SHYFT Analytics (a Medidata company) is seeking an experienced Senior Scrum Master to provide hands on facilitation and coaching to scrum teams and work as a part of our larger organizational improvement efforts. Reporting to the Product Operations Manager this individual will support up to two scrum teams, in addition to fostering a culture of continual improvement and high trust. Candidates should thrive as a servant leader dedicated to helping teams to achieve truly outstanding results, and they must have the patience to methodically work through larger organizational constraints. 
This is a highly-visible individual contributor role within the Product organization who will be working with both technical and business leaders to help drive organizational agility. 
Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Teach and drive the use of good Agile/Scrum practices on all teams including; user story writing, definition of done, team estimation, etc.

• Facilitate the proper use of JIRA by teams to ensure that it remains the source of truth.

• Coordinate closely with Product Owners to ensure that stakeholders are consulted and informed.

• Identify cross-team dependencies and work with Product Owners and Scrum Masters to address them.

• Organize and facilitate all sprint ceremonies (planning, review, retrospective, and standups)

• Accountable for teams understanding and using Scrum and other agile practices well.

• Participate in Scrum of Scrums and release planning sessions as necessary, providing visibility into the teams' backlogs, progress, and impediments.

• Foster team self-organization and ownership of complex problems.

• Work with other Scrum Masters to provide product and organizational visibility and agility including dependency resolution, longer term planning, and organizational improvement.

• Help organize and facilitate quarterly Big Room Planning events, driving teams to make achievable plans in which there is high confidence.

• Improve team performance by identifying, managing, and supporting resolution of team impediments.

• Provide coaching and mentoring to team members as well as stakeholders about agile practices and values.

• Create a culture of continual improvement based on empirical feedback.

• Champion operational improvement and agility both within the team and beyond.

Interpersonal and Technical Skills

• Servant Leader -- Earn the team's respect and roll up your sleeves to help the team succeed.

• Communicative and social -- excellent interpersonal and group facilitation skills including the ability to work with diverse stakeholders and personality types.

• Assertive -- Must be able to ensure agile and scrum concepts and principles are adhered to, and not afraid to be a voice of reason and authority. Willing to hold the team accountable to its vision and values.

• Situationally Aware -- Must be the first to notice differences and issues as they arise and elevate them to team and to management, where appropriate. Proven problem-solver.

• Enthusiastic -- Must be high-energy and situationally aware. An active participant in all team activities. Passionate advocate for the agile mindset.

• Attitude of transparency -- Must desire to bring disclosure and transparency to the business about the team and grow business trust.

• Creativity, initiative, and flexibility -- Tempered by pragmatism, patience, and attention to detail.

• Honest, friendly, and collegial, with a great sense of humor.

JOB QUALIFICATIONS 
 

Education:

• Bachelor's Degree from an accredited college or university

Experience:

• 3+ years as a Scrum Master/project lead working with dedicated agile teams using Scrum and other Agile practices.

• Strong understanding and experience with software development and the product development lifecycle.

• Proven capability of managing multiple priorities effectively and managing stakeholder expectations in potentially high stakes situations.

• Ability to communicate at all levels of the organization (including senior management) on issues of strategy, risk, process, and ongoing operations.

Other Knowledge, Skills, Abilities or Certifications:

• Certified Scrum Master (CSM) certification required

• Additional training/certifications:

  • Agile Coaching

  • Agile Team Facilitation

  • Certified Scrum Product Owner

• Understanding of technical practices that encourage agility, such as eXtreme Programming (XP), Test Driven Development (TDD), and DevOps

• Industry experience in life sciences and/or data analytics is a plus