Demand Intake Owner & Scrum Master

Job Overview

The Demand Intake Owner & Scrum Master plays a critical role in bridging the gap between Product Owners, business stakeholders, IT teams, and executive leadership. This role is responsible for managing the technology demand intake process, facilitating governance and prioritization decisions, and ensuring approved initiatives transition smoothly into delivery.

In addition to demand management responsibilities, the role serves as a Scrum Master for strategic technology initiatives, facilitating Agile ceremonies, removing impediments, fostering collaboration, and helping teams deliver business value efficiently. The position works closely with Product Owners, business stakeholders, and delivery teams to align priorities, manage demand, and drive successful execution of technology initiatives across the organization.

Role Impact

The Demand Intake Owner & Scrum Master ensures that the organization invests in the right technology initiatives at the right time by providing decision-makers with clear visibility into business value, IT capacity, risks, and dependencies. Through effective Agile facilitation and stakeholder engagement, this role enables teams to deliver high-value outcomes while maintaining alignment with business objectives and strategic priorities.

Key Responsibilities

Demand Intake & Portfolio Governance

• Collaborate with Product Owners and business stakeholders to collect, review, and organize technology intake requests.
• Ensure intake submissions contain sufficient business justification, value propositions, expected outcomes, and strategic alignment.
• Consolidate IT capacity snapshots, resource availability, technical assessments, and dependency analysis to support prioritization decisions.
• Prepare and maintain the Operations Board intake agenda and supporting documentation.
• Facilitate intake review discussions and provide decision-makers with the information needed to approve, defer, prioritize, or reject requests.
• Track intake requests throughout the governance process and provide status updates to stakeholders.

Operations Board Support

• Prepare and present technology demand portfolios for review by the Operations Board.
• Provide business, technical, financial, and resource context for submitted requests.
• Facilitate discussions regarding prioritization, sequencing, resource allocation, and strategic alignment.
• Document decisions and communicate outcomes to Product Owners, business stakeholders, and IT leadership.
• Maintain transparency into demand pipelines, approved initiatives, and organizational capacity.

Scrum Master & Agile Delivery Support

• Serve as Scrum Master for assigned product teams and strategic initiatives.
• Facilitate Agile ceremonies, including Sprint Planning, Daily Standups, Sprint Reviews, Backlog Refinement, and Retrospectives.
• Partner closely with Product Owners to maintain healthy product backlogs and prioritize work aligned to business objectives.
• Remove impediments and proactively address risks impacting team delivery.
• Coach teams and stakeholders on Agile principles, Scrum practices, and continuous improvement.
• Monitor team performance, sprint progress, and delivery metrics to identify opportunities for optimization.
• Foster collaboration between business stakeholders, Product Owners, and technical teams to ensure alignment and successful outcomes.
• Support release planning and coordination across multiple teams when required.

Stakeholder Alignment & Business Partnership

• Act as a trusted liaison between business stakeholders, Product Owners, IT teams, and executive leadership.
• Facilitate communication and alignment across business and technology functions.
• Work closely with business leaders to understand operational priorities and strategic objectives.
• Partner with Product Owners to ensure business cases, benefits, and value statements are clearly articulated.
• Collaborate with IT leaders and architects to understand technical feasibility, risks, dependencies, and capacity constraints.

Post-Approval Coordination

• Communicate approved initiatives and priorities to Product Owners and delivery teams.
• Ensure teams are prepared to begin backlog development, requirements refinement, solution design, and sprint planning activities.
• Support smooth transitions from governance approval through execution and delivery.
• Track initiative progress and provide visibility to stakeholders and leadership as needed.

Required Skills and Qualifications

• Strong Communication Skills Ability to translate technical concepts into business language and vice versa.
• Stakeholder Management Proven ability to engage effectively with business leaders, Product Owners, IT teams, and executive stakeholders.
• Agile & Scrum Leadership Experience facilitating Agile teams and driving continuous improvement.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration Ability to build alignment across business and technology organizations.
• Analytical Thinking Ability to synthesize business needs, technical assessments, capacity constraints, and strategic priorities.
• Organizational Excellence Skilled at managing multiple initiatives, competing priorities, and governance activities simultaneously.
• Facilitation Skills Strong meeting facilitation, conflict resolution, and consensus-building capabilities.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• 5+ years of experience in demand management, product management, business analysis, Agile delivery, Scrum Master, or IT project/program coordination roles.
• Experience working with Product Owners, business stakeholders, and technology teams in a complex enterprise environment.
• Strong understanding of Agile methodologies, Scrum frameworks, portfolio governance, and demand management processes.
• Scrum Master certification (CSM, PSM, SAFe Scrum Master, or equivalent) preferred.
• Experience with Agile management tools such as Jira, Azure DevOps, or similar platforms preferred.

Working Environment

• United States-based role with remote and hybrid work options available.
• Collaboration with business and IT stakeholders across multiple regions, including the United States, Australia, and India.
• Flexibility to support meetings across multiple time zones when required.
• Occasional travel may be required for planning sessions, workshops, and stakeholder engagement activities.