Safe Scrum Master certification or comparable certification
7+ years of Scrum Master or Agile coaching experience
3+ years coaching platform administration, platform operations, infrastructure, cloud operations, SRE, service operations, or technical operations teams
Experience coaching platform administration teams within a Scaled Agile environment (data/platform operations, DataOps, or data operations teams)
Requirements:
Coach platform administration and operations teams on agile ways of working appropriate for platform support and operations environments, balancing planned work with unplanned work (incidents, production support, service requests, defects, upgrades, maintenance, and improvement initiatives)
Establish healthy practices for backlog management, work intake, triage, prioritization, capacity allocation, dependency management, flow optimization, and service-level transparency; coach on when to apply Scrum, Kanban, or hybrid patterns based on work type
Support scaled agile events and practices as appropriate, including PI Planning, iteration planning, team retrospectives, ART synchronization, Inspect & Adapt, and cross-team coordination; partner with RTEs, product/service leaders, engineering leaders, and Agile Coaches to improve team and ART-level ways of working
Define and improve metrics meaningful for platform/admin/ops (throughput, aging work, response time, resolution time, unplanned work ratio, flow efficiency, predictability and forecasting, WIP); help build sustainable operating models for shared services and platform support aligned with Scaled Agile principles
Job description
Our Client, a Health Insurance company, is looking for a Senior Scrum Master for their Remote location.
Responsibilities: Situational Context
Within our D&A organization, multiple administration and operations teams are responsible for supporting critical enterprise data and interoperability platforms. These teams do not always conform to the standard Scrum patterns typically employed by feature delivery teams.
As such, there is a need for a senior-level coach who can assist both teams and leaders in adopting fit-for-purpose ways of working.
The goal is to enhance flow, transparency, prioritization, predictability, and responsiveness, all while avoiding the imposition of a rigid agile framework that may not align with the unique requirements of operational platform work.
Coach platform administration and operations teams on agile ways of working appropriate for platform support and operations environments
Help teams balance planned work and unplanned work, including incidents, production support, service requests, defects, upgrades, maintenance, and improvement initiatives
Guide teams in establishing healthy practices for:
Backlog management
Work intake
Triage
Prioritization
Capacity allocation
Dependency management
Flow optimization
Service-level transparency
Coach Scrum Masters, Product/Service leaders, people managers, and teams on when to apply Scrum, Kanban, or hybrid patterns based on work type
Support Scaled Agile events and practices as appropriate, including PI Planning, iteration planning, team retrospectives, ART synchronization, Inspect & Adapt, and cross-team coordination
Help define and improve metrics that are meaningful for platform/admin/ops teams, such as:
Throughput
Aging work
Response time
Resolution time
Unplanned work ratio
Flow efficiency
Predictability and forecasting
WIP management
Partner with RTEs, product/service leaders, engineering leaders, and Agile Coaches to improve team and ART-level ways of working
Coach leaders away from treating all work as feature delivery when operational work requires different policies, classes of service, and governance
Help build sustainable operating models for shared services, enabling work, and platform support patterns consistent with Scaled Agile principles.
Requirements:
Safe Scrum Master certification or comparable certification required
7+ years of Scrum Master or Agile coaching experience
3+ years coaching platform administration, platform operations, infrastructure, cloud operations, SRE, service operations, or technical operations teams
We are seeking a Senior Scrum Master with proven experience coaching platform administration and platform operations teams within a Scaled Agile environment.
This role is not intended for a Scrum Master whose experience is limited to traditional software development teams.
We need someone who understands how to guide teams whose work includes a blend of planned and unplanned work - operational support, incidents, maintenance, service requests, platform reliability, compliance, and continuous improvement.
The ideal candidate has experience coaching teams that support one or more of the following:
Cloud data and analytics platforms
Business intelligence platforms
API and interoperability platforms
Data services platforms
Experience coaching data platform administration, DataOps, or data operations teams is highly preferred, though not mandatory.
Demonstrated success coaching teams whose work includes a mix of:
Operational Support
Interrupt-Driven Demand
Platform Maintenance
Reliability/Stability Work
Enhancement Work
Strong understanding of Kanban, flow-based practices, work intake management, and handling unplanned work
Experience working in complex enterprise environments with multiple teams and dependencies
Strong facilitation, coaching, and stakeholder management skills
Ability to challenge unhelpful agile habits and tailor practices to the actual work
Experience coaching data platform administration teams, DataOps teams, or data operations teams
Experience in cloud data/analytics environments such as Snowflake, Databricks, Azure, AWS, GCP, BI platforms, API platforms, or enterprise data services
Experience supporting teams in regulated or highly governed environments
Familiarity with platform reliability, observability, service management, and operational excellence practices
Experience working with Jira and/or Jira Align
Safe Advanced Scrum Master, SPC, or relevant agile coaching credentials preferred but not required
Within the engagement, this person should help:
Establish more effective ways of working for platform admin and ops teams
Improve visibility into planned vs unplanned work
Reduce confusion caused by forcing feature-team agile patterns onto operational teams
Improve flow, prioritization, and predictability
Strengthen team and leadership understanding of how to operate platform and DataOps teams effectively in a safe environment
This person is not a ceremony manager.
They are a senior agile practitioner who understands the realities of platform operations and knows how to coach teams toward practical, sustainable operating models.
They know that admin/ops teams cannot be coached the same way as clean-sheet product development teams, and they can translate agile at scale principles into something that actually works in the real world.
ICONMA is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive considerationfor employment without regard to any status protected by applicable law.
