At Northwestern Medicine, every patient interaction makes a difference in cultivating a positive workplace. This patient-first approach is what sets us apart as a leader in the healthcare industry. As an integral part of our team, you'll have the opportunity to join our quest for better healthcare, no matter where you work within the Northwestern Medicine system. At Northwestern Medicine, we pride ourselves on providing competitive benefits: from tuition reimbursement and loan forgiveness to 401(k) matching and lifecycle benefits, we take care of our employees. Ready to join our quest for better?

The Agile Scrum Master reflects the mission, vision, and values of NM, adheres to the organization’s Code of Ethics and Corporate Compliance Program, and complies with all relevant policies, procedures, guidelines and all other regulatory and accreditation standards.

The Agile Scrum Master is responsible for leading application teams organized as Agile Scrum Teams that advance the goals of NM IS with an emphasis on delivering high value solutions and increasing our collaboration and responsiveness to our customers. The Agile Scrum Master will use Agile delivery methods, meeting and communication skills, technical and application skills as well as other skills needed to achieve the NM IS strategic intent to deliver high value solutions transforming healthcare.

Responsibilities:

• The Agile Scrum Master will have primary responsibility for managing the readiness of the work that is queued up for each Agile Scrum Team. This role will work closely with the Product Owner and the Team to refine backlog items and ensure that the work is ready to be Sprint planned and estimated. To that purpose, the position requires an understanding of healthcare lifecycles and as well as NM core platforms (Epic, Microsoft, PeopleSoft).

Additionally, the role will:

• Support Product Owner, especially on backlog creation and ongoing refinement, including prioritization and information needed by the team to plan and deliver work outcomes.
• Guide 1-3 Agile Scrum Teams through Sprint cycles ensuring readiness of items included in sprints and at a pace that is sustainable for the Agile Scrum Team and their customers. This includes removing any identified impediments and reporting such as velocity and burn-down charts.
• Guide 1-3 Agile Scrum Teams on use of Agile /Scrum values, principles and practices, including self-organization, daily stand-ups, sprint planning, sprint review and sprint retrospectives.
• Facilitate discussions and decision making and promote a trusting environment that emphasizes solution development with team members and customers.
• Partner with NM IS Teams, including product application and service owner roles, to define and refine Agile and Scrum capabilities to deliver value using Agile practices.
• Collaborate with other system functions as required (e.g. IT, Quality, Analytics, Patient Engagement, etc.).
• Partner with the Project Management Office to assess and increase Agile maturity within each Agile Scrum Team using the methods and tools maintained by the Agile Program Manager.
• Agile Skills/Experience:
  • Experience as a Scrum Master role for 2-5 years applying Scrum principles, practices, and theory.
  • Knowledge and experience with Agile delivery methods and techniques such as XP, Kanban, Scrum, User Stories, Test Driven Development, Continuous Integration, Continuous Testing, Paired Programming, Automated Testing, Agile Games
  • Knowledge and ability to facilitate situational awareness, conflict resolution, continual improvement, empowerment, and increasing transparency.
  • Knowledge and ability to analyze Scrum Team performance using Agile reports and charts and Agile ceremonies (e.g. Sprint Retrospectives).
  • Experience with and ability to coach and support Agile tools and practices such as product backlogs, sprint backlogs, user stories, story pointing and continuous testing.
• Technical Skills:
  • General understanding of business and clinical processes.
  • General technical knowledge to enable communication and collaboration within NM IS and across NM as appropriate. This includes general knowledge of:
    • Operating systems and applications, including Windows, iOS X, telephony.
    • Enterprise platform architecture and functionality.
    • Testing practices and tools.
    • ServiceNow / Azure TFS / JIRA
• Communication Skills:
  • Excellent mentoring skills.
  • Demonstrated presentation and written communication skills with all levels of management.
  • Communicates clearly, responsively, and concisely with customers and team members to improve transparency and collaboration.
  • Develops effective relationships with users and other IS team members to enhance the timeliness and effectiveness of technology solutions.

Required:

• Bachelor’s Degree
• Seven or more years of Agile project experience, including 2 years or more as a Scrum Master
• Scrum Master Certification
• Demonstrated ability to effectively establish and maintain working relationships at all levels of the organization
• Proven understanding of development practices, including testing
• Basic knowledge of enterprise systems (e.g. PeopleSoft, Microsoft), devices and networking (wired and wireless)

Preferred:

• 5+ years of complex project management, process improvement, or operations related experience 
• Healthcare I.T. knowledge, project management certification
• Expert knowledge of enterprise platforms, operating systems and devices related to healthcare services.
• Specific domain expertise such as EMR, revenue cycle, supply chain, process improvement
• Certifications – project management, process improvement, change management, Scrum Master
• Experience with ServiceNow or other service management systems

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Northwestern Medicine is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in hiring or employment on the basis of age, sex, race, color, religion, national origin, gender identity, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation or any other protected status.