Job Description :
Title: Agile Coach
Location: Madison NJ
Duration: 4- months contract to hire
Must be able to interview onsite
Must live close enough to commute to Madison NJ.
Phone interview will be 2 then onsite with hiring manager
SUMMARY
The Agile Coach has a strong understanding of business needs, works collaboratively in a cross-function team environment and is results-oriented. As the Agile Coach, you will be a trusted advisor to all ranks within the company on how to mature our Agile implementation. Next to this, you are driven to empower teams to collaborate and make effective decisions promoting adaptive planning, evolutionary development, early delivery and continuous improvement. You will educate colleagues of all different levels of the organization on the agile principles. The Agile Coach must embody the Agile principles and lead by example.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
include the following. Other duties may be assigned:
Implement Agile processes, principles and practices across all levels and departments in an organization. The Agile Coach must use techniques that increase collaboration, predictability, transparency and promote a culture of experimentation and innovation.
Develop Agile Adoption Strategy, Create Maturity Roadmap, Implement Agile Methodology, Educate Colleagues and Mentor teams.
Investigate required changes in the organization to start using Agile across business and IT teams or a mix of those.
Guide teams into the Agile methodology, providing feedback and means of improvement, catalyzing organizational growth and answering questions.
Guide teams to a higher understanding and formalize the business value of the business requirements and facilitate in the prioritization.
Coach business and IT people in using Agile techniques like story mapping, using a portfolio wall, scrum ceremonies and estimating.
Coach teams and the organization to achieve self-organization team accountability, on how to identify and burn-down technical debt and how to bring disclosure and transparency to the business and grow business trust.
Be an agile expert; Remain at the leading-edge of Agile development practices and contribute to their spreading across the organization.
Build, Deliver and improve customized Agile training.
Train and coach new team members, Scrum Masters, Product Owners and Executives in Agile values, principles, practices and the Scrum framework and Kanban principles. Training will continue all the time during the project execution and continuous improvement on velocity, quality, processes, etc.
Help assess the overall health of the Agile practices and culture to identify opportunities and improve and provide coaching to improve.
Support and contribute to the strategy, direction and goals of the product.
Help in preparing the overall planning of the project that means they will work as a consultant; providing various ideas, suggestions and strategies.
Assist the team in implementing effective metrics on things that impact value-driven delivery.
Check-in on teams, help them to stay on track with agile techniques and fine-tune behavior, as needed; is not part of any scrum team.
Ensure the team is following agile processes in each sprint at user story level as per the Definition of Done (DoD
Coach team members who are currently wearing Scrum Master hats
Provide objective guidance without personal or political considerations.
Work with teams, identify project risks and raise them immediately.
Remove impediments on team as well as at the organizational level.
Act as a Facilitator, running Release Planning Sessions and Retrospectives on a larger program-level scale.
Share wins and struggles with everyone so teams learn and grow.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
8+ years performing as an Agile Coach role helping teams efficiently deliver software in an environment that supported as least 5 teams.
5 years performing as a Developer, QA, Release Manager or any other role that promotes strong understanding of SDLC.
4 years creating Agile training / workshop materials.
4 years ingrained in DevOps Maturity and tools environment.
OTHER QUALIFICATIONS:
Experience in implementing agile techniques in different cultures and environments, including medium-large corporations.
Successfully run agile projects of varying size and complexity in both Scrum and Kanban.
Experience with Agile product and portfolio management.
Deep understanding of Agile with hands on experience in Scum as well as other Agile methodologies - such as Kanban, Lean or eXtreme Programming.
Passionate about Agile, SCRUM, SAFE, Lean and DevOps.
Exemplary communication, organization, negotiation and leadership skills