The Agile Team Leader will be responsible for maximizing the ongoing performance of a cross-functional agile team and producing online products to the market rapidly and with high quality. All product development teams at Gale embrace the Gale Agile Development Approach (GADA) which is an evolving blend of different techniques and practices from multiple agile flavors and disciplines. The Agile Team Leader will work with the team to establish product backlogs, produce estimates and budgets, and deliver commitments to the business on-time and on-budget while minimizing risks and surprises. To maximize team results, the Agile Team Leader must possess a deep experience and thorough command of contemporary agile project management and team leadership practices as well as a solid understanding of the other roles and practices that comprise an effective agile development system. The Agile Team Leader will work with the team to continuously adapt to new business situations and to evolve a healthier and fuller definition of done. The ideal candidate will be an active learner who tracks the state of the art and keeps abreast of emerging tools and practices in agile software development. This is a position with direct delivery responsibility and as such requires a results-oriented individual with a high degree of emotional intelligence and situational effectiveness. This is also a leadership position which requires solid interpersonal skills, a collaborative nature, and awareness of self and others. The Agile Team Leader must work with other Agile Team Leaders to share learning, mitigate technical dependencies, plan resource allocation, and to maximize practice consistency between agile teams on an ongoing basis.

Essential Duties/Responsibilities:

• Continuous Leadership
  
  • Focuses on the goals of the business
    
  • Addresses the concerns of people inside the room
    
  • Addresses the concerns of others outside the room (individuals and organizations)
    
• Continuous Planning
  
  • Ensures that the team is making good commitments
    
  • Ensures that the team is delivering on the commitments that it makes
    
  • Gets the lights on and makes everything big and visible
    
  • Identifies, tracks, reports on meaningful performance/progress metrics, and assists the team in acheiving performance goals
    
  • Reports information to and for the team clearly, honestly, and continuously
    
  • Makes the plan the bad guy
    
  • Drives commitment-making for and with the team
    
  • Ensures that the plan changes with demand/supply
    
• Continuous Execution
  
  • Monitors/manages team velocity/throughput
    
  • Gets the team the resources it needs
    
  • Removes roadblocks
    
  • Escalates effectively
    
  • Keeps momentum and focus in the team
    
• Continuous Improvement
  
  • Drives and enlarges the overall definition of done
    
  • Senses where performance breakdowns are occurring and takes actions to improve team performance
    
  • Creates big and visible means for measuring breakdowns
    
  • Interprets data to identify biggest opportunities
    
  • Works with team to identify and implement improvements
    
  • Must apprehend the different roles/concerns within an agile team and environment

Qualifications:

• To maximize team results, the Agile Team Leader must possess a deep experience and thorough command of contemporary agile project management and team leadership practices as well as a solid understanding of the other roles and practices that comprise an effective agile development system
  
• The ideal candidate will be an active learner who tracks the state of the art and keeps abreast of emerging tools and practices in agile software development.
  
• This is a position with direct delivery responsibility and as such requires a results-oriented individual with a high degree of emotional intelligence and situational effectiveness.
• This is also a leadership position which requires solid interpersonal skills, a collaborative nature, and awareness of self and others.