IT Ops Agile Coach

IT Ops Agile Coach One of The Sage Group’s clients is seeking an IT Ops Agile Coach, experienced with Jira and Kanban. Client is a cloud content management and file sharing service for businesses. Role Overview As an IT Ops Agile Coach, you will partner with our IT Operations organization — 7 teams totaling 50+ people — to close critical gaps in agile practice maturity. This is a hands-on coaching engagement, not a training delivery role, and it is operations-focused, not software development. IT Ops teams operate in a high-interruption environment with shifting priorities, reactive workloads, and time-sensitive demands that differ fundamentally from dev team cadences, which is why we operate in Kanban vs Scrum. Our 7 teams serve distinct operational functions while collaborating closely on cross-team initiatives. A core part of this role is helping each team strengthen its internal processes and ways of working, while respecting the systems, structures, and boundaries already in place across the broader organization. Importantly, client IT Ops already has extensive documentation and established Jira workflows in place. You will need to be thoughtful and deliberate about proposed changes — distinguishing between improvements that can be made within a single team's scope versus changes that would impact other teams, shared tooling, or existing automations. We welcome fresh perspectives and broader ideas, but successful candidates will understand that redesigning foundational systems requires significant coordination and is not always feasible within this engagement. You will work directly with managers and teams to build lasting, self-sustaining agile habits grounded in data, clear ownership, and consistent delivery standards — across a diverse set of teams with varying functions and maturity levels. Key Responsibilities 1. Assessment & Baseline • Observe team stand-ups, syncs, and ceremonies across all 7 teams to understand current workflows, team dynamics, and the realities of operations-based work • Conduct 1:1 sessions with managers and team leads to surface specific challenges, goals, and blockers unique to each team's function • Identify gaps in working agreements, estimation practices, task decomposition, and metrics visibility — with particular sensitivity to how unplanned, interrupt-driven work affects each team differently 1. Foundational Coaching & Implementation • Facilitate workshops to establish clear, consistent Working Agreements and a Definition of Done across IT Ops teams, accounting for the operational nature of the work and each team's distinct function • Coach teams on structured task decomposition and estimation techniques within Jira, moving teams from conversation-based guessing to repeatable, data-informed methods suited to operational environments • Implement WIP limits and backlog refinement practices that account for interrupt-driven workloads and reduce reactive prioritization • Build and roll out Jira dashboards providing real-time visibility into key metrics (e.g., WIP, cycle time, throughput) — working within existing Jira configurations and automated workflows rather than replacing them • Provide direct coaching to managers on interpreting metrics and leading their teams using data, not just standups and check-ins • Address team empowerment and self-leadership gaps by reducing manager dependency and building autonomous decision-making habits • Where broader process or tooling changes are proposed, clearly assess cross-team impact and flag changes that would require broader system redesign before pursuing them 1. Reinforcement & Handoff • Hold weekly 1:1 syncs with leadership to review progress, address impediments, and ensure changes are taking hold across all teams • Embed retrospective discipline as a structured, recurring practice — not an informal check-in • Ensure managers are confident adapting new processes as their teams evolve, making the change self-sustaining • Produce a handoff summary with documented working agreements, dashboard guides, and a recommended continuous improvement roadmap — including a clear distinction between improvements each team can own independently and those requiring broader coordination Qualifications • Proven experience coaching IT and operations-focused teams on agile practices, specifically Kanban for operational environments with high interrupt and reactive workload patterns • Expert-level knowledge of Jira (Data Center and/or Cloud), including building advanced dashboards for flow metrics and team visibility — and the ability to work within and around existing configurations rather than rebuilding from scratch • Demonstrated ability to coach and give candid, constructive feedback to managers and leaders in a psychologically safe manner • Strong track record of implementing Working Agreements, Definition of Done, and task decomposition standards across teams with varying maturity levels and distinct functional responsibilities • Experience diagnosing and closing gaps in metrics and visibility — particularly with teams that rely on conversation rather than structured data • Ability to work effectively across multiple teams simultaneously, balancing team-specific needs with cross-team consistency Preferred Qualifications • Certified Agile Coach (ICP-ACC, CAC) or equivalent; Kanban Management Professional (KMP) a strong plus • Experience with Confluence for documentation and knowledge management • Familiarity with Airtable or similar portfolio management tools • Demonstrated success building self-sustaining agile cultures — teams that improve independently after the engagement ends • Strong facilitation skills, with experience running retrospectives, planning sessions, and working agreement workshops across multiple teams • High emotional intelligence and the ability to manage resistance, build trust, and navigate complex team dynamics — including teams with different functions, priorities, and levels of agile adoption Duration: 6 months, extension potential Location: 100% remote in USA Compensation: $70-80hr Hours: 15-20 per week, 8-12noon PT