Position Overview
The Scrum Master is responsible for facilitating Agile ceremonies, removing impediments, and ensuring the Scrum team operates effectively in an AI-augmented development environment. This role serves as a servant-leader who coaches the team on Scrum practices while experimenting with emerging ways of working that leverage AI tools and capabilities. The Scrum Master maintains project velocity and team engagement across distributed environments through metrics-driven process adaptation and continuous learning.
Key Responsibilities
1. Scrum Ceremony Scheduling & Facilitation
- Schedule all scrum ceremonies (daily standups, sprint planning, backlog grooming, sprint reviews, and retrospectives) coordinating team members across multiple time zones
- Identify optimal meeting times that accommodate all distributed team members or rotate meeting times fairly across regions
- Maintain optimal ceremony schedules to establish team rhythm and predictability
- Ensure ceremonies start and end on time with clear agendas and documented outcomes
- Provide calendar invitations and reminders in advance to prevent missed meetings
- Continuously evaluate ceremony effectiveness through participant feedback and outcome metrics, adapting format and frequency based on data. Experiment with ceremony formats that accommodate AI-assisted preparation and decision-making
2. AI-Augmented Workflow Experimentation & Optimization
- Facilitate experiments with AI-assisted development workflows, measuring impact on velocity, quality, and team satisfaction
- Work with team to identify opportunities where AI tools can augment individual and team capabilities
- Track and analyze metrics on AI tool adoption, effectiveness, and team productivity patterns
- Facilitate retrospectives focused on learning from process experiments and adapting based on quantitative and qualitative data
- Help team develop principles and practices for effective human-AI collaboration
- Document successful patterns and anti-patterns for AI-leveraged work within the team's context
3. Metrics & Continuous Improvement
- Establish and maintain team metrics dashboard tracking velocity, cycle time, quality indicators, and team health
- Facilitate data-driven retrospectives using quantitative evidence to inform process decisions
- Work with team to define experiments with clear hypotheses and success criteria
- Track leading and lagging indicators to identify process improvements proactively
- Analyze trends in team performance and impediments to inform coaching approach
- Report on team metrics and process experiments to leadership with insights and recommendations
4. Backlog Grooming & Preparation
- Facilitate pre-grooming sessions with product owners to identify and prioritize work items before grooming meetings
- Lead comprehensive backlog grooming calls where user stories are refined, clarified, and sized
- Ensure user stories meet definition of ready criteria before being added to the sprint backlog
- Work with product owners and technical leads to break down complex stories into manageable tasks
- Document acceptance criteria, technical requirements, and dependencies clearly during grooming sessions
- Prepare grooming agendas and share materials with the team in advance
- Facilitate exploration of how AI tools can assist in story decomposition, acceptance criteria definition, and estimation. Track metrics on story quality, refinement efficiency, and downstream impacts on development flow
5. Daily Standups & Team Monitoring
- Facilitate daily standup meetings
- Ensure each team member discusses: what they completed, what they plan to work on, and any blockers
- Identify and escalate impediments that prevent team members from completing their work
- Track blocker resolution and follow up with team leads when needed
- Maintain visibility into individual workload and team progress against sprint goals
- Adapt standup format to optimize for distributed team members (across multiple time zones)
- Adapt standup format based on team feedback and flow metrics, experimenting with asynchronous alternatives when beneficial. Use quantitative data on blockers and cycle time to identify systemic impediments requiring intervention
6. Sprint Planning & Goal Setting
- Facilitate sprint planning sessions where the team commits to work for the upcoming sprint
- Help team establish clear, measurable sprint goals aligned with product objectives
- Ensure team capacity is understood and sprint commitments are realistic
- Guide estimation discussions using team's preferred techniques (planning poker, t-shirt sizing, etc.)
- Document sprint goals, committed stories, and team capacity in sprint planning artifacts
- Track sprint commitment vs. completion rates to inform future planning
7. Sprint Reviews & Demonstrations
- Coordinate sprint review meetings with stakeholders, product owners, and team members
- Facilitate demonstration of completed work to stakeholders
- Gather and document stakeholder feedback on delivered functionality
- Ensure acceptance criteria validation occurs during reviews
- Track feedback themes and ensure product backlog reflects stakeholder input
- Celebrate team accomplishments and completed sprint goals
8. Retrospectives & Team Health
- Facilitate regular retrospectives to identify what went well, what didn't, and opportunities for improvement
- Create psychologically safe environment for honest feedback and constructive criticism
- Guide team in identifying actionable improvement items with clear owners and timelines
- Track retrospective action items and ensure follow-through
- Monitor team health indicators (morale, engagement, burnout risk) and escalate concerns
1. Scrum Ceremony Scheduling & Facilitation
- Schedule all scrum ceremonies (daily standups, sprint planning, backlog grooming, sprint reviews, and retrospectives) coordinating team members across multiple time zones
- Identify optimal meeting times that accommodate all distributed team members or rotate meeting times fairly across regions
- Maintain optimal ceremony schedules to establish team rhythm and predictability
- Ensure ceremonies start and end on time with clear agendas and documented outcomes
- Provide calendar invitations and reminders in advance to prevent missed meetings
- Continuously evaluate ceremony effectiveness through participant feedback and outcome metrics, adapting format and frequency based on data. Experiment with ceremony formats that accommodate AI-assisted preparation and decision-making
2. AI-Augmented Workflow Experimentation & Optimization
- Facilitate experiments with AI-assisted development workflows, measuring impact on velocity, quality, and team satisfaction
- Work with team to identify opportunities where AI tools can augment individual and team capabilities
- Track and analyze metrics on AI tool adoption, effectiveness, and team productivity patterns
- Facilitate retrospectives focused on learning from process experiments and adapting based on quantitative and qualitative data
- Help team develop principles and practices for effective human-AI collaboration
- Document successful patterns and anti-patterns for AI-leveraged work within the team's context
3. Metrics & Continuous Improvement
- Establish and maintain team metrics dashboard tracking velocity, cycle time, quality indicators, and team health
- Facilitate data-driven retrospectives using quantitative evidence to inform process decisions
- Work with team to define experiments with clear hypotheses and success criteria
- Track leading and lagging indicators to identify process improvements proactively
- Analyze trends in team performance and impediments to inform coaching approach
- Report on team metrics and process experiments to leadership with insights and recommendations
4. Backlog Grooming & Preparation
- Facilitate pre-grooming sessions with product owners to identify and prioritize work items before grooming meetings
- Lead comprehensive backlog grooming calls where user stories are refined, clarified, and sized
- Ensure user stories meet definition of ready criteria before being added to the sprint backlog
- Work with product owners and technical leads to break down complex stories into manageable tasks
- Document acceptance criteria, technical requirements, and dependencies clearly during grooming sessions
- Prepare grooming agendas and share materials with the team in advance
- Facilitate exploration of how AI tools can assist in story decomposition, acceptance criteria definition, and estimation. Track metrics on story quality, refinement efficiency, and downstream impacts on development flow
5. Daily Standups & Team Monitoring
- Facilitate daily standup meetings
- Ensure each team member discusses: what they completed, what they plan to work on, and any blockers
- Identify and escalate impediments that prevent team members from completing their work
- Track blocker resolution and follow up with team leads when needed
- Maintain visibility into individual workload and team progress against sprint goals
- Adapt standup format to optimize for distributed team members (across multiple time zones)
- Adapt standup format based on team feedback and flow metrics, experimenting with asynchronous alternatives when beneficial. Use quantitative data on blockers and cycle time to identify systemic impediments requiring intervention
6. Sprint Planning & Goal Setting
- Facilitate sprint planning sessions where the team commits to work for the upcoming sprint
- Help team establish clear, measurable sprint goals aligned with product objectives
- Ensure team capacity is understood and sprint commitments are realistic
- Guide estimation discussions using team's preferred techniques (planning poker, t-shirt sizing, etc.)
- Document sprint goals, committed stories, and team capacity in sprint planning artifacts
- Track sprint commitment vs. completion rates to inform future planning
7. Sprint Reviews & Demonstrations
- Coordinate sprint review meetings with stakeholders, product owners, and team members
- Facilitate demonstration of completed work to stakeholders
- Gather and document stakeholder feedback on delivered functionality
- Ensure acceptance criteria validation occurs during reviews
- Track feedback themes and ensure product backlog reflects stakeholder input
- Celebrate team accomplishments and completed sprint goals
8. Retrospectives & Team Health
- Facilitate regular retrospectives to identify what went well, what didn't, and opportunities for improvement
- Create psychologically safe environment for honest feedback and constructive criticism
- Guide team in identifying actionable improvement items with clear owners and timelines
- Track retrospective action items and ensure follow-through
- Monitor team health indicators (morale, engagement, burnout risk) and escalate concerns
Skills & Knowledge
- Deep understanding of Agile principles (not just Scrum mechanics) and ability to articulate the "why" behind practices
- Strong facilitation and conflict resolution skills
- Data literacy: ability to collect, analyze, and communicate team metrics effectively
- Familiarity with AI-assisted development tools and emerging ways of working
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills for distributed team environments
- Experience with Jira, Azure DevOps, or similar Agile project management tools
- Familiarity with DORA metrics and related research
Mindset & Attributes
- Principles over dogma: Respects traditional Scrum but willing to adapt when evidence supports better approaches
- Experimental mindset: Comfortable with ambiguity and structured experimentation
- Metrics-driven: Uses data to inform decisions rather than intuition alone
- Servant-leader approach focused on removing impediments and enabling team success
- Curious about how AI is changing software development and eager to explore implications for team practices
- Comfortable challenging status quo when data suggests better approaches exist
Certifications (Preferred)
- Certified Scrum Master (CSM) or Professional Scrum Master (PSM)
- Agile coaching or facilitation certifications
Success Metrics (within 6 months)
- Facilitate DORA metrics tracking
- Establish baseline team metrics (velocity, cycle time, quality indicators) and demonstrate measurable improvement trends
- Implement at least 3 documented process experiments with clear hypotheses, measurements, and learnings
- Help set and track multiple team performance metric targets, and demonstrate results over 2-week, 1-month, and quarterly horizons
- Co-develop Developer Experience (Dx) measurements
- Increase team satisfaction scores (measured via retrospectives and surveys)
- Document evolving "ways of working" based on experimentation results
- Successfully integrate AI-assisted workflows with measurable impact on team productivity
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Working Environment
- Distributed team across multiple time zones (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific)
- FDA-regulated IVD software development environment requiring quality management system compliance
- Fast-paced environment with high expectations for velocity and quality
- Collaborative culture that values experimentation, learning, and continuous improvement
