At Northwestern Mutual, we are strong, innovative and growing. We invest in our people. We care and make a positive difference.
At Northwestern Mutual, we believe relationships are built on trust. That our lives and our work matter. These beliefs launched our company over 160 years ago. Today, they're just a few of the reasons why people choose to build careers at Northwestern Mutual.
We're strong and growing. In a company with such a long and storied history, this may be the most exciting and important time to be a part of Northwestern Mutual. We're strong, innovative and growing!
We invest in our people. We provide opportunities for employees to grow themselves, their career and in turn, our business.
We care. We make a positive difference in our communities. Nationally, thousands have benefitted from our support of research and programs to fight childhood cancer. Each year, our Foundation, employees and financial representatives donate time, talent and financial support to causes they're passionate about.
Our Core Data & Analytics team is growing and looking for an experienced Scrum Master to help:

• Build a culture of continuous improvement, cultivate intellectual curiosity and a growth mentality, encourage appreciation, understanding and a steadfast pursuit of perfection.
• This Scrum Master will be a key contributor to our development team's success by driving principles of empiricism and clarity throughout the development process. The role demands a passion for agile practices, an aim to build partnerships with engineers and Product Owners, and a deep set of soft-skills including facilitation, influencing and negotiation.

Responsibilities:

• Act as scrum master for one or more of our engineering teams.
• Embody servant leadership and partner with the engineering team and the Product Owner (PO) to drive the delivery of working software and technology platforms.
• Ensure visibility across the entire team and partners on the state of the backlog, team performance, delivery and work plans
• Serve as a liaison between stakeholders the development team and other management
• Find opportunities for experimentation and growth
• Drive adoption of standard methodologies including Definition of Done, retrospectives, cross training etc.
• Help the PO and engineering team deliver high quality outcomes by:
  • Collaborating with the PO to ensure backlog is prioritized in a fashion that minimizes delays and manages dependencies.
  • Actively contributing to the refinement of work in the backlog by analyzing requirements and acceptance criteria
  • Guiding and coaching the team to refine, estimate and plan work in the backlog and program increment
  • Using standard methodologies (concepts like 'Definition of Ready' and 'Definition of Done')
  • Identify and help resolve risks and impediments
  • Work to recognize and facilitate resolution of dependencies between engineering teams both internal and external
  • Driving effective communication and clarity between all team members, leadership and partners
  • Creating and maintaining all Product Lifecycle documents and project critical metrics on a weekly basis
  • Create, implement and maintain procedures documentation
  • Create release notes for internal/external communications
  • Supervise results and ensure visibility of status and artifacts
  • Communicate priorities and status to partners
  • Partnering with PO to own the planning of product release plans and set expectations of delivery.
  • Embracing and embodying the philosophy of continuous improvement both personally and as a member of a team.
  • Providing information to Management on patterns and trends in the industry and competitors.

Ideal candidate would bring the following:

• Minimum 3 years working with agile teams in software development.
• Experience with JIRA and JIRA Align or similar work management tools.
• Experience working in scaled agile environments using one of the scaled frameworks (Nexus, SAFe, LeSS etc.).
• Experience within the financial or insurance industry.
• Passion for operational excellence, problem solving, and ownership in accomplishing ambitious goals.

Grow your career with an outstanding company that puts our client's interests at the center of all we do. Get started now!
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This job is not covered by the existing Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Required Certifications:
Grow your career with a best-in-class company that puts our client's interests at the center of all we do. Get started now!
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.