Scrum Master

PPL Corporation•Johnstone, Pennsylvania

9d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Scrum Master enables delivery across assigned Agile teams or highly complex, high-risk technical initiatives. The role provides Agile and SAFe coaching, partners with Product Owners, Release Train Engineers (RTEs), architects, and delivery leaders, and improves flow, predictability, team maturity, and value delivery. It provides delivery insights to the RTE and may coordinate team- and initiative-level testing, cutover, go-live, and hypercare activities based on the project lifecycle. The role supports planning and execution within established scope, schedule, financial, and delivery parameters, working with Product, Project Management, Finance, and portfolio stakeholders. It facilitates Agile events, manages dependencies and impediments, tracks delivery measures, and communicates status, risks, decisions, and recovery actions. It may also support business continuity and emergency response activities, including an Electric Utilities storm role that may require work outside the normal schedule.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree.
At least 5 years of related experience, including at least 4 years as a Scrum Master, Agile Team Coach, or comparable Agile delivery professional.
Experience supporting multiple teams or complex technical initiatives.
Demonstrated experience mentoring Scrum Masters or leading team- and initiative-level capability improvement.
1–2 years of experience leveraging AI, including prompt engineering or agentic AI, to support Agile delivery.
Strong track record of delivering projects on time, on budget, and to specification.
Ability to effectively execute an Agile project.
Ability to manage relationships with internal business customers.
Technical aptitude and working knowledge of the software development lifecycle (SDLC) sufficient to support technical projects and coordinate delivery teams.
Working knowledge of SAFe, Scrum, Kanban, Agile software development, CI/CD, DevSecOps, systems thinking, risk and value realization concepts, and Agile work-management tools including Azure DevOps.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office, SharePoint or Confluence, and Miro.
Certified Scrum Master (CSM) certification required.
Agile Scrum Master (ASM) certification required.
SAFe Advanced Scrum Master certification required for the Senior / Lead role.

Nice To Haves

PMP certification.
SAFe RTE, Agile Coaching, or SPC certification is preferred.

Responsibilities

Coach and mentor team members in Agile mindset, ownership, self-management, and empowerment.
Coach multiple Agile teams or the most complex and high-risk team; mentor Scrum Masters and Team Coaches; and support onboarding, training, Communities of Practice, and consistent fit-for-purpose Agile practices.
Participate in Communities of Practice and share ideas, lessons learned, reusable practices, and improvement opportunities.
Model Lean-Agile leadership and foster self-organizing, cross-skilled, accountable, high-performing teams, team health, collaboration, transparency, and continuous improvement.
Prepare teams for PI Planning, facilitate team breakouts, support team PI objectives, identify risks, capacity constraints, and dependencies, and align iteration goals and commitments with ART priorities in partnership with the Product Owner and RTE.
Optimize flow using measures such as throughput, predictability, quality, delivery performance, and team health; use data and feedback to identify constraints and provide insights to the RTE.
Manage and facilitate daily team work and Sprint ceremonies, including Sprint Planning, Daily Stand-up, Sprint Review, and Retrospective.
Facilitate cross-team coordination to surface dependencies, impediments, and delivery risks, and escalate ART-level or organizational constraints to the RTE.
Capture and track sprint metrics, such as team velocity, and drive continuous improvement.
Create a collaborative environment for the team and stakeholders; identify and remove impediments; help the team identify its strengths and weaknesses; and motivate and support team cohesion.
Lead planning, delivery recovery, and impediment resolution within assigned teams or initiatives; resolve constraints within the role’s authority and escalate others to the RTE.
Identify, manage, and close dependencies; maintain dependency information in Azure DevOps; and escalate unresolved, external, or ART-level dependencies to the RTE.
Act as primary assignee for requester-side dependency work items, driving follow-up, status accuracy, validation, and closure in Azure DevOps and providing aging and escalation inputs to the RTE.
Participate in SOW reviews as appropriate, supporting Product teams and Supply Chain to align with PPL Agile Ways of Working.
Coordinate technical architecture reviews and collection of SOX and General Audit evidence, as applicable.
Support initiative delivery planning, including schedules, estimates, resource needs, status reporting, scope inputs, risks, and financial information, in partnership with Product, Project Management, Finance, and portfolio stakeholders.
Support execution of high- to strategic-scale IT initiatives within established delivery parameters and coordinate team-level work with accountable stakeholders.
Coordinate and communicate critical milestones, delivery risks, and recovery actions, and provide inputs to ART-level planning and reporting.
Communicate team- and initiative-level status, risks, dependencies, decisions, and recovery actions to the RTE and relevant stakeholders.
Support PI Planning, Inspect and Adapt, and other ART events by preparing teams, facilitating team-level activities and breakouts, and leading defined portions when delegated by the RTE.
Provide temporary backup for defined RTE activities when formally designated; overall ART events, delivery, and outcomes remain accountable to the RTE.
May provide day-to-day coaching, coordination, onboarding support, and practice guidance to assigned staff-augmentation Scrum Masters in partnership with the RTE or designated people leader.
Coordinate assigned-team and initiative-level readiness inputs and execution support for end-to-end testing, system integration testing, user acceptance testing, cutover, deployment, go-live, hypercare, and transition to steady-state operations; provide status, risks, decisions, and unresolved constraints to the RTE.
Conduct business impact analysis inside and outside the company and review findings with management of critical business functions.
Develop, implement, and administer recovery-planning and security-planning standards, procedures, and documentation.
Ensure the effectiveness of recovery and backup capabilities.
May be assigned an Electric Utilities emergency and storm role, supporting power restoration or other customer-service responses; this may require work after hours and outside the normal schedule.
Perform other duties as assigned and comply with all policies and standards.