Scrum Advocate

Job Posting Title:

Scrum Advocate

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Hiring Department:

Enterprise Technology - Data to Insights (D2I)

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Position Open To:

All Applicants

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Weekly Scheduled Hours:

40

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FLSA Status:

Exempt

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Earliest Start Date:

Immediately

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Position Duration:

Expected to Continue Until Aug 31, 2026

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Location:

Texas

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Job Details:

General Notes

This is a fixed term position that is expected to continue until August 31, 2026.

Flexible work arrangements are available for this position, including the ability to work 100% remotely. Remote work for individuals who reside outside Texas but within the United States and its territories will be considered and requires Central Office approval.

This position provides life/work balance with typically a 40-hour work week and travel limited to training (e.g., conferences/courses).

Enterprise Technology is dedicated to supporting the mission of the University of Texas at Austin of unlocking potential and preparing future leaders of the state.

Your skills will make a difference.

You’ll be working for a university that is internationally recognized for research and the work you do will make a difference in the lives of our students, faculty and staff. If you’re the type of person that wants to know your work has meaning and impact, you’ll like working for our campus.

The University of Texas at Austin and Enterprise Technology provide an outstanding benefits package to our staff. Those benefits include:

• Competitive health benefits (Employee premiums covered at 100%; family premiums at 50%) 
• Vision, dental, life, and disability insurance options 
• Paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays 
• Teachers Retirement System of Texas (a defined benefit retirement plan) 
• Additional voluntary retirement programs: tax sheltered annuity 403(b) and a deferred compensation program 457(b) 
• Flexible spending account options for medical and childcare expenses 
• Training and conference opportunities 
• Tuition assistance 
• Athletic ticket discounts 
• Access to UT Austin's libraries and museums 
• Free rides on all UT Shuttle and Capital Metro buses with staff ID card 

For more details, please see: https://hr.utexas.edu/prospective/benefits and https://hr.utexas.edu/current/services/my-total-rewards 

Must be authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis for any employer without sponsorship.

This position requires you to maintain internet service and a mobile phone with voice and data plans to be used when required for work.

Purpose

We are seeking a Scrum Advocate to join our team. Formerly known as a 'Scrum master,’ this position will help to support equality, respect, justice, and effectiveness within a new work group applying Agile methodologies.

The Scrum Advocate for the Data to Insights (D2I) Initiative will guide and coach D2I Scrum teams on agile practices and principles to integrate and simplify university data for insightful decision-making. The Scrum Advocate will engage with stakeholders from various university academic, administrative, and student support offices and with Scrum team members with functional, analytical, and technical expertise; they also will work, as needed, with the D2I operations team and the chief strategist for D2I to steer Scrum adoption and implementation. This position calls for a servant leader and changes agent who supports the initiative and the university as we establish core practices of transparency, inspection, and adaptation and uphold our core values of respect, focus, openness, commitment, and courage.
 

Responsibilities

Planning and Implementation:

• Organize and facilitate Scrum events such as sprint and release planning, daily stand-ups, sprint demos and reviews, and sprint retrospectives.
• Work with the development team and product owner to identify techniques for effective product backlog refinement, including the curation of clear and concise backlog items, product owner communication and education, minimum viable product agreement, and product release.
• Assist the development team by making appropriate commitments through task definition, estimation, prioritization, and story selection.
• Equip and assist the Scrum team to remove impediments and shield the team from outside distractions.
• Employ holistic thinking to recognize patterns and suggest creative and iterative approaches to continuous improvement, looking for opportunities to initiate change that will increase the productivity and effectiveness of the teams.
• Perceive and appreciate cultural dynamics within and across teams and continuously adapt our implementation of Scrum strategies to maximize value.

Coaching:

• Train, mentor, and support cross-functional teams of analysts, engineers, and functional experts to follow Agile values, principles, and practices, including self-organization, self-discipline, collaborative decision making, cooperative development, experimentation, and continuous learning. Encourage transparency, inspection, and adaptation. 
• Model flexibility and creativity in effectively addressing internal and external challenges.
• Provide one-on-one coaching with Scrum team members, stakeholders, and administrators. Translate Scrum and Agile nuanced language and concepts.
• Nurture an embracive and supportive environment to create and maintain psychological safety, individual empowerment, team cohesion, and morale.
• Contribute to performance management by recognizing individual strengths and growth areas, providing mentorship, and advocating for personal advancement and success.

Communication:

• Function as the team’s information radiator, ensuring necessary internal and external communication and improving overall transparency.
• Discover or establish communication channels to foster collaboration amongst team members, leadership, and stakeholders.
• Serve as liaison between the business, represented by the product owner, and the development team, ensuring that goals, scope, and product domain are understood by everyone on the Scrum team.

• Perform other related functions as assigned.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or at least 4 years of professional experience in information technology or related field.
• Agile expertise and experience coaching and guiding team members.
• Demonstrated knowledge of implementing incremental delivery methods, backlog tracking, producing burndown metrics, measuring velocity, and task definition.
• Understanding of fundamentals of iterative development as it pertains to moving to an Agile methodology.
• Strong skills in organization and prioritization and ability to foster team self-organization.
• Demonstrated high-energy and motivational skills, including the ability to facilitate discussion and communicate well with teams, advocating for a comprehensive approach with a bias for making sure all team members have an opportunity to speak up and encouraging alternatives and divergent thinking.
• Ability to recognize and address behaviors that are counterproductive to the team dynamic and meeting sprint objectives and effectively mediate peer disputes and interpersonal or working style differences.
• Demonstrated insight and initiative to ensure effective implementation of Agile/scrum principles and practices and to engage peers and leadership when help is needed.
• Ability to bring disclosure and transparency to the organization and enhance trust.
• Understanding of other project management processes and methodologies and fundamentals of software development.

Equivalent combination of relevant education and experience may be substituted as appropriate.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience as an Agile project manager or team lead in a data management or business intelligence context.
• Experience as an IT project manager or team lead in a large, enterprise environment.
• Experience with administering Jira.
• Experience driving or coaching DevOps best practices such as CI/CD and test-first approaches (TDD, BDD, Shift-left).
• Experience working in in higher education.
• Experience implementing Agile in highly regulated or matrixed organizations.
• Agile certification such as CSM, PSM or DASM.
• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification

Salary Range

$76,284 - $100,000

Working Conditions

• May work around standard office conditions
• Repetitive use of a keyboard at a workstation
• Use of manual dexterity (ex: using a mouse)

Work Shift

Monday – Friday 8am-5pm; Occasional nights or weekends may be required

Required Materials

• Resume/CV
• 3 work references with their contact information; at least one reference should be from a supervisor
• Letter of interest

Important for applicants who are NOT current university employees or contingent workers: You will be prompted to submit your resume the first time you apply, then you will be provided an option to upload a new Resume for subsequent applications. Any additional Required Materials (letter of interest, references, etc.) will be uploaded in the Application Questions section; you will be able to multi-select additional files. Before submitting your online job application, ensure that ALL Required Materials have been uploaded. Once your job application has been submitted, you cannot make changes.

Important for Current university employees and contingent workers: As a current university employee or contingent worker, you MUST apply within Workday by searching for Find UT Jobs. If you are a current University employee, log-in to Workday, navigate to your Worker Profile, click the Career link in the left hand navigation menu and then update the sections in your Professional Profile before you apply. This information will be pulled in to your application. The application is one page and you will be prompted to upload your resume. In addition, you must respond to the application questions presented to upload any additional Required Materials (letter of interest, references, etc.) that were noted above

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Employment Eligibility:

Regular staff who have been employed in their current position for the last six continuous months are eligible for openings being recruited for through University-Wide or Open Recruiting, to include both promotional opportunities and lateral transfers. Staff who are promotion/transfer eligible may apply for positions without supervisor approval.

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Retirement Plan Eligibility:

The retirement plan for this position is Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS), subject to the position being at least 20 hours per week and at least 135 days in length.

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Background Checks:

A criminal history background check will be required for finalist(s) under consideration for this position.

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Equal Opportunity Employer:

The University of Texas at Austin, as an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer, complies with all applicable federal and state laws regarding nondiscrimination and affirmative action. The University is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, religion, or veteran status in employment, educational programs and activities, and admissions.

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Pay Transparency:

The University of Texas at Austin will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information.

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Employment Eligibility Verification:

If hired, you will be required to complete the federal Employment Eligibility Verification I-9 form.  You will be required to present acceptable and original documents to prove your identity and authorization to work in the United States.  Documents need to be presented no later than the third day of employment.  Failure to do so will result in loss of employment at the university.

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E-Verify:

The University of Texas at Austin use E-Verify to check the work authorization of all new hires effective May 2015. The university’s company ID number for purposes of E-Verify is 854197. For more information about E-Verify, please see the following:

• E-Verify Poster (English) [PDF]
• E-Verify Poster (Spanish) [PDF]
• Right To Work Poster (English) [PDF]
• Right To Work Poster (Spanish) [PDF]

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Compliance:

Employees may be required to report violations of law under Title IX and the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act). If this position is identified a Campus Security Authority (Clery Act), you will be notified and provided resources for reporting. Responsible employees under Title IX are defined and outlined in HOP-3031.

The Clery Act requires all prospective employees be notified of the availability of the Annual Security and Fire Safety report. You may access the most recent report here or obtain a copy at University Compliance Services, 1616 Guadalupe Street, UTA 2.206, Austin, Texas 78701.