Senior Scrum Master

Job Description

Optum is a global organization that delivers care, aided by technology to help millions of people live healthier lives. The work you do with our team will directly improve health outcomes by connecting people with the care, pharmacy benefits, data and resources they need to feel their best. Here, you will find a culture guided by inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits and career development opportunities. Come make an impact on the communities we serve as you help us advance health optimization on a global scale. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.

Primary Responsibilities:

- Lead Program Delivery: Act as the execution lead, closely partnering with the Product Manager and IT Delivery Owner to guide one Agile Release Train (ART) consisting of 4-15 Scrum teams, with a solid focus on delivering program-level initiatives and outcomes
- Drive Strategic Execution: Lead the end-to-end delivery of technology solutions aligned with organizational goals, ensuring timely and high-quality execution of initiatives, releases, and cross-functional programs
- Establish Program Cadence: Facilitate and optimize program-level ceremonies such as Roadmap Planning, PI Planning, Product Management Council, Scrum of Scrums, and Inspect & Adapt workshops
- Backlog & Roadmap Alignment: Collaborate with Product Management to define, refine, and prioritize the program backlog, ensuring alignment with strategic objectives and initiative milestones
Stakeholder Engagement: Facilitate consensus and decision-making across product, technology, and executive leadership to ensure transparency, alignment, and shared accountability for program delivery
- Program Visibility & Metrics: Maintain and communicate metrics that provide visibility into program-level plans, progress, risks, and quality to all stakeholders
- Dependency & Risk Management: Proactively manage cross-team dependencies, risks, and impediments to ensure seamless delivery across internal and external partners
- Governance & Compliance: Establish and continuously improve delivery processes while ensuring adherence to governance, compliance, and quality standards
- Team Empowerment: Foster a collaborative, high-performing team environment that breaks down silos and promotes shared ownership of outcomes
- Coaching & Development: Provide leadership, direction, and coaching to Scrum Masters, team members, and peers to build agile maturity and delivery excellence
- Change Leadership: Act as a change agent, championing agile values and fostering a culture of continuous learning, experimentation, and improvement
- Community Engagement: Actively contribute to the organization's Agile and Lean Community of Practice, sharing knowledge and best practices
- Financial Stewardship: Manage program and ART-level financials, ensuring alignment with budgetary goals and value realization
- Operational Support: Support engineering leadership with operational needs such as talent planning, workforce management, financial tracking, and executive reporting
- Comply with the terms and conditions of the employment contract, company policies and procedures, and any and all directives (such as, but not limited to, transfer and/or re-assignment to different work locations, change in teams and/or work shifts, policies in regards to flexibility of work benefits and/or work environment, alternative work arrangements, and other decisions that may arise due to the changing business environment). The Company may adopt, vary or rescind these policies and directives in its absolute discretion and without any limitation (implied or otherwise) on its ability to do so

Required Qualifications:

- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or a related field (Master's degree or MBA preferred)
- 10+ years of experience in program or portfolio management, with 5+ years leading large-scale Agile delivery initiatives
- Agile & Program Leadership:

- Proven experience leading Agile Release Trains (ARTs) and managing cross-functional teams in a scaled agile environment (e.g., SAFe, LeSS)

- Solid understanding of Agile frameworks, principles, and ceremonies, with hands-on experience facilitating PI Planning, Scrum of Scrums, and Inspect & Adapt sessions

- Strategic Execution & Delivery:

- Expertise in backlog management, roadmap planning, and cross-team coordination

- Demonstrated ability to drive strategic initiatives from concept to delivery, ensuring alignment with business goals and measurable outcomes

- Stakeholder Management:

- Experience in managing vendor relationships and external delivery partners

- Proven exceptional communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to influence and align diverse stakeholders, including executive leadership

- Metrics & Governance:

- Familiarity with governance frameworks, compliance standards, and risk management practices

- Proven solid analytical skills with the ability to define, track, and report on key program metrics and KPIs

- Financial & Operational Acumen:

- Experience managing program budgets, forecasting, and financial tracking to ensure value realization

- Proven ability to support operational functions such as workforce planning and executive reporting

- Leadership & Coaching:

- Proven ability to lead, mentor, and develop high-performing teams

- Demonstrated passion for fostering a culture of continuous improvement, agile maturity, and innovation

Preferred Qualification:

- SAFe Program Consultant (SPC), SAFe Release Train Engineer (RTE), PMP, PMI-ACP, or equivalent Agile/Program Management certifications