Agile Scrum Master/RTE Consulting Director

You have a clear vision of where your career can go. And we have the leadership to help you get there. At CNA, we strive to create a culture in which people know they matter and are part of something important, ensuring the abilities of all employees are used to their fullest potential.
CNA seeks to offer a comprehensive and competitive benefits package to our employees that helps them - and their family members - achieve their physical, financial, emotional and social wellbeing goals.
For a detailed look at CNA's benefits, check out our Candidate's Guide .
This is an individual contributor role that provides leadership, guidance, and mentorship to other highly technical resources and business personnel working in Scrum Teams. This role coaches and supports self-organized teams using the Agile Scrum methodology to deliver IT and business solutions for CNA. Acts as a Release Train Engineer (RTE) and/or Senior Scrum Master, partnering with the Product Owners and/or Product Managers with effective product backlog grooming to maximize business value and removes impediments to the Scrum Team's progress.
JOB DESCRIPTION:
Essential Duties & Responsibilities
Performs a combination of duties in accordance with departmental guidelines:

• Serves, leads, coaches, and supports multiple simultaneous Agile Scrum teams and/or an Agile Release Train on high-complexity initiatives consisting of internal & external (onshore and offshore) as well as business and technical resources in the delivery of IT and business products and solutions. Responsible for product delivery.
• Facilitates Scrum ceremonies and agile practices (such as Program Increment Planning (PI Planning), daily standups, Scrum of Scrums, sprint review meetings, retrospective meetings, cross-team coordination, and etc.), alongside the product owner, ensuring that Scrum Teams adhere to the Scrum values of courage, focus, commitment, respect and openness in delivering IT solutions.
• Identifies and resolves delivery impediments to optimize delivery flow. Resolves complex systemic impediments without support; escalates impediments that cannot be resolved to senior leadership. Manages risks and issues and acts to ensure they do not recur.
• Fosters an environment of continuous improvement / learning and drives substantial improvement at the team, portfolio and organizational levels. Guides team members in achieving maturity in Agile principles and Scrum practices, with a track record of increasing velocity as team matures. Proactively monitors and assesses team health and project needs.
• Serves as leading organizational expert on Agile and SAFE with deep hands-on exposure to agile processes, tools, best practices, and industry trends. Formally mentors and coaches junior scrum masters / teams
• Advises business and IT leadership (beyond the project team) on existing and emerging Agile concepts; is a sought-after expert. Assists leadership in structural / cultural change to increase agility, including advocating for introduction of new tools / processes. Contributes substantially to Agile and Scrum Master COE / COPs
• Proven track record of establishing strong team environments with high morale and team cohesion where the team members constructively challenge each other, have a sense of ownership, and advocate for the right long-term decision making
• Supports the Product Owner and/or Product Manager in managing backlog and guides the Product Owner / Scrum Team in prioritization including maintaining relevant metrics. Maintains and draws upon deep relationships across the business, within IT and with MSPs
• Coordinates interactions within and outside the Scrum Team. Builds a trusting and safe environment within the team, Product Owners, Product Manager(s), and other stakeholders. Facilitates and manages conflict resolution within the team and key stakeholders; escalates more serious conflicts to leadership.
• Promotes practices that ensure delivery of quality products, ensuring that transparency is maintained around delivery progress, quality and schedule.
• May perform additional duties as assigned.

Reporting Relationship
Typically, Assistant Vice President or above
Skills, Knowledge & Abilities

• Extensive prior experience with Agile methodologies, including Scrum, Kanban, and SAFE
• Experience acting as a servant leader across multiple simultaneous teams on complex, large-scale initiatives, with strong coaching and mentoring skills and ability to get work done without assigning out / dictating tasks.
• Experience on teams delivering modern software for enterprises using Agile methodologies including SAFE and facilitating train-level Agile Ceremonies such as PI Planning
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and interpersonal skills and the ability to work effectively with peers and team members
• Excellent personal organizational skills and prior experience using Agile management tools such as Jira
• Deep experience-based knowledge of Application Development best practices (e.g., automation, CI/CD pipelines). Provides direction on applicability to Agile teams within CNA's Portfolios

Education & Experience

• Scrum Master Certification preferred.
• SAFE RTE and Scrum Master Certification(s) preferred.
• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related discipline; or equivalent work experience.
• Typically, a minimum of ten years of related work experience such as a project delivery background in an enterprise IT environment with experience using Agile delivery methods.
• Previous project leadership experience preferred.
• Applicable certifications preferred.

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CNA is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities in the recruitment process. To request an accommodation, please contact [email protected] .