Wolters Kluwer

Lead Scrum Master (SAFe / PI Planning)

IND-Pune-Smartworks Full time

Role Overview

The Lead Scrum Master is a senior servant-leader responsible for driving Agile excellence across multiple Scrum teams within the Engineering technology group. This role provides strategic coaching, delivery enablement, and cross-team alignment while ensuring disciplined adherence to Agile frameworks and principles. The Lead Scrum Master will Mentor and coach other Scrum Masters, fostering capability growth and Agile maturity.

Key Responsibilities

Agile Leadership & Multi-Team Enablement

  • Lead multiple Agile teams, ensuring successful delivery using Scrum/SAFe frameworks.
  • Coach teams in Agile values, ceremonies, practices, and continuous improvement.
  • Lead and coach multiple Scrum teams on Scrum, Kanban, and hybrid agile frameworks
  • Promote servant-leadership, collaboration, empowerment, and transparency.
  • Ensure effective communication flow and visibility of progress.
  • Serve as Agile ambassador across the portfolio for the organization.
  • Enabling formal and informal training on Scrum, SAFe, and Lean practices.
  • Develop coaching plans to uplift Agile maturity across teams.

AI‑Enabled SDLC Transformation

  • Enable adoption of AI‑based tools and practices across SDLC stages:
  • AI‑assisted backlog refinement & estimation
  • Code generation, code review, and quality analysis
  • Intelligent test automation and defect prediction
  • Release insights and delivery analytics
  • Partner with Engineering & DevOps to integrate AI capabilities into existing toolchains (e.g., CI/CD, ALM tools)

Facilitation & Delivery Governance

  • Facilitate key ceremonies: PI, Sprint Planning, Reviews, Retrospectives, Daily Scrums.
  • Remove impediments proactively; resolve conflicts.
  • Drive healthy backlog practices with Product Owners.
  • Track performance metrics and ensure reliable delivery.
  • Facilitate stand-ups and resolve blockers.
  • Lead refinement, planning, review, retrospective sessions.
  • Facilitate cross-team alignment and dependency management.
  • Conduct coaching sessions.
  • Drive continuous improvement practices.
  • Prepare delivery dashboards and insights for leadership.
  • Guide team members and other Scrum Masters.
  • Track sprint progress using Azure DevOps and other tooling.
  • Active adoption of Copilot and agenting workflows for enhanced practices and tracking
  • Understand and track the team productivity with matrices tooling and suggest improvements.
  • Drive measurable improvements in: Cycle time, Throughput & velocity, Predictability, Quality & rework reduction
  • Establish and track agile metrics such as: Lead time, cycle time, flow efficiency, Sprint predictability, DORA and value delivery metrics
  • Use data insights (including AI‑driven insights) to inform retrospectives and improvement actions

Stakeholder Management, Cross-Functional Collaboration and continuous Improvement

  • Partner with Product Owners to ensure well‑refined, outcome‑driven backlogs
  • Collaborate with UX, Architecture, and Engineering Leads to remove dependencies and delivery bottlenecks
  • Facilitate alignment across teams for large initiatives and integrated product delivery
  • Experiment with new processes and tools to enhance delivery efficiency.
  • Lead improvement actions from retrospectives.
  • Influence leaders through data-driven insights.
  • Manage escalations professionally and maintain trust.
  • Identify systemic impediments and drive organizational‑level improvements
  • Promote experimentation, learning, and innovation using AI and automation
  • Act as a change agent to evolve agile maturity and engineering effectiveness

Success Indicators

  • Improved Agile maturity across DPRCC teams.
  • High-performing, self-organizing teams.
  • Strong coaching outcomes for direct reports.
  • Predictable, transparent, and efficient delivery.
  • Drive measurable improvements in: Cycle time, Throughput & velocity, Predictability, Quality & rework reduction.

Qualifications

  • 10–15 years of experience with deep Agile/Scrum/SAFe expertise.
  • Minimum 7 years in the role of Scrum Master and similar with strong experience in Scrum, Kanban, and Flow‑based delivery.
  • Strong experience with SAFe, Azure DevOps, CI/CD, and Agile engineering practices.
  • Excellent communication, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills.
  • Fluent in English with strong leadership presence.
  • Data‑driven mindset with experience using metrics to guide improvement
  • Experience in engineering heavily or platform product organizations
  • Exposure to enterprise‑scale agile transformations
  • Familiarity with value stream management and flow optimization
  • Experience enabling AI adoption responsibly within teams (governance, ethics, security)

Our Interview Practices

To maintain a fair and genuine hiring process, we kindly ask that all candidates participate in interviews without the assistance of AI tools or external prompts. Our interview process is designed to assess your individual skills, experiences, and communication style. We value authenticity and want to ensure we’re getting to know you—not a digital assistant. To help maintain this integrity, we ask to remove virtual backgrounds and include in-person interviews in our hiring process. Please note that use of AI-generated responses or third-party support during interviews will be grounds for disqualification from the recruitment process

Our Interview Practices

To maintain a fair and genuine hiring process, we kindly ask that all candidates participate in interviews without the assistance of AI tools or external prompts. Our interview process is designed to assess your individual skills, experiences, and communication style. We value authenticity and want to ensure we’re getting to know you—not a digital assistant. To help maintain this integrity, we ask to remove virtual backgrounds and include in-person interviews in our hiring process. Please note that use of AI-generated responses or third-party support during interviews will be grounds for disqualification from the recruitment process.

Applicants may be required to appear onsite at a Wolters Kluwer office as part of the recruitment process.