Scrum Master

Role: Scrum Master
Location: Chicago, IL
Contract Role


Key:
scrum master with good exposure to Jira
hands on experience working with data science or ML teams
strong understanding of iterative development of data pipelines, model training, experimentation, and deployment

Key Responsibilities:
Agile Delivery Leadership

• Facilitate all Scrum ceremonies — daily stand-ups, sprint planning, backlog refinement, sprint reviews, and retrospectives.
• Remove impediments and ensure the team's smooth progress toward sprint goals.
• Coach the team and stakeholders on Agile principles and practices to ensure adoption and continuous improvement.
• Maintain transparency on team progress through effective use of Agile tools (, Jira, Azure DevOps).
• Ensure proper sprint forecasting, story point estimation, and velocity tracking.

Data Science & Engineering Collaboration

• Understand data science project lifecycles — from problem definition and data preparation to model training, validation, and deployment.
• Collaborate closely with data scientists, data engineers, and MLOps engineers to align sprint deliverables with business objectives.
• Facilitate cross-functional communication between business, data, and technology teams.
• Support teams in managing technical debt, model versioning, and experiment tracking.
• Ensure reproducibility, documentation, and traceability of data and model assets.

Stakeholder & Delivery Management

• Act as a bridge between product owners, technical teams, and business stakeholders.
• Drive clarity in requirements and sprint goals by facilitating data-driven discussions.
• Manage dependencies and coordinate across multiple teams (, data engineering, analytics, and platform).
• Ensure timely delivery of high-quality, production-ready data products and ML models.
• Support the Product Owner in backlog prioritization based on business impact and data readiness.

Required Skills & Qualifications:

• Core Agile Skills
• Certified Scrum Master (CSM, PSM I/II, or equivalent).
• – years of experience as a Scrum Master in cross-functional Agile teams.
• Proven track record of managing multiple sprints and delivering analytics or data-centric projects.
• Data Science Competence
• Familiarity with data science concepts — data wrangling, model development, feature engineering, and evaluation metrics.
• Exposure to tools and technologies such as Python, SQL, Jupiter, MLflow, Databricks, Snowflake, or Azure ML.
• Understanding of the CI/CD process for machine learning (MLOps).
• Experience working with Data Engineers and ML Engineers on pipelines and data infrastructure.
• Soft Skills
• Strong communication, facilitation, and conflict resolution skills.
• Ability to translate complex technical concepts into business-friendly language.
• Excellent stakeholder management and problem-solving abilities.
• Proactive mindset with focus on continuous improvement and team empowerment.