DOR) are met consistently, and providing Scrum Master services to multiple teams when required. Regular assessments of a team's Scrum maturity will be conducted to guide them to improved performance, and you will participate in organizational assessments of agile practices, taking ownership of resulting action items to advance the agile transformation. Additionally, you will lead Scrum Masters in developing their skill set and contribute to the identification, tracking, and removal of impediments at various levels within the organization. Your role will also involve applying enterprise agile practices from SAFe or other similar frameworks to support the scaling of scrum teams, while ensuring the protection and proper handling of all confidential data held by Ascensus.

Responsibilities

• Guide the team and organization on how to leverage Agile/Scrum practices and values to maximize the delivery of business value.
• Apply Agile/Scrum practices in a manner that best suits the needs of the organization.
• Track and publish prescribed team metrics.
• Guide the team on applying self-organizing, self-corrective behaviors; analyze and adapt to feedback inputs (e.g., metrics, Sprint Reviews, Retrospectives) to build high performing teams.
• Remove impediments and guide the team to remove its own impediments.
• Build a trusting environment where issues are raised without fear of blame, retribution, or being judged, emphasizing correction and problem solving.
• Facilitate the completion of assignments efficiently and without coercion, assigning, or dictating the work.
• Champion collaborative discussion, decision making, and problem solving.
• Assist with internal and external communication, improving transparency, and radiating information.
• Coordinate and encourage participation from all team members in scrum ceremonies and longer-term planning exercises.
• Support and educate the Product Owner in applying the scrum framework and agile principles, particularly in refining and maintaining the product backlog.
• Continually enhance own domain knowledge of systems, products, and industry.
• Improve Scrum Master skills through education and engagement with fellow Scrum Masters and practitioners.
• Work with Product Owner and Team to plan and execute project implementations.
• Assist in the identification and mitigation of project risks.
• Ensure Definition of Done (DOD) & Definition of Ready (DOR) are met consistently.
• Provide Scrum Master services to multiple teams, when required.
• Identify and act on coaching opportunities at the individual and team level.
• Conduct regular assessments of a team's Scrum Maturity and use the results to guide them to improved performance.
• Participate in organizational assessments of agile practices and take ownership of resulting action items to advance the agile transformation.
• Lead Scrum Masters in developing their skill set by identifying educational opportunities and leading discussions on applicable topics.
• Contribute to the identification, tracking, and removal of impediments at various levels within the organization.
• Install/apply enterprise agile practices from SAFe or other similar frameworks to support scaling of scrum teams.
• Protect, secure, and properly handle all confidential data held by Ascensus.

Requirements

• Strong knowledge of Agile/Scrum principles and practices.
• Experience as a Scrum Master for a minimum of five years for a software development team applying Agile/Scrum principles and practices consistent with those at Ascensus.
• Experience with creating Scrum metrics and applying those metrics to enhance team performance.
• Good skills and knowledge of servant leadership, facilitation, situational awareness, conflict resolution, continual improvement, empowerment, and increasing transparency.
• Ability to anticipate issues based on experience to help the team avoid or resolve the issues.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent work experience.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills including active listening.
• Knowledge of PC applications including MS Office products.
• Strong experience with Jira, TFS, or other comparable agile project management tools.
• Knowledge of common business applications and analytical tools.
• Certified Scrum Master (Scrum Alliance).
• Knowledge of and/or experience with writing effective user stories and acceptance criteria.
• Previous leadership experience.
• Proven mentoring skills.
• Familiar with SAFe and/or other enterprise agile frameworks.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience as a Scrum Master for a minimum of eight years for a software development team applying Agile/Scrum principles and practices consistent with those at Ascensus.
• Knowledge of other Agile approaches: XP, Kanban, Crystal, FDD, etc.
• Experience with EasyBI.
• Applicable knowledge of the technologies used by the team.
• Scrum Master experience in an organization during an agile transformation.
• Successful application of SAFe and/or other enterprise agile frameworks.