Position Type: Contract Contract Rate: $70.00–$80.00/hr Location: Chicago, IL – hybrid, approximately 1 day per week on-site Role Overview We are seeking an experienced Scrum Master to support the Pay Portfolio within Crew Systems, focused on applications used by pilots and flight attendants. This is a newly introduced Scrum Master position supporting one development team of approximately 20 onshore and offshore engineers. The ideal candidate brings strong hands-on Agile expertise and the ability to coach a team with limited prior Agile experience. This individual will establish consistent Scrum practices, strengthen accountability, remove delivery obstacles, and partner closely with Product Owners, engineering leaders, and business stakeholders. Key Responsibilities Lead Scrum Ceremonies: Facilitate sprint planning, daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, retrospectives, and other Agile team activities. Coach Agile Adoption: Guide the team in understanding and applying Agile and Scrum principles while helping mature its processes and working practices. Establish Team Structure: Help define effective workflows, team roles, operating norms, and accountability expectations. Manage Delivery and Impediments: Identify and remove obstacles, escalate risks and issues, and support consistent sprint execution. Partner with Stakeholders: Work with Product Owners, engineering leadership, and business partners to align priorities, scope, and delivery expectations. Track Agile Performance: Monitor velocity, sprint commitments, delivery trends, and related metrics to identify opportunities for improvement. Support Distributed Collaboration: Promote clear communication and transparency across onshore and offshore team members. Target Candidate Profile & Qualifications Scrum Master Experience: Strong hands-on experience supporting software-development teams in an Agile and Scrum environment. Agile Coaching: Proven ability to coach teams that are new to Agile or operating with relatively immature Agile practices. Scrum Expertise: Deep understanding of Scrum ceremonies, Agile frameworks, team accountability, and continuous-improvement practices. Large and Distributed Teams: Experience supporting medium-to-large engineering teams, including onshore and offshore delivery models. Technical Aptitude: Sufficient technical knowledge to participate credibly in engineering discussions, ask informed questions, and challenge assumptions when appropriate. Stakeholder Management: Strong communication and relationship-management skills with the ability to align Product Owners, engineers, leaders, and business stakeholders. Technical Environment: Working knowledge of AWS, including ECS, messaging frameworks such as Kafka, relational databases including PostgreSQL and MySQL, APIs, web services, and data-intensive integrations. Nice-to-Haves Crew or Payroll Systems: Experience supporting payroll, compensation, aviation, or crew-related technology platforms. Agile Transformation: Prior experience introducing a Scrum Master role or Agile structure into a team without established processes. Professional Certifications: Certified ScrumMaster, Professional Scrum Master, SAFe, or another Agile certification.
