Scrum Master

Scrum Master

Permanent

Farringdon, London - Hybrid

Purpose of the Role

The Scrum Master is responsible for making delivery smooth, consistent and continuous across their teams. This is not a project management or coordination role — it is a coaching and facilitation role focused entirely on team-level agile health. The Scrum Master ensures sprint ceremonies are run well, blockers are removed quickly, and the team is protected from distractions so they can focus on delivering value.

At TCEU, Scrum Masters are 100% dedicated to their delivery teams and embedded fully in the product delivery rhythm. They are accountable for the health of the sprint, the quality of agile practice, and the continuous improvement of their teams over time.

This role reports directly to the Delivery Lead, who owns the TCEU agile delivery standard and Scrum Master community. The Scrum Master is a key part of that community — contributing to shared practice, raising standards, and growing as an agile practitioner.

Key Responsibilities

1. Sprint Facilitation & Ceremony Ownership

• Facilitate all sprint ceremonies to a high standard: sprint planning, daily stand-up, sprint review and retrospective.

• Ensure each sprint has a clear, agreed sprint goal that the team is tracking against.

• Own the impediment log — capturing blockers, driving resolution, and escalating anything that cannot be resolved at team level.

• Own estimation completion within the team — ensuring estimates are captured and actioned ahead of planning.

• Participate in sprint planning, providing input on team capacity, pace and process

2. Team Agile Health & Continuous Improvement

• Track and report on team agile metrics: velocity, sprint delivery rate and process improvement over time.

• Run retrospectives that generate real, actioned improvements — not just conversation.

• Coach the team on agile principles and practices, building understanding and capability over time.

• Identify and address patterns that slow the team down — unclear stories, poor refinement, late blockers, scope creep.

• Drive a culture of continuous improvement within the team.

3. Blocker Removal & Team Protection

• Remove blockers at team level quickly and proactively — not waiting for blockers to slow the sprint.

• Protect the team from external distractions, interruptions and scope changes mid-sprint.

• Escalate technical blockers to the Lead Engineer; delivery-level blockers to the Delivery Lead; product issues to the Senior Product Manager.

• Ensure the team has clarity on priorities and is not pulled in competing directions.

4. Collaboration & Community

• Work closely with the Product Owner to ensure the backlog is refined, prioritised and ready ahead of each sprint.

• Partner with the Project Manager to ensure sprint execution and programme-level governance stay aligned.

• Contribute to the TCEU Scrum Master community — sharing what works, raising standards and supporting peers.

• Escalate people issues to the Delivery Lead; do not attempt to manage performance directly.

How This Role Fits

The Scrum Master sits within a three-part delivery model alongside the Product Owner and Project Manager. Understanding the boundaries of each role is important for operating effectively.

Product Owner — What are we building, and why?

Owns the product backlog, feature priorities and success criteria. Inputs to sprint planning via refined backlog and acceptance criteria. Accountable for product value and feature outcomes.

Project Manager — How do we manage and deliver it across the programme?

Owns the project plan, RAID log, milestones and change control. Tracks cross-team dependencies and reports delivery progress to stakeholders. Accountable for on-time, on-budget programme delivery.

Scrum Master — How do we make delivery smooth, consistent and continuous?

Facilitates sprint ceremonies, coaches the team on agile practices, removes blockers and protects the team from distractions. Accountable for team velocity, sprint delivery and agile process improvement.

Competency Expectations

The expectations below reflect the behaviours and skills required to operate effectively as a Scrum Master at TCEU.

Facilitation & Agile Practice

Runs sprint ceremonies with confidence and purpose — not just going through the motions. Understands agile principles deeply and can explain the ‘why’ behind practices to the team. Adapts facilitation style to the needs of the team and the moment. Builds retrospectives that generate trust and real improvement.

Problem Solving & Blocker Removal

Identifies blockers early and takes ownership of resolving them quickly. Knows when to escalate and to whom, without creating unnecessary noise. Uses data and observation to spot patterns that slow the team, and addresses root causes rather than symptoms.

Communication & Collaboration

Communicates clearly within the team and across functions. Builds trust with the Product Owner, Project Manager and Lead Engineer through consistent, transparent working. Flags risks and impediments in a way that is calm and constructive. Contributes actively to the broader Scrum Master community.

Coaching & Team Development

Coaches team members on agile practices in a way that builds capability over time rather than creating dependency. Creates the conditions for psychological safety — a team environment where people speak up, experiment and learn. Takes a deliberate interest in improving squad practices, not just maintaining them.

Another thing we'd like to mention…

There’s been a lot of research showing how marginalised groups of people may not apply for jobs unless they meet all the requirements. We also know that many great people come from wide and wonderful backgrounds with different experiences - We value people who bring unique perspectives and add new knowledge to our team!

You might not feel like you “tick all the boxes” but we sincerely hope you’ll apply anyway because you could be exactly what we we're looking for! We want to build someone up!