Agile Coach

At Dynata, we deliver high-quality first-party data to help businesses gain precise insights, activate audiences, and measure impact with confidence.

About the role

The Agile Coach enables and governs the Dynata Program Increment (PI) process and manages Dynata’s Release Train Engineers (RTEs). This role drives the adoption of SAFe principles and practices across Product, Engineering, and Operations, acting as a servant leader and facilitator to improve flow, optimize delivery, and scale business value. The Agile Coach ensures consistent adoption of the Dynata PI process, manages RTEs, and facilitates quarterly synchronization between business and technology, including PI Planning events and cross-team ceremonies.

Responsibilities

• Govern and enable the Dynata PI process across assigned programs, ensuring consistent adoption of SAFe-aligned practices and Dynata delivery standards.
• Lead, coach, and develop Release Train Engineers responsible for operating Agile Release Trains.
• Serve as a servant leader and transformation catalyst for Product, Engineering, and leadership teams.
• Ensure quarterly alignment between business and technology through PI Planning readiness and execution.
• Establish and monitor program-level performance standards, including predictability, flow, dependency management, and delivery against PI objectives.
• Provide advisory support to program and executive stakeholders, surfacing risks, trade-offs, and improvement opportunities.

PI Planning and Pre-Planning

• Define standards, templates, and governance for PI Planning and pre-PI refinement.
• Ensure RTEs prepare teams and stakeholders for PI Planning, including capacity planning, backlog readiness, and dependency identification.
• Validate PI Planning outputs such as objectives, Program Boards, risks, and dependencies.

In-PI Execution

• Oversee ART execution through RTEs, ensuring cross-team ceremonies are effective and outcome-driven.
• Monitor dependencies, risks, and impediments, ensuring clear escalation paths.
• Track program-level metrics and drive corrective actions through RTEs and leadership.

Inspect & Adapt

• Ensure Inspect & Adapt events result in actionable improvements tied to measurable outcomes.
• Promote a culture of continuous improvement and ensure root-cause issues are addressed.
• Synthesize insights across programs to identify systemic issues and recommend organizational improvements.

Cross-Cutting Responsibilities

• Coach leaders, Product Managers, Scrum Masters, and teams on agile principles and scaled delivery.
• Ensure adherence to Dynata Product & Engineering processes and agile governance standards.
• Maintain standards for program-level artifacts such as Program Boards, PI Objectives, dashboards, and dependency tracking.
• Support organizational change management and help teams mature in agile practices.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, and Architecture leadership to improve alignment between business priorities and execution capability.
• Continuously refine Dynata’s agile operating model based on feedback, performance data, and evolving business needs.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Business Administration, or a related field. Preferred: Graduate-level qualification in agile project management, organizational transformation, or a related area.
• Minimum of two active SAFe or Agile certifications (SAFe RTE preferred).
• More than five years of experience leading software teams at the program level (typically 5–8 years).
• Minimum two years coordinating multiple teams simultaneously.
• Minimum three PI Planning events facilitated or co-facilitated.
• Experience in leadership without authority, facilitation of large-scale events (50+ participants), executive coaching, cross-functional communication, flow and predictability metrics, dependency management, and conflict resolution.
• Relevant certifications such as SAFe RTE, SPC, SASM, PSM, or ICP-ACC.

Skills

• Backlog and Planning Tools: Jira (including Jira Plans), Azure DevOps, Linear. Familiarity with Dynata’s two-project Jira model.
• Visualization and Program Board Tools: Miro, Mural, Lucidchart, Aha! Roadmaps.
• Documentation and Knowledge Management: Confluence, Notion, SharePoint, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace.
• Communication and Collaboration: Microsoft Teams, Slack, Zoom, Google Meet.
• Live Polling and Surveys: Mentimeter, Slido, Poll Everywhere.
• Metrics and Dashboards: Tableau, Power BI, Jira Dashboards, EazyBI, Monday.
• Spreadsheets and Modeling: Excel, Google Sheets.
• Frameworks and Methodologies: SAFe 6.0, Scrum, Kanban, Lean. Working knowledge of the Dynata Product & Engineering Process.

Pay

The base salary range for this position is $100K–$130K/yr. Base pay may vary depending on location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. A discretionary incentive program may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to a full range of medical and other benefits, dependent on full-time employment status.