At Northwestern Mutual, we are strong, innovative and growing. We invest in our people. We care and make a positive difference.
Summary
The Lead Agile Coach is responsible for the establishment of agile practices and drive adoption of agile behaviors and principles across the enterprise. You will lead a group of agile coaches that teaches and mentors teams on adoption of the best practices and standards. This role will work with business & technology leaders across the organization to guide and transform agile teams operating in CI/CD, DevOps environments. You will be reporting directly to the Assistant Director of Enterprise Quality. The ideal skillset we are looking for is a combination of people leadership, demonstrated experience fostering mindsets behavioral changes, and deep understanding of agile practices and transformation.
Duties and Responsibilities:

• Define and execute the strategy and roadmap for enterprise agile transformation.
• Elicit, coach and challenge teams to identify agile transformational objectives, develop strategies, and own the behavior and process changes needed to achieve their transformational vision.
• Lead a team of agile coaches, drive improvement in agile coaching practices, offer observations, advice, and mentor less experienced coaches.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to develop and monitor Agile metrics to gauge the level of adoption/maturity and recalibrate efforts and priorities.
• Guide people to internalize the reason for change, co-create a safe environment to enable personal transformation, champion mindset changes needed to influence, reinforce, and sustain behavior.
• Choose process and behavior coaching approaches that enable leaders and their teams to remove barriers, identify root cause of problems, innovate, and become self-sufficient in coaching and learning.
• Anticipate future needs and leverage straight talk to escalate opportunities within the system to accelerate change. Demonstrate strategic agility and enterprise thinking to be recognized as a credible advisor.

Bring Your Best! What this role needs:

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Computer Science, Information Systems or related field, or an equivalent combination of education and work experience.
• Deep expertise in agile principles, behaviors, and practices with the ability to flex beyond core agile concepts, create blended approaches to meet the enterprise needs.
• 5+ years of agile coaching and a track record of successfully leading large agile transformation initiatives.
• Skilled in various Agile and Lean methodologies / frameworks like Scrum, Kanban, Lean Six Sigma, Scaled Agile and Extreme programming.
• Strong presentation and facilitation skills, coaching and mentorship experience.
• Must have excellent listening and observation skills with an ability to read the room, sense the dynamics in the environment, and respond by adjusting approach on the fly.
• Proven ability to identify and cultivate trusting relationships with key leaders and stakeholders across functions and levels. Ability to coach complex human interactions to achieve organizational change.
• Coaching and Agile certifications a plus.

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This job is not covered by the existing Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Required Certifications:
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We are an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age or status as a protected veteran, or any other characteristic protected by law.