UnitedHealth Group / Optum is hiring a Scrum Lead to enable Agile ways of working and facilitate Scrum ceremonies for cross-functional teams. In this role, you will be responsible for removing impediments, fostering high-performing teams, supporting the Product Owner, and driving continuous improvement within our mission-driven health care environment.
What You'll Do
- Ensure Agile frameworks, methods, and practices (Scrum, SAFe, modern product development techniques) are understood and followed across the team.
- Promote adherence to Agile values and principles and ensure the team embraces a continuous-learning mindset.
- Coach teams and stakeholders on Agile theory, roles, artifacts, and ceremonies to uplift overall delivery maturity.
- Plan, lead, and continuously improve Scrum ceremonies including Sprint Planning, Backlog Refinement, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, and Retrospectives.
- Keep the team focused on Sprint goals and ensure smooth execution and flow of work throughout the iteration.
- Use team metrics such as burn-up/down charts, throughput, and quality indicators to support transparency and improvement.
- Identify and eliminate blockers that hinder delivery - whether technical, process, or organizational.
- Shield the team from unnecessary interruptions and guide stakeholders toward productive engagement.
- Enable long-term stability by reducing dependencies and helping the team develop sustainable delivery practices.
- Build a collaborative, empowered, and psychologically safe team environment.
- Guide teams toward self-organization, accountability, and continuous improvement.
- Model servant-leadership behaviors that reinforce trust, openness, courage, and respect.
- Partner with the Product Owner to ensure effective backlog management.
- Coach teams to create clear, concise, and testable user stories and acceptance criteria.
- Encourage empirical planning and data-driven decision-making for predictable delivery.
- Encourage experimentation, learning, and improvement in team practices and delivery outcomes.
- Facilitate workshops, improvement sessions, and coaching interactions to enhance Agile capability.
- Contribute to the broader Agile transformation by standardizing practices and uplifting Agile maturity across teams.
- Use modern tools to automate routine tasks such as story generation, backlog grooming, and meeting facilitation.
- Leverage AI-driven insights to monitor team performance, identify issues proactively, and optimize ways of working.
- Promote adoption of productivity-enhancing tools within the team to reduce administrative overhead.
What We're Looking For
- Graduation is a must.
- 6+ years of experience in Scrum Master, Agile Delivery Lead, or Agile Coach supporting cross-functional teams.
- Scrum Master certification (CSM, PSM, SAFe-SM, etc.).
- Experience driving Agile transformation, standardizing Agile practices, or mentoring other Scrum Masters.
- Familiarity with AI-enabled agile tooling (e.g., Copilot, Rally integrations, story automation tools).
- Experience with scaled Agile environments or multi-team delivery models.
Our culture is guided by inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits and career development opportunities. We are committed to our mission of helping people live healthier lives and making the health system work better for everyone, including mitigating our environmental impact and delivering equitable care that addresses health disparities.
