Agile Coach
Jersey City, NJ

Job Description

Business Unit: Agile Center of Excellence (CoE)

Department: Enterprise Agile

Job Family: Product Management

Job Title: Agile Squad Coach

Corporate Title: Senior Associate

FLSA Code (US Only): Exempt

People Manager: No

Business Unit Description:

The Agile Center of Excellence (CoE) develops, supports, and maintains Agile processes and best practices across the enterprise. We provide agile coaching, training, and guidance to foster agile maturity. Through the administration of agile metrics and maturity assessments, we help shape the organization in developing behaviors that support agile at the enterprise level and provide a platform for continuous learning and improvement.

Position Summary:

The Agile Coach encourages, empowers and coaches at multiple levels in our organization fostering a culture of continuous improvement and ensuring professional growth in the practice of agile. Agile Coaches participate in agile ceremonies and rituals across many Squads to support the health of the Agile system. As an Agile Coach, s/he will coach all Squad members formally and informally (with a keen focus on the organization's Scrum Masters and Product Owners), striving to unlock the potential in everyone. S/he may also coach key stakeholders outside the Squad. The Agile Coach will be a defender of Agile methodologies and evangelize core Agile principles in the organization.

Specific Responsibilities:

* Teaches, mentors and improves Agile practices and drives consistent practices across the organization.
* Coach and train senior leadership on Agile concepts and principle, and coach leadership teams to build, support and sustain thriving Agile Squads.
* Build and coach multiple high performing Agile Squads. Identify ways to strengthen a Squad's understanding of Agile, e.g., Scrum concepts and principles.
* Is the health monitor of the collective Squad: checking that commitments, pace and quality are on track.
* Identifies trade-offs between short and long-term benefits to drive shared vision between the Squad.
* Act as mediator to resolve conflicts in the Squad before they escalate.
* Recognize failure, recovery, and success modes in coaching style and make real-time adjustments.
* Fosters a continuous learning environment helping Squads to inspect & adapt, creating an atmosphere of trust and comfortable/efficient work environment. Be open to new (other people's) ideas and have a desire to develop them together with the Squad, advocating for the best possible solution.
* Participation in Agile Industry activities and groups, organize events (theme meetings, lunch and learns, etc.).
* Aligns risk and control processes into day to day responsibilities to monitor and mitigate risk; escalates appropriately.

Leadership Competencies for this level include:

* Accountability: Demonstrates reliability by taking necessary actions to continuously meet required deadlines and goals.
* Global Collaboration: Applies global perspective when working within a team by being aware of own style and ensuring all relevant parties are involved in key team tasks and decisions.
* Communication: Articulates information clearly and presents information effectively and confidently when working with others.
* Influencing: Convinces others by making a strong case, bringing others along to their viewpoint; maintains strong, trusting relationships while at the same time is comfortable challenging ideas.
* Innovation and Creativity: Thinks boldly and out of the box, generates new ideas and processes, and confidently pursues challenges as new avenues of opportunity.

Qualifications:

* Significant experience acting as a Scrum Master or Agile Coach in a fast-moving tech environment, experience with large scale software delivery and/or Agile transformation at scale in large enterprise organizations; preferably in IT or "tech-first" organizations
* Holder of strong and evolving leadership skills with experience teaching/mentoring others and driving team performance to deliver quality solutions.
* Excellent communication skills with the ability to empathize and relate with those new to the Agile methodology, understanding people / teams in various stages of Agile maturity. Adept at problem solving
* Proven ability to resolve conflicts in the Squad before they escalate (mediation skills)
* Scrum Master certification (or equivalent) is a plus
* Believes in a non-hierarchical culture of collaboration, transparency, and trust across the team

About DTCC:

With over 40 years of experience, DTCC is the premier post-trade market infrastructure for the global financial services industry. From operating facilities and data centers around the world, DTCC automates, centralizes, and standardizes the processing of financial transactions across the trade lifecycle and mitigates risk for thousands of institutions worldwide. At DTCC we value on our clients' interests and partner to deliver superior results with excellence and innovation and lead with integrity. We proactively develop your potential and invest in your career.