Scrum Master

Job Description 

The Scaled Agile Scrum Master acts as a servant leader within organisations utilising the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) or similar large-scale agile approaches. Their primary mission is to guide Agile teams in adopting and improving Scrum processes, driving the consistent delivery of value within Agile Release Trains (ARTs). The role requires active collaboration with Product Owners, Release Train Engineers, System Architects, and various stakeholders to maintain alignment on vision and objectives. The Scrum Master also champions lean-agile values, removes barriers, fosters transparency and trust, and plays an important role in both release management and Program Increment (PI) Planning. 

Key Responsibilities 

• Facilitate Scrum Events: Organise, lead, and document all Scrum ceremonies, including Sprint Planning, Daily Stand-ups, Sprint Reviews, and Retrospectives. Encourage active participation, highlight actionable outcomes, and use data-driven metrics during discussions. 

• Support the Agile Team: Mentor team members in agile principles, facilitate training, and empower the team to self-organise around sprint goals and commitments. Foster psychological safety and experimentation. 

• Collaborate Across Teams: Work with other Scrum Masters and ART teams to manage dependencies, synchronise delivery, and share best practices. Participate actively in Scrum-of-Scrums and ART Sync meetings. 

• Remove Impediments: Proactively identify and resolve both internal and external blockers, escalating unresolved items to Release Train Engineers or Agile Coaches, and tracking through to resolution. 

• Champion Continuous Improvement: Lead retrospectives and improvement workshops, analyse team metrics such as velocity and quality, and encourage incremental enhancements and a growth mindset. 

• Promote Agile Best Practices: Coach teams and individuals on agile values and practices. Model transparency, commitment, and respect, and support adoption of SAFe ceremonies such as PI Planning and Inspect & Adapt workshops. 

• Ensure Transparency: Maintain visible, up-to-date flow boards and dashboards (like Kanban, burn-down, or burn-up), and communicate progress, risks, and impediments to stakeholders. 

• Support and Enable PI (Program Increment) Planning: Prepare teams for PI Planning by ensuring that team and ART backlogs are refined, dependencies are identified, and capacity estimates are accurate. Facilitate collaborative breakout sessions, help clarify objectives and priorities, support teams in setting realistic PI objectives, track dependencies, and enable the resolution of issues. Encourage cross-team alignment and ensure teams understand how their work contributes to overall business goals. 

• Facilitate Communication: Serve as a liaison between the team and external groups to clarify priorities, communicate changes, and coordinate deliverables. Represent the team’s interests at the ART level and foster collaboration across teams. 

• Monitor Team Health: Assess team morale and engagement using surveys, one-on-one check-ins, and health assessments. Address and mediate conflicts constructively, and promote practices for a positive, inclusive environment. 

• Drive Value Delivery: Align team objectives with business goals, help prioritise the highest-value work, and ensure timely delivery of features that meet stakeholder needs. 

• Track and Report Metrics: Collect and analyse sprint and release data, forecast delivery, and report actionable insights to leadership to support ongoing improvement. 

• Release Management: Collaborate closely with Release Train Engineers, Product Owners, and all delivery teams to coordinate the planning, preparation, and execution of releases. Ensure that release milestones, deliverables, and dependencies are clearly communicated and managed. Support the alignment of team and ART deliverables with release schedules and help resolve challenges to smooth, predictable releases. Facilitate release readiness reviews and contribute to release retrospectives, ensuring continuous improvement of the release process. 

Required Skills and Experience 

• Experience as a Scrum Master in scaled agile environments (SAFe, LeSS, Nexus, etc.). 

• Thorough knowledge of Scrum, Kanban, XP, and scaled agile frameworks, with the ability to tailor approaches as needed. 

• Relevant certifications: SAFe Scrum Master (SSM), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Professional Scrum Master (PSM), or equivalent. 

• Strong facilitation, conflict resolution, and coaching skills, with an ability to motivate and build consensus. 

• Excellent communication skills for stakeholder engagement, reporting, and training. 

• Experience with agile project management tools (Jira, Azure DevOps, Confluence, Miro). 

• Organisational awareness and the capacity to manage change and ambiguity at scale. 

• Comfortable working in a dynamic, fast-paced organisation with multiple teams and shifting priorities. 

• Commitment to ongoing learning in agile methods and leadership. 

Personal Attributes 

• Self-motivated, proactive, and adaptable. 

• Strong interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence. 

• Passion for continuous learning and improvement. 

• Comfortable working in a dynamic, fast-paced environment. 

Reporting Structure 

The Scaled Agile Scrum Master typically reports to a Release Train Engineer