Sr Scrum Master (Remote)

The Sr Scrum Master role at Assurant provides effective collaboration, facilitation, leadership and coaching to SAFe Agile teams, advances the development process, plans and delivers PI commitments. This individual coaches teams and stakeholders in the Agile tenants, removes impediments, and promotes empowerment. Candidates must have exceptional communication skills, the ability to manage multiple tasks effectively, excellent judgment, and the ability to be productive in a fast-paced, team-oriented environment.

What will be my duties and responsibilities in this job?

• Provide resources, information, communication, and practical advice to enable teams to deliver working software on a cadence.

• Facilitate daily stand-up, sprint planning, sprint review, backlog refinement and retrospective. Ensure all participants understand the ceremony’s purpose and keep to the time-box.

• Coordinate readiness of team’s deliverables for production deployments.

• Coach and assist Product Owners to have features ready for PI Planning.

• Work with Technical Product Owners and team to have user stories ready for PI Planning.

• Facilitate PI Planning for allocated team.

• Track and communicate team velocity and sprint/release progress during ART Syncs.

• Foster and encourage conversations and collaboration – both inside and outside of team

• Identify and remove impediments, prevent distractions that interfere with the ability of the team to deliver the sprint goal

• Understand and be able to articulate strategic and product planning and goals in the team’s environment and progress toward them

• Collaborate with Product Manager, Business and Product Owner to ensure the product backlog is properly refined – prioritizing to maximize value and using creative techniques for elaborating user stories to be ready for the upcoming 1-2 sprints.

• Assist team with making appropriate commitments through story selection, task definition

• Ensure the team understands the need for clear and concise product backlog items and achieve this through techniques such as user story slicing and acceptance criteria that meet SMART and INVEST criteria.

• Proactively manage dependencies

• Recommend improvements and assist in changes to best practice

• Participate in the agile community both internal to Assurant and external with other practitioners

• Enforce the values and principles of SAFe Agile by focusing on continuous learning and feedback loops

• Mentor and coach less experienced Scrum Masters and assist other teams when needed

What are the requirements for this position?

• SAFe Scrum Master (SSM), Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Professional Scrum Master (PSM) or SAFe Advanced Scrum Master Industry certification.

• 5+ years of experience as a Scrum Master for software development teams

• 2+ years leading in a SAFe Agile environment and participating in PI Planning as a Scrum Master

• Experience working with distributed, virtual teams

• Experience coaching and mentoring other Scrum Masters

• Excellent communication, facilitation, influencing and coaching skills

• Expert facilitation skills of Agile events such as retrospectives, daily standups, sprint planning, and PI Planning

• In-depth understanding of sprint, PI and business value metrics

• Experience working with external teams and vendors

• Ability to collaborate and influence without authority

What other skills/experience would be helpful to have?

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in engineering or administration

• Insurance industry experience

• Participation in industry SAFe agile communities of practice

• Understanding of Jira/Bitbucket/Bamboo DevOps queries and dashboards

• Exposure to cloud technologies including Salesforce, MuleSoft, Informatica, Azure

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Any posted pay range considers a wide range of compensation factors, including candidate background, experience, and work location, while also allowing for salary growth within the position.

Helping People Thrive in a Connected World
Connect with us. Bring us your best work and your brightest ideas. And we’ll bring you a place where you can thrive. Learn more at jobs.assurant.com.

For U.S. benefit information, visit myassurantbenefits.com. For benefit information outside the U.S., please speak with your recruiter.

What’s the culture like at Assurant?
Our unique culture is a big reason why talented people choose Assurant. Named a Best/Great Place to Work in 13 countries and awarded the Fortune America’s Most Innovative Companies recognition in 2023, we bring together top talent around the world. Although we have a wide variety of skills and experiences, we share common characteristics that are uniquely Assurant. A passion for service. An ability to innovate in practical ways. And a willingness to take chances. We call our culture The Assurant Way.

Company Overview
Assurant is a leading global business services company that supports, protects, and connects major consumer purchases. A Fortune 500 company with a presence in 21 countries, Assurant supports the advancement of the connected world by partnering with the world’s leading brands to develop innovative solutions and deliver an enhanced customer experience through mobile device solutions, extended service contracts, vehicle protection services, renters insurance, lender-placed insurance products, and other specialty products.

Equal Opportunity Statement
Assurant is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and does not use or consider race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law in employment decisions.