AVP, Scrum Master, Data Solutions (L11)

Role Title: AVP, Scrum Master, Data Solutions (L11)

Company Overview:

Synchrony (NYSE: SYF) is a premier consumer financial services company delivering one of the industry’s most complete digitally enabled product suites. Our experience, expertise and scale encompass a broad spectrum of industries including digital, health and wellness, retail, telecommunications, home, auto, outdoors, pet and more.

• We have recently been ranked #2 among India’s Best Companies to Work for by Great Place to Work. We were among the Top 50 India’s Best Workplaces in Building a Culture of Innovation by All by GPTW and Top 25 among Best Workplaces in BFSI by GPTW. We have also been recognized by Ambition Box Employee Choice Awards among the Top 20 Mid-Sized Companies, ranked #3 among Top Rated Companies for Women, and Top-Rated Financial Services Companies.
• We provide best-in-class employee benefits and programs that cater to work-life integration and overall well-being.
• We provide career advancement and upskilling opportunities to take up leadership roles.  

Organization Overview:

This role is part of the Data & Analytics Technology team, focused on the creation and storage of information throughout its lifecycle and delivering analytic platforms that enable analyst and application consumption

Role Summary/Purpose:

The AVP, Scrum Master leads multiple Scrum/Kanban teams delivering capabilities for Synchrony’s Data & Analytics Technology organization. This role partners closely with Product Owners, engineering, QA, business stakeholders, and (as applicable) SAFe Agile Release Train (ART) leadership to drive reliable delivery outcomes.

A key element of this position is coaching teams and leaders on SAFe-aligned ways of working—strengthening Lean-Agile behaviors, enabling continuous improvement, and building empowered, self-managing teams that can deliver value predictably.

Key Responsibilities:

Team Coaching (Core Expectation) & Servant Leadership (SAFe-aligned)

• Serve as a servant leader and coach for multiple cross-functional Scrum/Kanban teams, reinforcing SAFe core values, SAFe principles, and Lean-Agile mindset in day-to-day execution.
• Coach teams to improve flow and outcomes through practical techniques such as limiting WIP, clarifying working agreements, improving estimation and slicing, raising blockers early, and strengthening Definition of Ready/Done.
• Develop team maturity by mentoring on facilitation, collaboration, conflict resolution, and decision-making—building autonomous, self-organizing, continuously improving teams.
• Partner with leaders and stakeholders to reinforce an environment that supports agility (stable teams, clear priorities, sustainable pace, and minimized unplanned work).

Planning, Facilitation & Delivery Execution

• Facilitate and continuously improve Agile events: daily standups, backlog refinement, sprint planning, reviews/demos, retrospectives, and release/iteration planning.
• Support teams in making achievable commitments through effective story selection, sizing/estimation, tasking, and capacity planning; drive follow-through on commitments.
• Maintain strong feedback loops via retrospectives and metrics review; ensure improvement actions are implemented and tracked to measurable outcomes.

Product Owner & Backlog Partnership

• Assist Product Owners in translating roadmaps into epics, features, and user stories using the appropriate Agile tool (e.g., JIRA), including support with prioritization when needed.
• Ensure backlog readiness by helping teams refine work with clear acceptance criteria, assumptions, dependencies, and appropriate estimation to support development, testing, and user acceptance.

Impediment Removal, Dependency & Risk Management

• Proactively identify and remove impediments; escalate when required while maintaining team ownership and momentum.
• Identify external dependencies early, coordinate across teams to resolve them, and protect teams from disruptions that threaten sprint/release goals.
• Lead risk and issue identification and mitigation; partner with the Product Owner to escalate risks to ART/product leadership and support ongoing management.

SAFe / ART Collaboration (as applicable)

• If aligned to an ART, support PI readiness and execution, including preparation for upcoming PIs and ensuring current PI commitments are met.

Metrics, Transparency & Stakeholder Communication

• Provide transparent, timely reporting on progress, capacity, commitments, release timelines, risks, and dependencies.
• Build and maintain a recurring metrics package (e.g., iteration progress, predictability, throughput/flow measures) and coach teams on using metrics for learning and improvement—not as punitive reporting.

Release / Change Coordination

• Coordinate change control and release processes; ensure required artifacts are created for approvals and signoffs.
• Engage run teams, admin teams, QA, and release management to support release readiness and successful deployments.

Financial / Vendor / Operational Management

• Manage annual budgets for supported teams, including purchase orders, invoice approvals, forecasting vs. actuals tracking, and capitalization requirements as applicable.
• Support coordination across on-shore/off-shore resources and vendors to maintain delivery effectiveness.
• Perform other duties and/or special projects as assigned.

Required Skills/Knowledge:

• Bachelor’s degree in any discipline with 7+ years overall experience or in lieu of a degree, 9+ years overall experience.
• 3+ years leading Agile teams in SAFe.
• 7+ years of experience, spanning from Scrum/kanban to SAFe
• Experience leading multiple Scrum teams with cross-functional members.
• CSM and/or SAFe Scrum Master certification.
• Experience in people and/or vendor management.
• Strong working knowledge of Agile delivery practices, SDLC concepts, and tooling (e.g., JIRA & JIRA Align).
• Excellent verbal/written communication skills; ability to tailor messaging to varied stakeholder audiences.
• Proven leadership, decision-making, and conflict resolution skills.
• Ability to monitor and manage critical-path elements across consolidated projects/programs.

Desired Skills/Knowledge:

• Experience working with traditional data warehouses and modern data/analytics platforms on cloud a plus.
• Experience managing geographically diverse resources and motivating large cross-functional teams.
• Experience using Rovo and AI to draft and refine features and stories
• Experience delivering in large banking/financial services environments.
• Strong business acumen with ability to manage stakeholder expectations across a matrixed organization.
• Hands-on, self-motivated style with strong prioritization skills in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong customer-focused mindset with a results orientation.

Eligibility Criteria: Bachelor’s Degree with 7+ years overall experience or in lieu of a bachelor’s degree, 9+ years of overall experience.

Work Timings: 2:00PM to 11:00PM IST

This role qualifies for Enhanced Flexibility offered in Synchrony India and will require the incumbent to be available between 06:00 AM Eastern Time – 11:30 AM Eastern Time (timings are anchored to US Eastern hours and will adjust twice a year locally). This window is for meetings with India and US teams. The remaining hours will be flexible for the employee to choose. Exceptions may apply periodically due to business needs)

For Internal Applicants:

• Understand the criteria or mandatory skills required for the role, before applying
• Inform your manager and HRM before applying for any role on Workday
• Ensure that your professional profile is updated (fields such as education, prior experience, other skills) and it is mandatory to upload your updated resume (Word or PDF format)
• Must not be on any corrective action plan (First Formal/Final Formal, LPP)
• L9+ Employees who have completed 18 months in the organization and 12 months in current role and level are only eligible.
• Level 9+ Employees can apply

Grade/Level: 11

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