Vice President, Scrum Leader
The Scrum Lead is responsible for guiding the effective application of Agile practices and associated processes within the Pod. This role facilitates Agile ceremonies, protects the team from external distractions, removes impediments, and fosters a collaborative, high-trust environment focused on delivering quality outcomes. The Scrum Lead plays a critical role in strengthening Pod maturity, supporting delivery excellence, and ensuring adherence to compliance requirements.
Key Responsibilities
- Agile Leadership and Coaching
- Coach Pod members and the Product Owner on Agile principles, roles, and behaviors.
- Ensure Scrum, and Kanban where applicable, is properly understood, applied, and continuously improved.
- Foster self-organization, accountability, and a culture of continuous improvement within the Pod.
- Build and sustain a safe, collaborative, and high-trust team environment.
- Promote Agile best practices and help mature the Pod’s Agile ways of working.
- Ceremony Facilitation and Delivery Support
- Facilitate Pod ceremonies, including Sprint Planning, Daily Stand-ups, Sprint Reviews, Retrospectives, and Backlog Refinement sessions.
- Ensure Sprint Goals and delivery intent are clear, outcome-oriented, and achievable.
- Coordinate Pod release readiness in partnership with the Product Owner and Engineering Lead.
- Support the delivery of a quality increment by reinforcing effective planning, execution, and review practices.
- Impediment and Risk Management
- Identify, escalate, and remove development impediments, including team communication barriers and logistical challenges.
- Shield the Pod team from external interference and maintain focus on sprint goals and committed outcomes.
- Facilitate risk identification, mitigation, and monitoring to support stable and predictable delivery.
- Enable effective collaboration across Pod members and with adjacent roles, including the Group Delivery Lead.
- Apply Agile metrics to assess flow, predictability, delivery health, and Pod maturity.
- Track and report Pod progress effectively using relevant Agile metrics and best practices.
Required Qualifications
Experience and Expertise
- Deep knowledge of and practical experience with Agile ways of working.
- Strong understanding of Scrum principles, practices, and team facilitation techniques.
- Experience applying Agile metrics to track and improve team performance and delivery outcomes.
- Professional certification such as:
- Certified Scrum Practitioner (CSP), or
- Professional Scrum Master
Key Skills and Competencies
Individual Skills
- Strong ability to identify and navigate roadblocks and impediments, and advocate effectively for the team.
- Excellent verbal and interpersonal communication skills, with the ability to manage and resolve conflict constructively.
- Demonstrated leadership capabilities, including integrity, emotional intelligence, and adaptability.
- Ability to inspire and motivate team members, fostering a high-performing and collaborative environment.
- Strong creative problem-solving capability with a focus on continuous improvement and innovation.
- Effective stakeholder collaboration skills, ensuring alignment toward sprint goals and group OKRs.
- Sound risk management capability, including facilitation of risk identification, mitigation, and monitoring.
- Active listening skills and openness to diverse perspectives and new ideas.
- Promotes self-organization, empowerment, innovative thinking, and self-development.
- Brings a high-energy, positive, and passionate approach to delivery leadership.
- Demonstrates a strong “can do” attitude and commitment to innovation.
- Believes in a non-hierarchical culture of collaboration, transparency, and trust.
- Embraces continuous learning and ongoing improvement.
- Success Measures
Mindset and Behaviors
Success in this role is reflected through:
- Effective facilitation of Agile ceremonies and Pod delivery rhythms
- Improved Pod maturity and Agile adoption
- Removal of impediments in a timely and effective manner
- Clear, accurate, and audit-ready delivery tracking in JIRA and TPro
- Strong collaboration across Pod and Group stakeholders
- Delivery of quality increments aligned to sprint goals and broader OKRs