Lead Agile Coach - Azure DevOps

This is a hands-on coaching role. You will work directly with management, Product and Service Owners, Scrum Masters, and team members - coaching leaders on Agile and product ownership while working shoulder-to-shoulder with teams on their day-to-day execution and their ADO boards. Teams range widely in Agile maturity, and several are not traditional software-development teams.

On-site in Lansing two days per week; remainder remote.

AGILE LEADERSHIP AND COACHING

• Serve as the lead Agile Coach across multiple teams with varying Agile and Azure DevOps maturity
• Assess current Agile practices and identify opportunities to improve team maturity, consistency, and adoption
• Coach teams on Agile principles, Scrum and Kanban practices, backlog management, prioritization, estimation, planning, and continuous improvement
• Facilitate or coach teams through sprint and iteration planning, backlog refinement, daily stand-ups, sprint reviews and demos, and retrospectives
• Help teams move from using Agile terminology to consistently applying Agile practices in their daily work
• Identify impediments to Agile adoption and work with leadership on practical solutions

PRODUCT OWNER AND LEADERSHIP COACHING

• Coach managers and Product/Service Owners on effectively performing the Product Owner role
• Improve how work is defined and prioritized, how backlogs are built and maintained, and how epics, features, user stories, tasks, and acceptance criteria are written
• Help establish clear business priorities, manage stakeholder expectations, and measure outcomes and team performance
• Provide leadership with recommendations for improving Agile maturity and sustaining long-term adoption

AZURE DEVOPS ADOPTION

• Partner with Azure DevOps specialists and client teams to establish and mature ADO boards
• Coach teams on effective use of Boards, Backlogs, epics/features/stories/tasks, Queries, Dashboards, work-item management, and sprint and iteration planning
• Ensure ADO configuration and processes support each team's Agile operating model
• Establish consistent standards and best practices across multiple ADO teams

BACKLOG DEVELOPMENT AND TEAM EXECUTION

• Facilitate working sessions to build, organize, and refine team backlogs
• Help teams translate business objectives into actionable work items
• Improve story quality, acceptance criteria, estimation, prioritization, and definition of done
• Establish practical processes teams can continue using independently after the coaching engagement
• Help teams use metrics and dashboards to improve transparency, predictability, and decision-making

AGILE MATURITY AND CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

• Evaluate the Agile maturity of individual teams and leadership groups
• Develop actionable recommendations based on each team's maturity level
• Identify training and coaching needs for managers, Product Owners, Scrum Masters, champions, and team members
• Establish measurable Agile maturity goals and track progress
• Help develop longer-term coaching, training, and adoption roadmaps
• Build internal Agile champions capable of sustaining the practices after the engagement

Requirements

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE

• 8+ years of experience working in Agile delivery environments
• 5+ years of Agile coaching, Agile leadership, Scrum Master, Product Owner coaching, or Agile transformation experience
• Demonstrated experience coaching multiple teams simultaneously
• Strong hands-on experience with Azure DevOps, specifically ADO Boards
• Experience establishing and managing Agile backlogs within Azure DevOps
• Strong understanding of Scrum, Kanban, Agile product management, backlog management, user story development, estimation and planning, Agile metrics, and continuous improvement
• Experience coaching Product Owners, Scrum Masters, managers, and senior leaders
• Demonstrated ability to assess team maturity and create practical improvement plans
• Strong facilitation skills and experience leading workshops with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Able to work on-site in Lansing, Michigan two days per week

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Agile coaching engagements within large enterprises or government and public-sector organizations
• Experience implementing Agile practices with teams that are not traditional software-development teams - business, operations, security, compliance, asset management, or shared services
• Enterprise Agile transformations or Agile Centers of Excellence
• Experience developing Agile maturity assessments and multi-year adoption roadmaps
• Familiarity with DevOps concepts and the relationship between Agile delivery and DevOps practices
• Certifications such as Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Professional Scrum Master (PSM), SAFe Practice Consultant (SPC), SAFe Agilist, PMI-ACP, or an Agile Coaching certification