Scrum Master

Overview

The Scrum Master is a servant leader responsible for coaching the Scrum teams to make progress, learn, and function at the highest level, which includes removing impediments to progress, facilitating meetings, and working with product owners to ensure product backlog is well-groomed and ready for the next sprint, and acting as a buffer between the team and any distracting influences. This requires a good understanding of the Scrum framework and the ability to train others on it.

Responsibilities: Sprint Planning & Facilitation

• Show team planned velocity vs. historical velocity, to make sure targeted work can be accepted
• Help Product Owner planning and road mapping discussions
• Foster conversations/communications
• Enforce team ground rules and cultural norms
• Review action items and holds team accountable for follow through
• Facilitate Sprint Reviews; Work with Product Owner and team to determine agenda for the review • Analyze and interpret sprint metrics
• Give status reports; communicate accomplishments, issues, and risks to product stakeholders
• Facilitate Sprint Retrospectives; Capture info and summarize as sprint planning input
• Work with Product Owner to administer, prepare, groom, prioritize and right-size backlog • Facilitate tasking process or charge the team with what needs to be accomplished so that team can self-organize and accomplish sprint goals Keeps whole team(s) moving forward; Fosters team’s self-organization and remove distractions, impediments, and roadblocks are removed. Facilitate regular agile events to ensure progress.
• Ensure the team is fully functional and productive
• Enable close cooperation across all roles and functions and removes barriers
• Shield team from external interferences
• Encourage team to be more self-organizing and self-managing Coach the team(s); Help Product Owner understand how to create and maintain proper product backlog. Work with team to determine definition of done. Coach the team on how to execute the Scrum processes.
• Find techniques for effective product backlog management
• With the Product Owner, clearly communicates product vision, roadmap and product backlog items to the development team
• Monitors team for:
  • Agile anti-patterns
  • People working in isolation for more than a day
  • Anyone making little visible progress
  • Wait times or other wasteful processes
  • Poor software engineering practices
  • Infrequent builds
  • Opportunities to amplify cross-training and “T” shaping
  • Slippages in quality or velocity trends Facilitate whole teams’ understanding of Scrum
• Ensures application of agile principles
• Ensures understanding and practicing agility
• Fosters creativity and empowerment
• Ensures the process is followed
• Facilitates retrospectives and promotes continuous improvement Requirements
• Must be able to communicate well with teams and demonstrate value-add principles
• Experience as a Scrum Master for a software team that was diligently applying Scrum principles, practices, and theory preferred
• Must have the requisite agile knowledge of software development experience to coach and guide Development Team members on how to improve their skills.
• Must be able to ensure Agile/Scrum concepts and principles are adhered to and make the tough calls
• Ability to notice differences and issues as they arise and elevate them to management.

The target hiring compensation range for this role is $60.00 to $66.67 an hour. Compensation is based on several factors including, but not limited to education, relevant work experience, relevant certifications, and location.

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About Aquent Talent:

Aquent Talent connects the best talent in marketing, creative, and design with the world’s biggest brands.

Our eligible talent get access to amazing benefits like subsidized health, vision, and dental plans, paid sick leave, and retirement plans with a match. We also offer free online training through Aquent Gymnasium. More information on our awesome benefits! 

Aquent is an equal-opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics. We’re about creating an inclusive environment—one where different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives are valued, and everyone can contribute, grow their careers, and thrive.