Scrum Master (Local to Memphis Only)

Job Title: Scrum Master
Location: Onsite in Memphis, TN
Duration: 12+ Months Contract

Local candidates to Memphis, TN Only 

Top Skills

Experience with multiple frameworks to include Scrum, Kanban, LeSS, Nexus, Scrum at Skills Scale. Certifications such as CSPCSM or PMI-ACP (equivalent to 5 years of practical SM experience).

This position will be responsible for removing impediments that stand in the way of the scrum team’s success and in ensuring that the scrum process is adhered to in conjunction with agile values, principles, and standard practices. This position will ensure that the team(s) conduct Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective that support decision-making processes and enable quick inspection and adaptation for continuous improvement and agile maturity growth.

 

Essential Job Functions

• Ensure that user-stories are “sprint ready” by assisting the product owner with backlog refinement activities, and ready for further user-story refinement by the scrum team(s). Leverage data to effectively forecast team velocity and support rightsizing of sprint goals, ensuring all deliverables are set up to meet acceptance criteria, but also effectively stretch and grow team(s)’ capabilities.
• Foster an environment of cross-functional collaboration – ensuring that everyone on the team(s) can be trusted, heard, and valued. 
• Assist the team(s) by resolving any external dependencies from outside teams that pose a risk to the team(s)’ ability to achieve their business goals.
• Motivate members of the assigned scrum team influence them to take positive action and maintain accountability for their assigned work.
• Participate as a member of the Scrum Master Community of Practice (SM CoP) by identifying user stories applicable to the community of Scrum Masters, planning and delivery of user stories based on prioritization from the Director and freely sharing of ideas and key notes from outside agile conventions, user groups, and other venues. 
• Create and publish appropriate agile metrics. Familiar with tools supporting agile practices such as JIRA and Confluence or comparable tools (Rally, SharePoint, etc.).
• Build and maintain positive relationships with partner departments; actively seek solutions to address process or creative production challenges.
• Work with scrum team(s) to develop continuous improvement plans to further the agile growth and maturity of the team(s).
• Negotiate people and skill requirements and/or communicate specific needs (skills growth, hardware, software, or tool needs) with appropriate management within ITS.

 

REQUIREMENTS

• Must be well organized and systematic in work processes, possess excellent communication and collaboration skills with the ability to work effectively with groups and in the conduct of meetings.
• Ability to work well within a fast-paced team environment; guide team towards empowerment and self-decision-making as appropriate.
• Must have strong leadership skills and be able to lead agile teams; exercising strong interpersonal skills; experience managing distributed scrum teams; communicate effectively with offsite team members to ensure team cohesiveness and coordination. 
• Thorough understanding of agile software development values, principles and practices. Knowledgeable on agile practices for quality software development and delivery.
• Knowledge of patterns and techniques for the scrum approach (example: burndown techniques, retrospective formats, handling bugs, etc.). 
• Requires knowledge ordinarily acquired through a bachelor’s degree in a related field
• 3+ years of Scrum Master Experience. Solid general knowledge of at least two of the following: User Stories, Continuous Integration, Test-Driven Development, DevOps, Continuous Testing, Pairing, Automated Testing, and/or Agile Games.  Solid general knowledge of interactive, web-based technologies encompassing both front-end and back-end.

 

Preferred Job Functions

Active Certification in at least two of the following professional designations: Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Professional Scrum Master (PSM), Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), Certified Team Coach (CTC), SA (SaFE Agilist Certification), or PMI-ACP (Project Management Institute – Agile Certified Practitioner). Mental – Requires a high degree of concentration and attention to coordinate agile team(s) scrum activities approximately 90% of time.