Technical Scrum Master

Experienced Technical Scrum Master responsible for facilitating Agile delivery across business technology and engineering teams. This role combines strong Scrum facilitation, delivery discipline, and coding fluency to help teams plan effectively, identify technical risks early, remove blockers, and deliver reliable business systems.

The Technical Scrum Master actively partners with Product Owners, Engineering Leads, QA, Business Analysts, and stakeholders to maintain healthy sprint execution, technically sound backlogs, clear dependencies, and release readiness. This role is expected to understand software development, APIs, databases, integrations, and system dependencies well enough to participate in technical discussions and ask informed questions.

What this role exists to do

Drive predictable Agile delivery by facilitating Scrum practices, improving story readiness, removing delivery blockers, and helping technical teams stay focused, aligned, and accountable.

Who it impacts

Engineering, Product, QA, Business Analysts, business stakeholders, operational teams, and cross-functional technology partners — ultimately supporting reliable clinical workflows and business operations.

What success looks like

Healthy sprint execution, improved backlog quality, reduced blockers, visible risks and dependencies, predictable delivery, stronger cross-team coordination, and continuous improvement in Agile maturity.

This role may evolve as organizational priorities and business needs change.

KEY RESPONSIBILITES

Technical Engagement & Problem Solving

• Actively participate in technical discussions, architecture reviews, and code-level conversations during sprint cycles.
• Identify the root causes of technical blockers and propose or facilitate first-level solutions without always escalating to senior engineers.
• Review user stories and acceptance criteria for technical completeness, feasibility, testability, and dependency clarity before sprint commitment.
• Assess technical debt, code quality concerns, integration risks, data dependencies, and release risks as part of sprint planning conversations.
• Understand and articulate API dependencies, database structures, data flows, and system integration points relevant to sprint work.
• Collaborate with developers to decompose technically complex stories into actionable, estimable tasks.
• Serve as the first line of triage for routine technical questions so Engineering Leads can stay focused on higher-complexity design and delivery decisions.

Scrum Facilitation & Agile Coaching

• Facilitate Scrum ceremonies, including Sprint Planning, Daily Stand-ups, Sprint Reviews, Retrospectives, and backlog refinement sessions.
• Coach developers, QA engineers, Business Analysts, and Product Owners on Agile principles, Scrum best practices, and delivery discipline.
• Partner with Product Owners to maintain a technically sound, well-prioritized backlog.
• Drive adherence to Definition of Ready and Definition of Done across assigned teams.
• Protect the team from scope creep and external interruptions during active sprints.
• Drive continuous improvement through meaningful retrospectives that produce measurable action items.
• Support Agile maturity improvements and help scale best practices across business technology teams.

Impediment Removal

• Proactively surface and resolve blockers — technical, organizational, process-related, or cross-functional — before they impact sprint velocity.
• Coordinate cross-team dependencies across business systems, including ERP, CRM, LIS, billing, reporting, integrations, customer-facing platforms, and operational workflows.
• Track dependency risks across upstream and downstream systems and ensure ownership, timelines, and escalation paths are clear.
• Facilitate alignment between Engineering, Product, QA, Business Analysts, Release teams, and stakeholders when delivery risks or blockers arise.
• Escalate risks appropriately when issues cannot be resolved within the team.

Release Readiness & Delivery Governance

• Partner with Engineering, QA, Product, and Release teams to ensure sprint work is testable, demo-ready, and release-ready.
• Track UAT status, open defects, dependency closure, environment readiness, and go/no-go risks ahead of release milestones.
• Ensure completed stories meet agreed acceptance criteria and Definition of Done before closure.
• Maintain visibility into release risks, blockers, and cross-team dependencies through Jira, Confluence, RAID logs, or equivalent tools.
• Support delivery discipline in regulated healthcare technology environments where auditability, privacy, change control, and operational reliability are important.

Metrics, Reporting & Stakeholder Communication

• Track and report sprint health, velocity, burndown, cycle time, blockers, risks, dependencies, and technical debt trends.
• Communicate sprint progress, delivery risks, dependency status, and trade-offs clearly to business stakeholders and leadership.
• Prepare leadership-ready delivery updates that summarize accomplishments, risks, decisions needed, and upcoming priorities.
• Contribute to Agile maturity assessments and process improvement initiatives across business technology teams.
• Use metrics and retrospectives to identify delivery bottlenecks and recommend practical improvements.

QUALIFICATIONS

Certification & Agile Experience

Required

• Requires a bachelor’s degree in computer science, information technology, business systems, engineering, or related fields.
• Certified Scrum Master certification required; CSM preferred. PSM I/II or equivalent Agile certification may be considered.
• 3+ years of experience as a practicing Scrum Master on software delivery teams.
• Demonstrated ability to facilitate Scrum ceremonies for remote, hybrid, distributed, or cross-functional teams.
• Strong experience with Agile project management tools such as Jira, Azure DevOps, or equivalent.
• Experience partnering with Product Owners, Engineering Leads, QA, and Business Analysts to manage sprint execution, backlog readiness, dependencies, and delivery risks.
• An equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered.

Coding & Technical Background:

Required

• 3+ years of hands-on software development experience in a mainstream programming language such as Python, Java, C#, JavaScript, or equivalent.
• Ability to read, understand, and discuss production code at a meaningful level — not just conceptually.
• Working knowledge of RESTful APIs, relational databases, SQL, and basic system architecture patterns.
• Familiarity with version control workflows such as Git, branching strategies, pull requests, and code review processes.
• Understanding of CI/CD pipelines, deployment workflows, and software development lifecycle practices.
• Capable of reviewing a pull request, understanding its intent, and identifying obvious issues, risks, or missing context.
• Comfortable asking developers precise, informed questions rather than vague follow-ups.
• Ability to understand technical debt, code quality concerns, integration risks, testing gaps, and release risks during sprint planning and execution.
• Experience working with business systems such as ERP, CRM, billing platforms, LIMS, reporting/BI tools, customer portals, or integration platforms is strongly preferred.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced Scrum certifications such as A-CSM, CSP-SM, PSM II, PSM III, SAFe Scrum Master, or SAFe Agilist.
• Background that bridges both development and delivery, such as a developer who transitioned into Agile leadership or technical delivery management.
• Experience in healthcare IT, laboratory information systems, regulated technology environments, or HIPAA-sensitive environments.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Familiarity with containerized deployments, including Docker or Kubernetes.
• Exposure to DevOps or delivery metrics such as DORA metrics, lead time, deployment frequency, cycle time, and mean time to recovery.
• Experience maintaining sprint boards, RAID logs, dependency trackers, Confluence documentation, and leadership-ready delivery updates.
• Experience supporting release readiness, UAT tracking, defect triage, deployment coordination, and go/no-go decision preparation.
• Coaching or mentoring experience with junior developers, Scrum teams, or Agile teams early in their maturity journey.

ROLE BOUNDARY

• This role is technical and delivery-focused but is not a replacement for an Engineering Lead, Architect, Product Owner, or QA Lead. The Technical Scrum Master is expected to be coding-fluent enough to understand technical work, challenge ambiguity, identify delivery risks, and facilitate better sprint outcomes. Technical design authority remains with Engineering leadership.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS AND WORK ENVIRONMENT

• Location: Remote / Hybrid Eligible.
• May require occasional off-hours or weekend work to support critical releases, production incidents, sprint transitions, or urgent delivery needs.
• Requires regular use of computer systems, collaboration tools, video conferencing, Agile delivery tools, and documentation platforms.
• Must be able to work effectively with remote and distributed teams across multiple time zones.

EEO Statement:

Baylor Genetics is proud to be an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace. We welcome and encourage applicants from all backgrounds to apply. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, childbirth, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. If you need an accommodation during the application process, please contact our Human Resources team.

Note to Recruiters:

We value building direct relationships with our candidates and prefer to manage our hiring process internally. While we occasionally partner with select recruitment agencies for specialized roles, we do not accept unsolicited resumes from recruiters or agencies without a written agreement executed by the authorized signatory for Baylor Genetics ("Agreement"). Any resumes submitted to Baylor Genetics in the absence of an Agreement executed by Baylor Genetics' authorized signatory will be considered the property of Baylor Genetics, and Baylor Genetics will not be obligated to pay any associated recruitment fees.