Scrum Master

Neiman Marcus is seeking a proven and passionate leader for a high-visibility scrum master playing a significant role in managing a scrum team(s) on our product side.

POSITION OVERVIEW

The Scrum Master has day-to-day responsibility for managing a scrum team solving complex problems, using a servant leadership style, that create capabilities to improve the overall customer experience. You will coordinate and lead activities that span across functional teams to complete deliverables that fulfil our strategic customer enrichment roadmap.

In performing this role, the SCM will be expected to leverage their prior knowledge and experience in building and sustaining a high performing scrum team. They will be expected to employ an appropriate level of planning and provide the right balance of agility and predictability. Understand and become a knowledgeable steward of the product they represent from a capability perspective as well as underlying technology.

This is a Scrum Master role; however, the most successful candidate will also possess an exceptional customer-facing presence, where their years spent developing crystal clear communication plans appropriate for all levels of the organization will be on display. The breadth of their assignments will involve working closely with the technical team at the task level, and then being able to quickly pivot and provide summarized progress updates to the senior leadership team. Having a calm demeanor and possessing high levels of confidence when interacting directly with all levels of the organization are imperative.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

Exhibits the behaviors of a Lean-Agile Leader with a Lean-Agile Mindset. Helps the team embrace agile core values, adopt and apply agile principles, and implement best practices.

Promotes agile quality practices – provides guidance to assist the teams in constantly improving the quality of their deliverables and meeting the Definition of Done (DoD). The Scrum Master helps foster the culture of relentless improvement that is the hallmark of effective Agile teams.

Supports the team rules – The rules of an Agile Team are lightweight, but they are rules nonetheless, and the Scrum Master is responsible for reinforcing them. These may include the rules of Scrum, Built-In Quality practices from Extreme Programming (XP), Work in Process (WIP) limits from Kanban, and any other process rules the team has agreed.

Facilitates the team’s progress toward team goals – The Scrum Master is trained as a team facilitator and is continuously engaged in challenging the old norms of development to improve performance in the areas of quality, predictability, flow, and velocity. They help the team focus on daily and Iteration Goals in the context of current Program Increment (PI) Objectives.

Leads team efforts in relentless improvement – Helps the team improve and take responsibility for their actions; facilitates the team retrospective. Teaches problem-solving techniques and helps the team become better problem-solvers for themselves.

Facilitates meetings – Facilitates all team meetings, including (where applicable) the Daily Stand-up, Iteration Planning, Iteration Review, and Iteration Retrospective.

Supports the Product Owner – The Scrum Master helps the Product Owner in their efforts to manage the backlog and guide the team while facilitating a healthy team dynamic with respect to priorities and scope based on the PO’s roadmap.

Eliminates impediments – Many blocking issues will be beyond the team’s authority or may require support from other teams. The Scrum Master actively addresses these issues so that the team can remain focused on achieving the objectives of the Iteration.

Builds a high-performing team – Focuses on ever-improving team dynamics and performance. Helps the team manage interpersonal conflicts, challenges, and opportunities for growth. Escalates people problems to management where necessary, but only after internal team processes have failed to resolve the issue; helps individuals and teams through personnel changes.

Protects and communicates – Communicates with management and outside stakeholders; helps protect the team from uncontrolled expansion of work.

Responsibilities on the scrum team – The Scrum Master helps coordinate inter-team cooperation and helps the team operate well.

Coordinates with other scrum teams – The Scrum Master is typically the representative in the Scrum of Scrums (SoS) meeting, and they pass information from that meeting back to the team (see Program Increment for more details). They often coordinate with the System Team, User Experience, Architecture, and Shared Services. It is important to note, however, that the responsibility for inter-team coordination cannot be delegated entirely to the Scrum Master; every team member shares responsibility in that regard.

Facilitates preparation and readiness for Agile events – Assists the team in preparation for Agile activities "team & program level", including PI Planning, System Demos, and the Inspect and Adapt.

Supports estimating – Guides the team in establishing normalized estimates and helps the team understand how to estimate Features and Capabilities.

ESSENTIAL ABILITIES, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• Minimum of 5 years experience leading software development teams consisting of both onsite and offshore resources, with at least 3 years practicing Scrum.
• Experience with Atlassian suite of tools (Jira/Confluence/Structure)
• Strong experience with Agile Frameworks and Deployment methodologies in a customer-facing production environment.
• Detail-oriented, with strong organizational skills, able to work under deadlines in a changing environment, and ability to manage and prioritize multiple projects simultaneously.
• Proven leadership skills, ability to prioritize, communicate clearly, a consistent track record of delivery, and an obsession about the customer experience.
• Ability to interact with executives, managers, subject matter experts, and product owners in matrix structure of product management team.
• Experience in eCommerce and Omni-Channel delivery

LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES

The ideal candidate will possess the following performance and personal characteristics:

• Strong leadership skills with the ability to influence effectively without direct authority, balancing between competing priorities while remaining flexible and creative.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills with the ability to work up, down and across organizational levels.
• Strong business acumen, operations and problem-solving skills, along with the ability to assess current practices, identify opportunities for improvement, build consensus and drive the implementation of related changes.
• Excellent executive presence and a track record of success working closely with the C-Suite.

EDUCATION & TRAINING

A Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Management Information Systems or a related discipline required. Prior coursework in Computer Science or Computer Engineering preferred.Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP), Certified Scrum Master (CSM), or one of the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) certifications is highly preferred