In this post-pandemic world, more than ever before, organizations have realized the benefits of adopting agile. There’s a huge demand for Scrum Masters who can help departments go agile, increase the efficiency of teams, and help organizations respond to rapidly changing market conditions. Having Scrum Masters on-board means better products, shorter time to market, satisfied customers, and a happier workforce. After taking the Scrum Master certification, you will be sure of a career trajectory that is long and successful.
Let’s look at the best Scrum Master career paths for 2023. Along with that, read about Scrum Interview Questions.
Who is Scrum Master?
An expert who aids in managing and directing a scrum team is known as a scrum master. The scrum master's responsibilities include ensuring that the team follows the scrum framework and resolving various team and development-related difficulties. In addition to providing the team is accomplishing its goals and collaborating well, scrum masters facilitate team member communication and resolve potential disagreements.
Scrum Master Career Path to Principal Scrum Master
A Scrum Master's career path is always promising, filled with a variety of chances, much to learn, and much to teach others. Let’s find out what jobs can you get with a scrum master certification.
1. Scrum Master
They act as a coach to the team and leadership, aid in removing any obstacles that may impede development, and aid in understanding and applying Scrum concepts by a project team. They also make sure that the team members collaborate successfully and efficiently.
Salary: Salary range from USD 79,000-USD 140,000/year
2. Senior Scrum Master
As a Senior Scrum Master, you will have the chance to work with various product owners; transfer needs to the team, assist in defining appropriate user stories, prioritize, and manage the team according to business priorities and demands. He shows the characteristics of a Lean-Agile Leader and a Lean-Agile Mindset. Assists the team in embracing Agile Core Values, adopting and applying Agile Principles, and implementing Agile practices.
Salary: USD 110,150-$135,110/year
3. Scrum Master Manager
A scrum master manager removes obstacles that prevent a development team from moving forward and being as effective in areas where self-organization is impossible. A Scrum Master manager oversees Scrum's constraints to support self-organization, including time boxing to reduce risk, focused efforts, cross-functional cooperation, deliverable results, and validated learning. They make room for failure and handle the cultural shift required to allow the teams to flourish.
Salary: Average USD 96,600/year
4. Scrum Master IV
The role of a Scrum Master IV is an advanced position within the Scrum framework, focusing on facilitating and optimizing the Agile development process. Scrum Master IV identifies and maintains the backlog, coaching and mentoring team members. Keep track of daily sprint progress and adhere to deadlines.
Salary: USD 122,900-USD 149,800/year
5. Principal Scrum Master
The Chief Scrum Master is often in charge of addressing impediments affecting more than one Scrum Team. The relevant parties typically discuss inter-team issues following the Scrum of Scrums Meeting, and the Chief Scrum Master leads this session.
Salary: Average: USD 107,700/year
Scrum Master Career Path to CIO
There are several scrum master career paths you can pursue beyond your role as a team facilitator and become an CIO at the end.
1. Release Train Engineer
A release train engineer (RTE) is a servant leader who promotes program-level processes and execution, drives continuous development, manages risks, and escalates obstructions while serving as a full-time chief scrum master for a Scaled Agile Framework.
Salary: Average USD 95,600/year
2. Stakeholder / Sponsor/Business Owner
The Product Owner is a Scrum Team member responsible for increasing the value of the team's work. The Business Owner is a Scrum Team stakeholder who has an interest in the delivery of that value in some way.
Salary: USD 59,000-USD 168,455/year
3. Mentor
A mentor's primary role is to provide knowledge and psychological support to the team and guide them to operate efficiently based on their previous experience.
Salary: Average USD 52,600/year
4. Product Owner
Scrum Masters who are interested in the business side of the product become great product owners. They act as a bridge between the development team and the stakeholders, ensuring that the right product is built and delivered to meet customer needs and business goals.
Salary: Average USD 106,662/year
5. Agile Coach
A skilled Agile coach can steer the organization through the spectrum of challenges it faces and help to maximize the ROI through the different aspects of Enterprise coaching. Becoming an agile coach is among the most popular aspirations of Scrum Masters who like to motivate, teach and nurture Agile adoption in an enterprise.
Agile coaches are change leaders who promote quality improvement, increase productivity and aid in adoption of enterprise-wide agility.
Salary: Average USD 120,590/year
6. Project Manager
Though a Scrum Master is different from a Project Manager, he or she can play the role of a project manager in non-Agile projects. These are different roles with different ways of working, but a Scrum Master can transition into the role of a project manager with seniority and experience.
Salary: Average USD 83,323/year
7. Chief Information Officer (CIO)
A good Scrum Master brings out the best in the team, the project and the organization. Scrum Masters with a wealth of experience make great CIOs as they have the passion and commitment to excel, improve relentlessly and bring out the best in others.
Salary: Average USD 172,327/year
Scrum Master Roles and Responsibilities
A Scrum Master is an indispensable part of a Scrum team because of the responsibilities that they undertake.
1. Servant leadership
Foremost, a Scrum Master is a servant leader and is involved in performance planning, coaching, self-organization, removing obstacles, resolving conflicts and serving the team. As a servant leader, the Scrum Master is the man Friday for the team and makes sure that development never stops and innovation continues. You can also check out the Scrum master tutorial page for more about roles, responsibilities, and skills.
2. Helping team members with Scrum
The team looks up to the Scrum Master for guidance in implementing Scrum processes. If the development team is following the Scrum principles and values, then the Scrum Master needs to guide them and ensure that development is being carried out strictly in adherence to Scrum.
3. Creates an environment conducive to innovation
Happy teams translate to better-developed products, which in turn lead to satisfied customers. The Scrum Master creates an environment that helps teams work free of distractions. In such an environment, the team is more empowered to innovate and research. The Scrum Master makes sure that such an environment is provided to the team.
4. Daily stand-up meetings
An essential part of Scrum projects is the daily stand-up meetings where issues are addressed, and goals are discussed. These sprints keep the team updated and help to bring to the fore any problems that members may be facing. The Scrum Master arranges meetings and makes sure everything is on track.
5. Assists the Product Owner
The Scrum Master helps the Product Owner in the effective management of the product backlog. This involves facilitating Scrum events, identifying backlog items and product planning.
6. Coaching and mentoring
A scrum master will always be passionate about promoting scrum in the enterprise. Being a change leader and working towards Scrum adoption is a huge part of the Scrum Master’s responsibility. Scrum Masters mentor and coach not just teams on the principles and processes of Agile and Scrum, but departments and organizations.
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Scrum Master Salary
The average salary in USD: $92,298/ year. Entry-level Scrum Masters earn $68k/year; mid-career Scrum Masters earn $100k/year, while experienced Scrum Masters earn $115k/year. Going for Certified Scrum Master certification will help you boost your salary number.
The salary of a scrum master in top countries is as follows:
| Countries | Salary |
| USA | $116,862/ yr
|
| UK | £60,553/ yr |
| India | ₹1,450,000/ yr
|
| Canada | CA$100,039/ yr
|
| Singapore | SGD 85,500 /yr
|
Future of Scrum Master
Like all roles associated with Agile and Scrum, the future for the Scrum Master role is also bright and full of opportunities. From being listed as one of the top emerging jobs in product development by the World Economic Forum and LinkedIn to being labeled as this century’s most lucrative job role in the 2019 Scrum Master Trends, the Scrum Master’s role is here to stay.
- Scrum Master roles have transcended the IT industry and are now available in finance and insurance, consulting and professional services, engineering and technology, telecommunications transportation, healthcare, manufacturing, media, defense, and more.
- According to the 2019 Scrum Master Trends by Scrum.org, in organizations with 10,000 employees or less, Scrum Masters made up 18% of the total employee count.
- All these statistics indicate the importance that Scrum Masters play in agile transition and in removing impediments to enable organizational growth and value.
- Their importance in an organization directly translates to a number of jobs. On a daily basis, there are hundreds of new job listings for Scrum Master and related roles all over the world.
- The acceleration of Agile adoption across organizations has increased the demand for Scrum Masters, and this trend is likely to continue in the near future.
Top Cities where KnowledgeHut Conduct CSM Certification Training Course Online
How Certifications Can Help?
There are several certification paths that can help you on your Scrum Master journey. For example, the Scrum Alliance certification path offers certifications at every pitstop of your Scrum Master journey, starting from a Certified ScrumMaster to a Certified Scrum Trainer to Certified Agile Leader credentials meant for the C-suite. KnowledgeHut certified Scrum Master certification will help you level up your learning.
Conclusion
A Scrum Master is to an Agile project what a project manager is to a waterfall project. They drive innovation, team harmony, productivity and the establishment of the Agile culture. When considering the career path of a Scrum Master, it's important to note that the role is not fixed and can evolve over time, and Scrum Masters can go on to don several hats based on their experience and expertise. While some choose to be in the thick of it all leading projects and engaging with stakeholders, some prefer to drive change in human habits by coaching team members in the adoption of Agile, culture change and transformation. As a Scrum master, your options are limitless. You have the power to drive success and aid in value creation.
