Lead Scrum Master

The Lead Scrum Master is a servant leader, change agent, and hands‑on delivery practitioner who leads a team of Scrum Masters and actively supports one or more Agile teams. They guide the organization’s adoption of SAFe, facilitate key ceremonies, remove impediments, and translate software development practices into business‑friendly language. Operating with a startup‑like bias to action, they balance strategic enablement (standards, training, metrics) with direct execution (facilitation, risk management, tooling), and provide principled challenge to secure needed information and trade‑offs—always through collaborative, outcome‑focused engagement and enabling guardrails.

Duties/Responsibilities

• Direct people leadership of Scrum Masters (hiring, onboarding, coaching, performance management, and career development).
• Establish and steward a Community of Practice for Scrum Masters; model and reinforce continuous improvement.
• Actively facilitate core Agile ceremonies (Stand‑ups, Sprint Planning, Reviews/Demos, Retrospectives, Backlog Refinement) for at least one team; coach other Scrum Masters to elevate practice.
• Define, socialize, and continuously improve SAFe‑aligned ways of working (PI Planning, ART Sync, System Demos, Inspect & Adapt), and manage cross‑team dependencies.
• Partner with Product and Business stakeholders to assess requirements, clarify feasibility and “why,” and deliver principled challenge to align on informed, efficient decisions.
• Maintain a collaborative posture; set enabling guardrails and working agreements that protect flow, quality, and predictability.
• Remove impediments, mitigate risks, and escalate systemic blockers; apply ROAM and maintain visible RAID logs.
• Build and operate delivery metrics (flow, predictability, throughput, quality); ensure transparent reporting to team, program, and portfolio stakeholders.
• Uphold product development processes (DoR/DoD, release readiness); identify gaps and lead process improvements across the lifecycle.
• Maintain accurate plans, status, and outcomes in the system(s) of record (e.g., Jira, VersionOne, Azure DevOps, Redmine) and produce delivery artifacts as needed.
• Model professional communication standards (tone, clarity, inclusivity) and coach leaders and teams accordingly.
  
  

Required Skills/Abilities

• Deep expertise with SAFe, Agile coaching, facilitation, and change management; proven ability to accelerate adoption.
• Exceptional communication and business storytelling skills; translates technical concepts into actionable business outcomes.
• Strong stakeholder management, negotiation, and conflict resolution; comfortable delivering principled challenge to protect flow and quality.
• Demonstrated leadership of Scrum Masters and cross‑functional teams while personally executing critical delivery activities.
• Proficiency with Agile tooling and reporting (e.g., Jira, VersionOne, Azure DevOps, Redmine), and Microsoft Office.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Project/Business Management, or related field.
• Certifications: CSM, PMI‑ACP (required); SAFe SPC or SAFe Agilist (SA) strongly preferred.
• 7+ years in Agile delivery with 3+ years leading Scrum Masters or driving SAFe transformations; hands‑on multi‑team or ART coordination.
• Highly organized and detail‑oriented; able to operate under tight deadlines while sustaining team health.