Scrum Master

Whole Foods Market attracts people who are passionate—about great food, about the communities they live and work in, about how we treat our planet and our fellow humans—and who want to bring their passion into the workplace and make a difference. Whole Foods is consistently voted one of the best places to work in America. It’s a place where you can work on cutting-edge applications from the heart of downtown Austin, while maintaining your balanced lifestyle.

The mission of the Digital Technology team is to elevate our customers’ journey by building engaging experiences that extend the warmth and magic of our in-store experience into the digital space. Whole Foods Market (“WFM”) is seeking a talented Scrum Master who is passionate about being at the nexus of big-picture business outcomes, emerging technologies, and advocating for Lean/Agile principles and practices.

As a Scrum Master, you will be responsible for helping build the Agile-driven processes and tools necessary to help evolve project teams within the eCommerce Technical Team. This hands-on role will provide the servant leadership, strategy and vision required to grow the eCommerce Technical Team’s agile practices, tools, and team. The ideal candidate will be a self-starter with a passion for servant leadership and agile principles.

Responsibilities:

• Coach the team on how to execute the Scrum process by helping them learn and use the framework
• Responsible for reinforcing the rules of Scrum
• Schedule and facilitate Scrum ceremonies
• Schedule and facilitate non-ceremony project meetings needed by the build team (ex: kick-offs, design review, legal, customer support meetings, emergency needs, partner teams)
• Accountable for keeping meetings on track, speaking up when it diverges
• Work to identify, track, and remove impediments
• Taking meeting minutes and action items
• Ensure completion of follow-up action items
• Monitor and report on project status
• Prepare and send weekly status reports
• Track and report on agile team metrics and KPIs
• Help ensure stories are ready for development
• Monitor and maintain velocity and burndown
• Shielding the team from interruptions during the sprint

Required Qualifications:

• BA/BS degree and 2+ years applied experience in a Scrum Master role, preferably with responsibility for multiple teams OR equivalent combination of education and relevant experience
• Deep understanding of Agile tools and best practices
• Experience working with the Atlassian suite of project management tools or other industry-leading tools
• Experience with Agile / Scrum development implementation and management
• Highly analytical with ability to establish processes that drive fact-based decision making
• Strong communication and leadership skills, including the ability to gather relevant data and information, actively listen, dialogue freely, verbalize ideas effective, negotiate tense situations successfully, and manage and resolve conflict
• Demonstrated experience building consensus across a development team
• Must excel working in team-oriented roles that rely on ability to collaborate with others

Preferred Qualifications:

• 2+ years applied experience in the Retail Industry
• 2+ years applied experience in eCommerce
• Experience with Scaled Agile/SAFe

Critical Success Factors & Personal Characteristics:

• Has an inherent feel for when to let the teams take the leader and when to manage directly
• Flexible in one’s viewpoints and positions in order to support the direction taken by other Team Members, but still credible in setting direction as a servant leader
• Builds rapport with Team members inside and outside the organization
• Challenges the status quo, champions change, and influences others to change
• Collaborative self-starter
• Great creative problem solving and analytical skills
• Thrives in an atmosphere of empowerment and team accountability
• Strong verbal, written, and presentation communication skills
• Passionate about the Whole Foods Market’s mission and core values
• Able to work at Whole Foods HQ in the heart of downtown Austin
• Sense of humor is a must
• Able to physically perform general office requirements
• Must be able to perform essential responsibilities with or without reasonable accommodations

At Whole Foods Market, we provide a fair and equal employment opportunity for all Team Members and candidates regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, age, marital status, disability, or any other legally protected characteristic. Whole Foods Market hires and promotes individuals solely based on qualifications for the position to be filled and business needs.