Agile Coach

As the Agile Coach you will be responsible for leading the Agile and Lean transformation for multiple Lines of Business to lead and support the best practices in delivering innovative state-of-the-art software products. A significant portion of this will be influencing and driving change within a bi-modal (combination of Agile and Waterfall) organization as part of the transformation team, reporting to the Director of Agile/Lean Coaching. 

We are seeking an Agile professional with experience leading teams and people in a complex environment and with a positive mindset. If you have previously led Agile/Scrum adoption as part of the transformation team as well as those who drive and influence change and can effectively communicate with all levels of the organization, this position will allow you to grow personally and professionally as well as make a real difference in building trusted business relationships using the power of data. 

Your mission will be to evoke and catalyze the growth and development of software delivery teams and multiple other groups of stakeholders as agents of organizational transformation. To accomplish this mission, you combine education, coaching, mentoring and consulting within a comprehensive transformation framework. 

Responsibilities: 

• Act as a change agent and as part of the team of Coaches leading and supporting teams and individuals in their Agile and Lean journey. 
• Be able to make decisions and independently drive any aspect of Agile rollout at a team and management level. 
• Orchestrate transition to Agile and Lean for a large organization as part of the Agile/Lean Coaching team. Act as a liaison with the Lines of Business. 
• Build trust with the business and throughout the organization. 
• Ensure cross-value stream coordination and collaboration, drive highest productivity and better predictability of delivery across organization. 
• Foster innovation and encourage continuous improvement 
• Advise on dependency management techniques between internal teams and third parties, release managers, or between Agile teams. 
• Actively build and contribute to the company's Agile and Lean Community and develop Communities of Practice, mentor Agile practitioners. 
• Create training materials and provide training and coaching throughout the organization. 
• Support Agile teams in their development, playbook creation, and in establishing consistent best practices. 
• Collaborate with non-Agile team, educate and support them throughout transformation. Define relevant metrics that help the program see how they are doing. 
• Inspire all stakeholders at any level in their Agile transition. 
• Develop, coach, and mentor team members to advance their skills and career. 

Competencies Necessary for Success: 

• Servant Leader - Must be able to garner respect throughout the organization at all level and be willing to get their hands dirty to get the job done. 
• Thought Leader - Must challenge status quo and grow every day. Must be able to build trust and earn respect at all levels within the company. 
• Communicative and social - Must be able to communicate well with all levels of the organization from Scrum team members to executives. 
• Facilitative - Must be able to lead and demonstrate value-add principles to a team in a collaborative way. 
• Assertive - Must be able to ensure Agile/Scrum concepts and principles are adhered to, must be able to be a voice of reason and authority, make the tough calls. 
• Situationally Aware - Must be the first to notice differences and issues as they arise and take an action. 
• Enthusiastic - Must be high-energy and inspire others. 
• Continuous Improvement - Must continually be growing ones craft learning new tools and techniques to manage oneself and a team 
• Conflict Resolution - Must be able to facilitate discussion and facilitate alternatives or different approaches 
• Attitude of Empowerment - Must be able to lead the company to self-organization. 
• Attitude of Transparency - Must desire to bring disclosure and transparency to the business about development and grow business trust. 
• Quick Learner - Must be able to quickly gain a high level understanding of the technical and business domains of the Scrum teams 
• Lean Mindset - Committed to maximizing value while minimizing waste, relentlessly curious, and dedicated to building a culture of continuous improvement and lean thinking 

This role requires understanding of: 

• Professional coaching and active listening techniques 
• Organizational change patterns and anti-patterns 
• Agile and Lean frameworks (e.g. Scrum, Extreme Programming, Kanban, SAFe) and mindsets 
• Software product envisioning approaches while having customer in mind 
• Incremental delivery and the value of metrics 
• Fundamentals of software development processes and procedures, as well as modern technologies 
• Lean startup and lean product development 
• Principles of effective communication 
• Innovation principles and mindset 

Position Requirements:

• External 10+ years of IT experience 
• 5+ years of experience as a Scrum Master, Product Owner or Agile Coach in a large organization 
• 3+ years of leading/managing people 
• 3+ years of experience working on large scale, multiple Scrum team projects 
• 2+ years of experience working on mixed methodology program (Scrum interfacing with Waterfall from a dependency perspective) 
• Understanding of other processes and methodologies and ability to speak intelligently about them 
• Experience in creating training materials and sharing knowledge at different levels 
• Outstanding presentation and communication record (conference presentation, professional community events) 
• Deep understanding of common Agile and Lean practices and better product envisioning and development practices 
• Superb conflict resolution and consensus building skills 
• Experience with Agile tools such as Jira, Rally, etc 
• Experience with various testing techniques such as Test Driven Development and experience with behavior driven testing is a plus 

Assets: 

• Scrum Master Industry certification 
• Lean Methodology Certifications 
• Lean Startup experience 
• Active participation in agile and lean communities and events 
• Graduate Degree preferred 
• SAFe or other scaled Agile Certification(s) is a plus 
• ACI (Agile Coaching Institute) Agile Facilitation certification is a plus