Scrum Master

TEKsystems•Westerville, OH

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

This is a 3 month contract to hire. The conversion salary is $110-120k. This person will be expected to be onsite at Easton location 3 days a week. Scrum Masters make the difference between good and great teams. The fundamental mindset of a Scrum Master at Huntington is that there is no line between IT and the business. We are one team working together to accomplish our organizational goals.

Requirements

Agile Mindset – Internalize and put in practice the Agile Manifesto and supporting practices (see below). Having an end to end agility mindset (from business idea through delivery). A great Scrum Master not only understands the foundations of Agile but embraces an Agile mindset. They will be value focused and guided by Lean-Agile principles and Systems Thinking.
Communication & Listening Skills - A great Scrum Master is an open communicator that can deliver a message with tact, being sensitive to how the message is received by the team or by leadership. There are times it is important to listen rather than speak to understand the other point of view (shut up and listen).
Transparent – A great Scrum Master understands the value of transparency. Bad news does not get better with age. Agile does not fix problems, but it does expose them. Have a sense of urgency in dealing with issues and informing stakeholders in order to work together on a resolution.
Servant Leader – Lead by example. Put the needs of your team members first. Motivate team members to give their best through mentoring, coaching, encouragement, decisions, and your personal behavior. Lead the team to achieve as much self-organization as possible. Ensure team members and stakeholders view each other as peers. Praise often but always sincerely.
Continuous learning & growth mindset – continue to learn new skills that will help to improve your performance and to help you help others (e.g. Agile, Lean, DevOps, technology, leadership).
Learning environment - create an environment where it’s safe to fail and where people can learn from their mistakes. Part of honoring the principles of agility is to experiment with your process. Encourage the team to try new things.
Collaboration – ability to partner with the Product Owner, Program Teams and work effectively with Product Managers, scrum team, other stakeholders and leadership.
Facilitation - The skill to facilitate meetings, decision making and facilitating change. Comfortable facilitating groups and presenting in front of teams, leadership, and stakeholders to communicate release related information and addressing problems.
Decision Making - The Scrum Master must develop the skill to be decisive. Work with the team and the Product Owner to make fast decisions and avoid analysis paralysis to ensure a working code is delivered every sprint.
Negotiation & conflict resolution - Creating a win-win situation while facilitating decision making among the Product Owner, the scrum team, stakeholders, leadership. Lead the team through healthy conflict and debate. A great Scrum Master understands that some things are not black and white. There are many shades of grey, where matters must be negotiated to achieve an agreement that is palatable to all parties involved.
Critical Thinking – A great Scrum Master has the ability to think on their feet. They can quickly analyze a situation and organize teams around a solution. They do not have to define the solution but has the savvy to guide the conversation.
Technology proficiency & Engineering practices – have an understanding of the technology and engineering practices being utilized by your team and the overall organization (e.g. DevOps such as CI/CD pipeline, multi-level automated testing).
Business acumen – Gain depth of knowledge in the business domain.

Responsibilities

Understand and effectively lead the execution of the scrum ceremonies and practices with your team. Sprint planning, estimation, backlog grooming, daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, retrospectives, reporting & metrics (e.g. burn down, velocity).
Achieve consistent Flow of work through the team. Maintain a holistic view of the work.
Drive continuous improvement and lead change.
Problem Solving o Issue management - remove barriers and keep the team on track o Risk management – identify potential problems that can impact the team and mitigate
Create transparency by radiating information.
Coach – help team members, peers, Product Owner and other stakeholders improve their skills and work together. Influence them to have the right mindset. Be an evangelist. Examples – our Agile execution model, Agile & Lean principles, DevOps practices
Leading vs. protecting the team o Never commit the team to anything without consulting them first o Shield the team from distractions o Requested dates and scope are the start of a conversation to determine what we can mutually deliver with the business o You’re there to help the team look good