Lead Agilist I

The Lead Agilist serves as a servant leader, Agile coach, and facilitator supporting one or more Agile Squads. This role helps teams effectively apply Agile and Scrum principles, build high-performing and self-organizing teams, remove impediments, and continuously improve their practices and delivery of business value.

The Lead Agilist partners closely with Product Owners, Development Teams, and organizational stakeholders to foster collaboration, accountability, transparency, and a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

Key Responsibilities

• Coach Agile Squads in Scrum principles, Agile practices, self-organization, cross-functionality, and continuous improvement.

• Facilitate key Scrum events, including Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, Retrospectives, and Backlog Refinement.

• Coach Product Owners and Development Teams on effective backlog management, prioritization, delivery objectives, and defining successful outcomes.

• Identify, address, and escalate team impediments, including organizational, cultural, logistical, and cross-team dependencies.

• Foster a trusting, collaborative, and psychologically safe environment where teams can openly identify and resolve challenges.

• Use team feedback, metrics, and empirical data to identify improvement opportunities and strengthen team performance.

• Promote effective communication, collaboration, conflict resolution, and healthy team dynamics.

• Shield Agile Squads from unnecessary external interference while maintaining appropriate organizational communication and alignment.

• Support Agile practices across the software development lifecycle, including requirements, design, development, testing, deployment, and change management.

• Apply knowledge of complementary Agile and engineering practices, including Kanban, Scrumban, XP, CI/CD, automated testing, and other DevOps practices.

• Mentor and develop team members and educate stakeholders on Agile principles, behaviors, and organizational impacts.

• Model Agile values, servant leadership, accountability, courage, collaboration, and continuous learning.

• Identify, assess, manage, and communicate risks while operating within organizational policies and risk guidelines.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of full-time business experience.

• 3+ years of Scrum experience.

• Strong understanding of the Scrum Framework and Agile principles.

• Demonstrated experience coaching, mentoring, teaching, presenting, and facilitating at multiple organizational levels.

• Strong communication, facilitation, mediation, and conflict-resolution skills.

• Proven ability to remove impediments and influence stakeholders outside the immediate team.

• Experience building high-performing, self-organizing teams and fostering continuous improvement.

• Ability to communicate complex concepts clearly and coach individuals and teams toward improved performance.

• Working knowledge of software development lifecycle disciplines and modern Agile/DevOps practices.

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.

Preferred Capabilities

• Experience with Kanban, Scrumban, XP, Mob Programming, or other Agile frameworks.

• Familiarity with CI/CD, automated testing, Test-Driven Development, and pipeline automation.

• Strong understanding of team dynamics, emotional intelligence, and effective coaching techniques.

• Demonstrated ability to build trust, encourage innovative thinking, and promote a culture of learning and self-improvement.

Why work with us? We are a woman-owned company that values your ideas, encourages your growth, and always has your back. When you work with us you'll have training opportunities, flexible/remote work options, growth opportunities, 401K and competitive pay. Apply today!

By submitting your application, you acknowledge that recruiting technologies, including AI-assisted tools, may be used to support candidate evaluation, sourcing, matching, and communications.

We are an EOE, all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran. https://www.optechus.com/eeo_self_identification/