Scrum Master Advisor - HIH - Evernorth

Position Summary: 

We are looking for an innovative and experienced Scrum Master (SM) to join our Product & Planning team.  A SM primary focus is to help create an environment where our teams can deliver high quality solutions with a “one team” approach, and not have to worry about the operational aspect of a project.  SMs typically focus on upholding the values of Scrum, facilitating meetings and discussions, and removing blockers, while also focusing on a team’s deliverables.  

A successful SM serves as the “servant leader” of the Scrum team by removing impediments and helping the team remain successful and on schedule. This person must have a sufficient understanding of technology to enable them to lead team members and help the team overcome development roadblocks. The SM must also understand business strategy and objectives and be able to ensure that development work is prioritized by business value and that results align with objectives. This person exercises considerable creativity, foresight, and judgment in conceiving, planning, and delivering initiatives, and is recognized internally as having strong knowledge of Scrum practices. The SM also uses professional knowledge and acumen to engage with functional leaders on deliverables statuses and scrum metric reporting and maintains an open dialogue on deliverable risks and dependencies. 

Job Description & Responsibilities: 

• Servant Leader for the team with strong customer focus skills.  

• Cross collaborates with members of the team from various functions, including Product Managers and Owners, Engineering Leads and Developers, and Data Governance advisors, and brings these functional roles together as “one team” to drive outcomes. 

• Guides the team and organization on how to use Agile/Scrum practices and values.  

• Guides the team on how to get the most out of self-organization.  

• Guides the team on self-organizing to fill in the intentional gaps left in the Agile/Scrum frameworks.  

• Assesses the Scrum Maturity of the team and organization and coaches the team to higher levels of maturity at a pace that is sustainable and comfortable for the team and organization.  

• Removes impediments or guides the team to remove impediments by finding the right personnel to remove the impediment.  

• Builds a trusting and safe environment where problems can be raised without fear of blame, retribution, or being judged, with an emphasis of healing and problem solving.  

• Facilitates getting the work done without coercion, assigning, or dictating the work.  

• Facilitating discussion, decision making, and conflict resolution.  

• Assists with internal and external communication, improving transparency, and radiating information. 

• Supports and educates the Product Manager or Owner, especially with respect to grooming and maintaining the product backlog.  

• Provides all support to the team using a servant leadership style whenever possible and leading by example. 

Experience Required: 

• 5+ Years of experience as a Scrum Master 

• Experience / working knowledge of Jira application 

• Experience / working knowledge of Agile methodology 

Experience Desired: 

• Minimum 5-8 years of work experience in agile development space 

• Worked in a Scrum Master role for a software development team that has diligently applying Scrum principles, practices, and theory such as PI planning, facilitating standups, and optimizing work in progress 

• Experience defining and writing user stories 

• Experience working with two or more scrum teams 

• Knowledge of Databricks is a plus 

Education Required: 

• BS or BA degree in Business, Technology or equivalent work experience and training 

• Certified Scrum Master is a plus 

Primary Skills: 

• Previous experience as a Scrum Master for at least 2 teams simultaneously 

• Strong communication and mentoring skills 

• Ability to communicate with and work with multiple engineering and product leads 

• Detailed oriented with proven ability to prioritize multiple tasks 

• Applicable knowledge of technologies used by engineering teams, i.e. API, ETL, SQL, Python, Databricks, AWS 

• Experience applying a wide variety of well documented patterns and techniques for filling in the intentional gaps left in the Scrum approach (example: numerous Burndown techniques, numerous Retrospective formats, handling bugs, etc.) 

Additional Skills: 

• Cigna and/or Evernorth experience is a plus 

• Knowledge of the U.S. healthcare industry is a plus 

• Team player with strong interpersonal, consultative, and collaboration skills 

• Demonstrated experience working independently with limited direction or guidance