Lead Scrum Master

Primary Location: 7000 Central Pkwy, Atlanta, GA, USA

Division: Cox Automotive

Job Level: Individual Contributor

Travel: No

Schedule: Full-time

Shift: Day Job

Requisition Number: 217718

The Lead Scrum Master has primary responsibility of facilitating the learning and growth of one or more Agile teams in developing a Lean-Agile mindset, improving practices, guiding them to more predictable delivery.

The Lead Scrum Master plays a role in facilitating Agile ceremonies and cadences, guiding service delivery orientation, and supporting teams in establishing and managing effective practices related to; visualization, WIP limits, flow management, feedback loops, and continuous improvement.

The Lead Scrum Master has intermediate knowledge of Agile, Lean, Scrum, and Kanban to help shift the team from ‘Doing Agile to ‘Being Agile. The Sr. SM understands the value of managing queue lengths, limiting WIP, recognizes the patterns, and is able to coach the team on these concepts while helping them achieve organizational "Customer-Driven" maturity and resiliency. Those in this role will be highly skilled in facilitation at the team level as well as in partnership with Engineering, Product, and Operations.

Due to current COVID-19 restrictions, this is a temporary work from home role but will ultimately work in the Atlanta office.

Backlog Management Practices

• Works with Product Owners and team members to learn and practice healthy backlog management and prioritization practices
• Facilitates the execution and improvement of backlog refinement
• Prepares for and facilitates release planning with teams
• Assists in dependency management and cross team coordination

Agile Ceremony Facilitation

• Facilitates continuous improvement and the development of a learning culture on teams
• Facilitates ceremonies, collaboration, communication, and conflict management
• eaches new team members Agile-Lean values, principles, methods and frameworks, practices, and process
• Influences the organization in the removal of organizational impediments and development of healthy Agile practices
• Mentors Product Owners and team members in agile practices and continuous improvement

Delivery Team Support

• Helps identify and mitigate impediments to the teams Flow & Service Level Expectations
• Coaches on localized vs global tradeoffs; helps organization achieve service-oriented balance of muda, muri, and mura
• Acts as a buffer between external distractions to minimize disruptions - champions "Stop Starting - Start Finishing" behaviors
• Assists in the coordination of operational issue resolution
• Facilitates team development, mediates conflict, and encourages healthy team dynamics.
• Fosters team responsibility, self-accountability, transparency and self-organization
• Leverages coaching skills to help the team learn to solve its own problems

Advice and Guidance

• Introduces and encourages team to explore healthy Agile development practices, focus on quality and technical excellence, predictable delivery, automation, and continuous delivery
• Teaches and encourages a balanced backlog that delivers valuable features for customers, reduces technical debt, provides business value, and enables product sustainability
• Helps the team to develop, capture, and analyze metrics to facilitate team improvements
• Promotes transparency through healthy communications and data integrity

Qualifications - Internal

Where permitted by applicable law, must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to be considered for this U.S. based job. (Reasonable accommodations for medical and religious objections will be considered.)

Essential:

• Bachelors degree or related field or equivalent combination of industry related professional experience and education
• Working experience related industry
• 8+ years of working experience as a Scrum Master and Scrum Master with Kanban
• Working experience in more than one of the following Lean-Agile methods or frameworks: Kanban, Scrum with Kanban, Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), Lean applied to Knowledge Work
• Working experience with Agile scaling frameworks, preferably SAFe

Desirable:

• Scrum Master certification or equivalent certified professional (Desired for lower level - required for higher)
• Kanban Management Professional (KMP) or equivalent and higher
• Professional Scrum with Kanban (PSK)
• SAFe Agilist Certification

Kanban:

• Experience and knowledge working with Lean-Kanban product technology and services teams
• Kanban or equivalent certification - Kanban Management Professional (KMP) or higher
• Professional Scrum with Kanban (PSK)

Key Responsibilities

• Coaches the Lean-Agile mindset
• Coaches team in Kanban principles and practices
• Facilitates continuous improvement
• Assists upstream Kanban management and options selection
• Helps team manage and improve flow leveraging limiting WIP, risk hedging (classes of service), feedback loop improvements, and establishment of outcome focused policies
• Facilitates transparency of metrics, impediment removal, collaboration, and coordination
• Facilitates & supports establishment of continuous learning & continuous improvement

Who We Are

About Cox Automotive

Theres nothing ordinary about Cox Automotive. We are people of every background driven by our passion for mobility, innovation, client success and community outreach. We make buying, selling and owning (or simply using) cars easier for everyone. Touching more than 40,000 clients across five continents, we bring together the best brands and the best teams to propel the automotive industry forward. Some of those team members work for our iconic consumer brands like Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book, while others are creating the future of automotive at industry-facing brands like Dealer.com, Manheim and vAuto.

About Cox

We are the Cox family of businesses. Weve been making our mark since 1898 by building and evolving world-class businesses, staying true to our values, and encouraging top talent to always look for growth and impact while building a career with us. Our primary divisions - Cox Communications and Cox Automotive - are driving a new wave of innovation, powering smart cities with powerhouse broadband communications and pioneering greener, more progressive transportation alternatives for individuals and fleet operators. Were also expanding into new spaces like cleantech and healthcare to rev up our momentum toward building a better future for the next generation. Were looking for the talent today who will be our leaders tomorrow. Sound intriguing? Learn more about where we are today, where we hope youll be going with us, and the common purpose that unites us at coxenterprises.com.

Benefits of working at Cox may include health care insurance (medical, dental, vision), retirement planning (401(k)), and paid days off (sick leave, parental leave, flexible vacation/wellness days, and/or PTO). For more details on what benefits you may be offered, visit our benefits page.

Cox is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer - All qualified applicants/employees will receive consideration for employment without regard to that individuals age, race, color, religion or creed, national origin or ancestry, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, physical or mental disability, veteran status, genetic information, ethnicity, citizenship, or any other characteristic protected by law. Cox provides reasonable accommodations when requested by a qualified applicant or employee with disability, unless such accommodations would cause an undue hardship.

Statement to ALL Third-Party Agencies and Similar Organizations: Cox accepts resumes only from agencies with which we formally engage their services. Please do not forward resumes to our applicant tracking system, Cox employees, Cox hiring manager, or send to any Cox facility. Cox is not responsible for any fees or charges associated with unsolicited resumes.