Senior Product Owner / Scrum Master at Ontrac Solutions in Chicago, IL

Job description

• OnTrac is seeking a Senior Product Owner / Scrum Master to join a contractor program supporting a Google Cloud Platform application development engagement. This is an onshore-only role that carries both sides of delivery. On the product side you own the vision, the roadmap, and the backlog, setting direction for the team and deciding what gets built and in what order. On the process side you serve as Scrum Master to one or more teams, facilitating ceremonies, coaching the group toward self-organization, and removing the impediments that stand in the way of sprint and release goals. You will lead a large, multi-team program in close partnership with program leadership and customer stakeholders, keeping sprint objectives on track and delivery aligned to the customer's priorities and approval cycles.
• The role calls for strong facilitation, coaching, and communication, together with a solid grounding in Scrum and other Agile frameworks. This is a growing, service-oriented technical practice, and we are looking for people who want to build a long-term career here.

Responsibilities

• These duties are representative rather than exhaustive.
• • Product Vision and Direction: Set and communicate the product vision and roadmap, giving the development team and stakeholders clear direction on where the product is going and why.
• • Backlog Ownership: Own the product backlog end to end, writing user stories, defining acceptance criteria, and refining the backlog so the team always has a ready supply of well-formed work.
• • Prioritization: Balance scope, budget, and timeframe when ordering the backlog, focusing the team on the work that carries the most value and aligns with the customer's goals, and prioritizing defect resolution alongside new functionality.
• • Release Planning: Plan product releases, set expectations for the delivery of new functionality, and schedule benchmarks and upgrades in step with the customer's approval process.
• • Servant Leadership: Lead and coach the Scrum team(s) on self-organization and cross-functionality, helping them work steadily toward their goals.
• • Facilitation: Run all Scrum ceremonies, including sprint planning, daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives, keeping them time-boxed and focused on clear, useful outcomes.
• • Impediment Removal: Identify impediments early and work actively to clear them so the team can meet its sprint and release goals.
• • Coaching and Mentoring: Coach the development team and stakeholders on Agile principles and practices, helping each understand and carry out their role.
• • Stakeholder Communication: Act as the primary point of contact between the team and stakeholders, communicating clearly at every level of both the delivery and client organizations, from executives through to working teams.
• • Metrics and Reporting: Track and report progress, velocity, and other relevant measures, evaluating product progress at each iteration and flagging trends and areas to improve.
• • Scaling Agile: Contribute to scaling Agile practices across the program, working alongside other Scrum Masters and coaches as the team grows.
• • Continuous Improvement: Drive improvement through effective retrospectives and by seeing the agreed actions through, and keep current with Agile and Scrum practices as they evolve.
• • Team Leadership and PMO Collaboration: Lead and motivate the delivery team across disciplines such as infrastructure modernization, data engineering, and application development, and work with peers and leadership in the PMO on status, issues, risks, decisions, and change requests.

Requirements

• • Located onshore, in the country where the work is delivered, and authorized to work there for the full duration of the engagement. This is an onshore-only role.
• • Bachelor's degree in a related field. A master's degree is an asset.
• • SAFe experience, including certification and application across at least two or three programs.
• • A thorough grasp of Agile principles and values and of the Scrum framework, with a proven ability to facilitate effective ceremonies and manage a product backlog.
• • Previous experience as a Product Owner, with a track record across all stages of the product life cycle.
• • The ability to set and communicate a clear product vision and to translate stakeholder needs into well-formed user stories and acceptance criteria.
• • Experience identifying and removing impediments to team progress.
• • Strong coaching and mentoring skills.
• • Excellent communication, presentation, interpersonal, and conflict-resolution skills, at every level of an organization.
• • Experience working with cross-functional teams.
• • At least seven years of experience in a technical, engineering, or software development environment, including at least three years managing IT deployment projects.
• • Experience managing a team of engineers.
• • Experience delivering in large or complex enterprise environments, and comfort working within established governance, compliance, and approval processes.
• • Strong organizational, time-management, analytical, and problem-solving skills, with close attention to detail.
• • Familiarity with Agile and work-management tools such as Jira, Confluence, Azure DevOps, and Smartsheet.
• • A positive approach to change and the ability to adapt as the engagement evolves.
• • IT consulting experience.
• • Project management certification, such as PMP.
• • Certified Scrum Master (CSM) and/or Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO).
• • Experience delivering and managing projects on Google Cloud or another major public cloud.
• • Business systems analysis certification or experience.
• • Experience with other Agile frameworks, such as Kanban or Lean.
• • Experience scaling Agile with frameworks such as LeSS or Nexus.
• • Experience leading distributed teams.
• • Experience running training sessions and workshops.

Skills

Required

• Strong coaching and mentoring skills
• Close attention to detail

Preferred

• SAFe certification
• Project management certification (PMP)
• Certified Scrum Master (CSM)
• Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)
• Experience leading distributed teams