Senior Scrum Master - Project Manager

About your future team Nexient is on a mission: To rid the world of crappy software, one sprint at a time.  Every day, our 1000+ Agile developers, designers, and strategists empower each other to find passion in our work while we innovate the world. This culture of teamwork and curiosity is fueled by a product-minded approach to our work, crafting extraordinary custom software solutions and growing careers along the way. Our clients range from some of America’s favorite brands in retail, healthcare, financial services to fast-emerging disruptors – You might have read about us in the NY Times. We’re also recognized as a Gartner Cool Vendor, HFS Hot Vendor, and America’s leading 100% U.S. Agile software services partner.  If you’re looking to change the trajectory of your career, make an impact on Day One, develop custom software on the best technology around – and maybe even make people’s lives easier -- then you belong here, with us. 
Responsibilities: 
As the Agile Project Manager/Scrum Master for our engagements, you will assume two distinct roles in the project process. 

Agile Project Manager Duties:

• Act as a consultant, developing and cultivating strategic, long-term client relationships 
• Assume the role of a coach, advising team members how to optimize their efficiency within the project team 
• Create a sound project management approach that fits best in planning and managing the work
• Capability to manage complex initiatives  
• Able to help identifies risks, work with the Product Manager to implement mitigation and contingency plans and remain focused on early mitigation or elimination of Risks 
• Understands business and user priorities and technical feasibility to help prioritize the product backlog and manage risks
• Communicate often and openly with the team by being responsive to in-person prompts 
• The ideal candidate will have a natural inclination for Servant Leadership and Continuous Improvement and will embrace, foster, and facilitate the adoption of Agile Values and Principles. This resource is expected to provide an accurate status of all projects including team velocity and capacity 
• Meets the project’s goals within the designated limitations of the project 
• Responsible for planning, leading and organizing the project
• Defining the project’s schedule and scope while balancing this with timely and regular value deliveries, and organizing and leading working and project status meetings

Scrum Master Duties:

• Helping the team achieve a high level of performance and quality, holding teams accountable for their work, removing obstacles, and mentoring less experienced team members 
• Supporting the product owner in managing communications with stakeholders, managing customer’s expectations for deliverables, and implementing an effect project governance system 
• Delivering Agile projects that offer outstanding business value to the users 
• Resolve blockers with a sense of urgency to keep the team moving forward; Escalate blockers as needed 
• Work with the Product Manager to ensure the backlog is populated with prioritized user stories for future iterations
• Responsibilities include running daily and weekly scrum meetings with agile teams and reporting accurate status including impediments, blockers and dependencies
• Work with the teams to determine current state of culture, processes and systems and help design strategy for the adoption of agile values, principles, and practices 
• Be the face and voice for the Nexient Team to Client Leadership and set client expectations 
• Bring a fresh perspective and offer insight that can solve client and team challenges
• Identify opportunities for account expansion, working with Nexient account leadership to capitalize on them
• Effectively use and communicate Agile principles and practices (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, etc.) and overall operating model across the organization
• Implement the processes to use metrics and other objective measures that establish agile maturity across the teams
• Ask insightful questions demonstrating business knowledge of Industry and the client environment 
• Advocate for the team, promote their successes and share key learnings throughout the organization
•  Grasp business context quickly, goal should be to immediately speak in business terms then become a trusted advisor for the client (including showing interest in what the client is doing)
• Lead the collaborative planning for the appropriate short-term and long-term next steps for the client 
• Identify and collaboratively manage the agile roadmap including key client deliverables and dependencies, while developing a deeper understanding of client needs and assist in managing expectations
• Collaborate effectively across practices, including Produc