Sr. Principal, Agile Coach, OMN

About Northern Trust:

Northern Trust, a Fortune 500 company, is a globally recognized, award-winning financial institution that has been in continuous operation since 1889.

Northern Trust is proud to provide innovative financial services and guidance to the world's most successful individuals, families, and institutions by remaining true to our enduring principles of service, expertise, and integrity. With more than 130 years of financial experience and over 22,000 partners, we serve the world's most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.

Job Description: Vice President, Agile Coach, OMN

Summary:

The role involves working for Northern Trust Omnium Change Management, supporting the adoption of Agile framework across the Omnium Platform. Omnium is a multi-tenant platform supporting mainly Hedge Fund Services (HFS), a global fund administrator, specializing in complex hedge funds and alternative asset investments.  The successful candidate will be an ambitious self-starter who has core knowledge of Agile frameworks and methodologies and has demonstrated the ability to function in a dynamic, fast-paced and demanding environment. The role will be a key part of our Omnium Change Management team and will be visible to many executives and teams.

The Agile Coach will serve as the subject matter expert on agile principles, methodologies, and best practices, while being responsible for working across all levels of the organization to increase Agile acumen, develop and enhance intellectual property, and standardize processes to ensure successful adoption of Agile principles and mindset to achieve the greatest business value. The Agile Coach works with a the Omnium Change Management and IT teams to drive the adoption and optimization of Agile practices. The Agile Coach provides mentoring and coaching, and must be able to correlate learnings to principles and practices with supporting, relevant, real-world examples. The Omnium Change Management team includes product management, program management, scrum master / agile manager and release coordination roles.

Major Duties:

• Sets Agile framework and methodologies to be leveraged for the Agile transformation plan

• Guides and influences all levels of the organization including senior leadership, IT, change management and business, through the cultural and process change around Agile methodologies/mind-set

• Helps to create empowered, self-organizing, high-performing teams that continue to improve independently

• Evaluates and mentors new and experienced Agile teams, and collaborates with the Agile teams to regularly identify and implement improvements

• Ensures Agile ceremonies are completed effectively and the value is understood

• Ensures the preparatory activities are consistently in place for successful delivery including a product backlog with sufficient estimated stories with clear acceptance criteria, regular release planning sessions, stand-ups and effective retrospectives

• Helps to create an open and trust-based environment, which enables a focus on delivery and facilitates continuous improvement

• Coaches teams, scrum masters / agile managers, product management, program management and IT on Agile concepts and industry best practices (refinement, backlog prioritization, release /sprint planning, value and use of relative estimation, incorporating engineering practices and using velocity for planning, etc.) and expected benefits

• Coaches the scrum master / agile manager on how to eventually assume ongoing coaching of the team

• Routinely assess the culture and Agile maturity at the team and organization level

• Coaches the team and scrum master / agile manager on the value and utilization of team agreements

• Coaches the scrum master / agile manager, product owner and team on engaging management and stakeholders appropriately

• Coaches the product owner on creating and maintaining product backlogs with stories that are ready for team use

• Coach and mentor on the importance of helping team members and management embrace mindset shifts such as value-driven priority, self-organization or empirical process improvement

• Mentors management on how their roles are different in an Agile environment and how to champion the Agile Adoption

• Coaches the skills and value of creating transparency, and how this accelerates agility

• Coaches the team, product management and scrum master / agile manager on how to evolve release plans as new information emerges and how to communicate updated plans to maintain transparency and stakeholder engagement

• Coaches the team on the value and methods of developing cross-functional skills

• Leverage a variety of coaching, mentoring, and training styles to drive Agile adoption throughout the organization and assisting with the realization of organizational transformation and success metrics

• Stays current with the Agile industry: Read and recommend valuable Lean and Agile books, blogs, articles, etc. to continuously increase the team's Agile maturity; coach the team on developing a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

• Leverage communities of practice to encourage and nurture best practices, and a culture of continuous learning and improvements.

Knowledge / Skills:

• Expert knowledge in Agile frameworks and methodologies; including but not limited to Scrum, Kanban, XP, SAFe, backlog management, Agile techniques

• Experience leading scaled-Agile execution for financial service technology portfolios, prior framework experience may include: SAFe, LeSS

• Well-versed through direct experience in establishing and reinforcing an Agile adoption lifecycle at portfolio, program-project, and team levels: Implement, Improve, Standardize, and Scale

• Excellent skills in facilitation, continuous improvement, empowerment, transparency, building trust and servant leadership

• Interpersonal skills that help to establish strong working relationships and promote bi-directional communication within and across teams and programs

• Able to organize, moderate and demonstrate Agile industry best practices

• Understanding of software development life cycle including planning, development, quality assurance, change management and release management

• High aptitude for heavy interaction with business owners with polished communication skills

• Ability to effectively facilitate discussions at various levels and suggest alternative approaches and effectively manage challenging situations through negotiation and conflict resolution

• Highly flexible and adaptable to change; capable of being a 'change agent' to identify and drive productivity transformation

• Client relationship focused (internal and external relationships)

Experience:

• Experience in mobilizing Agile teams, scaled frameworks/scaled Agile, creating/running trainings, organizational adoption of Agile framework, facilitation, coaching and mentoring

• A College or University degree and relevant proven work experience

• A minimum of 5-10+ years of experience

• Experience with Investment Management and/or Financial Services; Alternative Asset Management specific a plus

• Familiarity with Microsoft Azure DevOps tools or a willingness to learn

• Familiarity with Agile development methodologies and concepts

• A genuine desire and capability to work in a fast-paced, professional, inclusive environment which requires teamwork, well-honed problem-solving skills, frequent re-prioritization, deadline management, ongoing and comprehensive communication, constant attention to detail, and a commitment to continuous improvement and best practices

Certifications:

• Must hold agile certifications in agile team and enterprise coaching, e.g. ICP-ACC, ICP-ATF, ICP-CAT, ICP-ENT, CTC, CEC, PSM, CSM, and SAFe SPC
• Certifications in Agile project management are a plus

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Working with Us:

As a Northern Trust partner, greater achievements await. You will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture in an organization where financial strength and stability is an asset that emboldens us to explore new ideas.

Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company committed to assisting the communities we serve! Join a workplace with a greater purpose.

We'd love to learn more about how your interests and experience could be a fit with one of the world's most admired and sustainable companies! Build your career with us and apply today. #MadeForGreater

Reasonable accommodation

Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please email our HR Service Center at MyHRHelp@ntrs.com.

We hope you're excited about the role and the opportunity to work with us. We value an inclusive workplace and understand flexibility means different things to different people.

Apply today and talk to us about your flexible working requirements and together we can achieve greater.