WHAT YOU'LL DO

You are joining BCG’s Agile Center of Excellence (CoE), a 70+ expert global Coaching and Scrum Lead team responsible for enabling the agility and high-performance delivery of BCG’s internal Digital Product Organization. The Agile CoE is an expert product enablement function aligned organizationally to Global IT, part of BCG’s global internal Business Services Teams (BST) which operate BCG’s business.

The Digital Product Organization (DPO) is a 1300+ person cross-functional product delivery, tech & engineering organization. It is comprised of 16 Product Portfolios, 120+ product squads and 5 centers of excellence, responsible for driving digitally product enablement for all internal BCG business functions (HR, Marketing, Legal, Risk, Finance, IT, etc.). This organization was formed in 2020 as part of a full-scale business agility transformation, sponsored by the CIO, CFO and COO and delivered by BCG’s best-in-class Agile strategy and implementation consulting team. Each Product Portfolio is led by a dedicated Product Portfolio leader with direct alignment to the senior executive of their business function. A Product Portfolio is comprised of 3 – 15 squads, each managing 1 or more products. This organization follows a consistent Agile operating model with standards and best practices designed and governed by the Agile COE.

As an Agile Coach Senior Manager, you will operate as a ‘Junior Agile Coach’ or ‘Team Coach’. You will be responsible for coaching and engaging Product Owners, teams, and individual contributors across multiple squads (3-5 teams) to embed Agile behaviors that enable better quality, faster delivery to market, engaged and sustainable teams. You will be seen as an agility change agent and thought leader, fostering continued advancement of Agile ways of working by applying Agile methodology (scrum, Kanban, lean) expertise, fit for purpose. You will supervise agile delivery and monitor performance of squads, optimizing ways of working along with Scrum Leads. Every Quadrimester (Quad), in collaboration with Product Owners, Scrum Lead, Portfolio Coach, you will look ahead and plan areas for performance and agility improvements, these plans will be regularly implemented and reviewed in Agile COE community.

In this role, you will be engaging with our new portfolio, ‘Case Team (CT) Productivity’. The purpose of this product portfolio is to drive 10% productivity improvements for BCG consultants working on client cases by identifying pain points, execute rapid prototypes and POCs using latest generative AI solutions – Chat GPT, etc. At the onset, the portfolio will include two squads, centralized in India and London respectively, and is expected to grow over time.

As an Agile Coach Senior Manager, you will:

• Be viewed as a subject matter expert in Agile methods, tools, and best practices
• Be an advanced user of and able to train others in use of technical agility enabling tools required (Jira board admin, Jira Align, Confluence, MS Office, DevSecOps)
• Take initiative to identify and resolve impediments and risks
• Actively supports and coaches Product Owners and squad members to complete artifacts related to key events (ex: BRP, ABR, Ceremonies, etc.)
• Set strategic direction and establish operational plans for own area, inputs to high level goals and agenda
• Able to provide coaching to Product Owners and squad members on behaviors and practices that align with Agile principles
• Drive change within area of focus and with the goal to achieve outcomes along with Scrum Leads, agreed and aligned with your Portfolio coach, Portfolio Leaders, and Product Owners.
• Proactively connects squad decisions to Product Portfolio OKRs
• Drive Product management and customer centric mindset with Product Owners and squad members to promote fast feedback and early value delivery.
• Upskill, mentor and partner with Scrum Leads to utilize agile ceremonies, tools & coaching techniques to continuously improve achievement of OKRs
• Acts as a key resource for others and counsels squad leadership in clarifying complex problems and developing customer and employee centric solutions
• Makes sound operational decisions to improve effectiveness of squad activities and delivery
• Able to gain buy-in for recommended solutions from senior stakeholders
• Effectively and actively participates in communities of practice and expertise

YOU'RE GOOD AT

• Developing relationships, engaging, and influencing stakeholders broadly, including senior leaders, to direct business outcomes
• Living agile culture and values and spreading your passion for them among other teams
• Sharing and transmitting passion and in-depth knowledge about Agile principles and are excited to embed them across the organization.
• Applying innovative and creative thinking to solve complex problems and get things done.
• Bringing a data-driven approach to decision making, both in day-to-day management and in making strategic trade-offs
• Problem solving difficult and complex problems, typically within ambiguous and non-structured settings, and transforming obstacles into big opportunities.
• Being strategic and proactive, bringing proven team coaching experience.
• Communicating with empathy and influencing others broadly within your area of responsibility
• Being an agile role model: you work collaboratively, you show courage, you take responsibility, you have confidence, you speak out, you are creative, and you simplify.
• Interacting with others with excellent people management skills: listening, motivating, observing, giving and receiving feedback helps individuals and teams grow.
• Driving decision-making and exercises independent sound judgment in determining appropriate methods to drives results across squads

YOU HAVE THE ABILITY TO

• Identify and solve difficult and complex problems, typically within ambiguous and non-structured settings.
• Proactively advise, facilitate, and coach your Squads. 
• Draw on best practices and develop creative solutions to address challenges facing Squad. 
• Use thorough analysis and strong business judgement to ensure resolution of problems that are not well defined.
• Act as a key resource for squads' leadership in clarifying complex problems and developing customer and employee centric solutions.
• Able to manage difficult situations and get to resolution and outcomes.
• Understand impact of problems and solutions on big picture and influences outcomes across squads
• Able to drive actions and outcomes without intervention from Agile Coach.
• Able to develop presentations in PowerPoint and present to a larger audience.
• Able to host training courses and conduct workshops.

YOU BRING (EXPERIENCE & QUALIFICATIONS)
 

• Total 7-8+ years’ relevant Agile experience (e.g., Scrum Lead, Agile Coach/ Mentor) in 1 or more organizations.
  • Mandatory to have 5-6 + years relevant Agile experience as a Scrum Master
  • Recommended to have 2 + years’ experience as a proven coach, either as in full capacity or hybrid.
• Certification preferred:
  • PSM II (Scrum.org)
  • CSM (Scrum alliance)
  • SAFe Scrum Master / SAFe Advanced Scrum Master (Scaled Agile)
  • Agile Team Coaching (IC – Agile)
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, information technology, or a relevant field preferred
• Deep understanding of agile software delivery, the path to production and other operational aspects
• Deep knowledge of other Agile frameworks (SAFe, XP, DevOps etc.)
• Extensive Experience with JIRA / Confluence or other software to manage agile programs
• Practical knowledge of various coaching tools in team management
• Good understanding of technology enabled business transformation, Digital transformation, Organizational transformation, delivering enterprise-level IT and Digital projects
• Exceptional communications and stakeholder management skills
• Experience of working in professional services or client facing industry with core skills in the likes of change management, customer centric mindset.
• Experience and knowledge of working with OKRs (Objective Key Results) and in the space of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be a value add.

YOU'LL WORK WITH

BCG is looking to provide innovative ways to support and improve our users’ collaboration experiences. You will work with:

• Product Owner and team, to support agile ways of working and enable them to achieve defined business outcomes
• Other Scrum Leads within BCG, to share best practices and ensure alignment between teams and a culture
• Portfolio Agile Coaches, with whom you will share passion about Agile ways of working and with whom you will shape promote business agility (within your teams and in the whole company)
• Portfolio Product Leaders, Technical Area Leads and Chapter Leads