Scrum Master Continuous Improvement

Tojo Joseph

510-***-**** **************@*****.***

Work Auth: US Citizen

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tojo-joseph-7646044/

Summary

Professional Summary

Seasoned Senior Scrum Master with proven track record of leading globally distributed Agile teams to deliver enterprise-scale solutions. Holds certifications in Scrum Master, SAFe Scrum Master, SAFe Advanced Scrum Master, and SPC, with hands-on SAFe and GenAI delivery experience. At Adobe, led Agile execution for three synchronized Scrum teams (~30 cross-functional members) operating within a LeSS-style setup delivering GenAI capabilities, CRM platform enhancements, and Salesforce-to-Dynamics migration. Brings deep expertise in both SAFe and non-SAFe environments, with a strong focus on execution excellence, delivery alignment, and cross-team coordination in complex, fast-paced organizations. Former Developer with deep experience in the Microsoft Stack (.NET, C#, SQL Server) enabling effective cross-functional Agile leadership

Industries Served:

Software company (Adobe, SDL Tridion), telecommunication (Sprint), manufacturing (HP, Compaq, Tyco), financial (H&R Block, Experian), banking (Wells Fargo, JP Morgan chase), health care (Kaiser Permanente hospital), government (Texas Educational agency), pharma (Merck), entertainment (Universal Studios Orlando, UBISOFT), food chain (Sodexo), retail (Walmart), Supply chain (E&J Gallo), transportation (YRC Worldwide), insurance (TransAmerica)

Skilled in facilitating all core Scrum ceremonies—including Sprint Planning, Daily Scrums, Reviews, and Retrospectives—across Scrum, LeSS, and SAFe environments, with a strong focus on delivery discipline, transparency, and team alignment, resulting in improved predictability, team velocity, and stakeholder confidence.

Strong expertise in Agile metrics (velocity, burndown, capacity, predictability) to drive planning, retrospectives, and performance optimization.

Proven ability to support SAFe PI Planning and LeSS-style shared Sprint coordination, ensuring team readiness, dependency alignment, and cohesive delivery across multiple cross-functional teams.

Actively contributed in Scrum of Scrums (SoS) and across the Agile Release Train (ART) to surface cross-team risks, manage interdependencies, and maintain program-level transparency.

Known for proactive risk and dependency management, enabling smoother delivery flow across DevOps, Infrastructure, and cross-functional teams.

Partnered closely with Product Owners to improve backlog quality, prioritization, and sprint planning—resulting in measurable gains in delivery accuracy and team efficiency.

Coached team members on Agile principles, Scrum roles, and continuous improvement practices—boosting team ownership, engagement, and performance maturity.

Mentored team members on writing high-quality user stories and estimation techniques (e.g., Planning Poker, Fibonacci sequencing) to foster shared understanding and sizing accuracy.

Supported Agile Communities of Practice and mentored junior Scrum Masters—sharing facilitation techniques and cross-team coaching strategies to strengthen consistency in Scrum adoption across the organization.

Served as Technical Program Manager for critical initiatives including the migration from Microsoft DES to Azure Synapse Link and the integration of MS Teams SWARM and Coveo Search into Adobe’s Dynamics 365 platform.

Delivered targeted coaching on Agile best practices, Definition of Ready/Done, and estimation techniques (e.g., Planning Poker) to improve team self-sufficiency and velocity over time.

Facilitated LeSS-style shared Sprint Reviews to align product increments with evolving stakeholder goals and enable faster feedback loops across teams

Helped elevate Agile maturity by mentoring junior Scrum Masters and facilitating team workshops focused on continuous improvement and cross-functional collaboration.

Honored with STAR Award by Adobe CES leadership for impactful contributions to GenAI-driven platform transformation.

Hands-on expertise with Agile tools including JIRA, JIRA Advanced Roadmaps, Azure DevOps, Confluence, and Smartsheet, ensuring traceability, reporting, and alignment at every level.

Brings a servant-leader mindset and delivery-first approach to fostering self-organizing teams across Scrum, LeSS, and SAFe implementations—adapting practices to fit team maturity and business needs

Former Developer with deep experience in the Microsoft Stack (.NET, C#, SQL Server) enabling effective cross-functional Agile leadership

Education:

Masters in Computer Applications (University of Madras, INDIA 1998) BSC Mathematics, Mahatma Gandhi University, INDIA (1995)

Certifications:

Certified Scrum Master from Scrum Alliance

Certified SAFe Scrum Master

Certified SAFe Advanced Scrum Master

Certified SAFe Program Consultant

Awards:

Won STAR AWARD from Adobe’s CES Leadership.

Skills & Tools

Agile Frameworks/Methodologies

SAFe®, Scrum, Kanban, XP, Lean, ATDD, TDD, Continuous Improvement, Agile Release Train (ART), Agile Coaching, PI Planning, Scrum of Scrums

Project Management Tools

Azure DevOps, JIRA, JIRA Advanced Roadmaps, Confluence, Smartsheet, MS Project, Office 365, Rally

Collaboration Tools

Microsoft Teams, Slack, Miro, Mural, Zoom

Process & Delivery

Agile Transformation, Backlog Grooming, Sprint Planning/Review/Retrospective, Roadmap Planning, Dependency Management, Stakeholder Communication, Metrics & Reporting (Velocity, Burndown)

Facilitation Skills

Servant Leadership, Conflict Resolution, Team Coaching, Continuous Improvement Workshops, PI Planning Facilitation

SAFe Ceremonies

PI Planning, System Demo, Inspect & Adapt (I&A), Scrum of Scrums (SoS), PO Sync, ART Sync, Iteration Planning, Iteration Review, Iteration Retrospective, Backlog Refinement

Cloud/DevOps Awareness

Azure DevOps, CI/CD Concepts, Jira Integrations, GitHub (for pipeline awareness),

CRM/ERP Project Experience

Microsoft Dynamics 365 (Agile Implementation Exposure)

AI & Emerging Technologies Awareness

GenAI, Azure OpenAI, Python (basic awareness), Dataverse, Azure Synapse, Kafka, Vector DB, GenAI, GPT-4, Azure OpenAI, Databricks, Okta (IAM)

Operating Systems

Familiarity with Microsoft OS, Red Hat Linux (for DevOps team collaboration context)

Technical Foundation

Former Developer with deep experience in the Microsoft Stack (.NET, C#, SQL Server) enabling effective cross-functional Agile leadership

Work history

Senior Scrum Master Nov 2021 – to date Client: Adobe, CA

As part of Adobe’s Customer Experience Services (CES) Team, supported the enhancement of the existing Dynamics 365 CRM platform used by global support agents, while leading the delivery of strategic GenAI initiatives. These included developing GPT-powered features like automated case summaries, content drafting, resolution suggestions, and conversational AI to enhance agent productivity and reduce support costs across Adobe’s Enterprise and Consumer businesses. Also contributed to the Salesforce-to-Dynamics migration to unify customer support platforms following M&A activity involving products like Marketo, Frame.io, and Workfront, aligning them under the Digital Experience and Digital Media portfolios.

Tech stack: GPT-4, GPT-4o mini, GenAI, Azure OpenAI, Databricks, Vector DB, LLMs, Python, Dynamics CRM, C#, SQL Server, Azure Synapse, Azure DevOps, CI/CD (Jenkins, GitHub), Kafka, SnapLogic, Adobe Relay, Adobe Hoolihan, Salesforce, JIRA (Advanced Roadmaps), Confluence, Workfront, Node.js, Office 365, SmartSheet, MS Project.

Served as Senior Scrum Master supporting three cross-functional Scrum teams (~30 members total) working on a shared product within Adobe’s CES organization, delivering integrated features across GenAI, CRM, and platform initiatives.

Facilitated shared Sprint cadence across all three teams, including synchronized Sprint Planning, Daily Scrums, Sprint Reviews, and Retrospectives—resulting in a 20% velocity increase and greater cross-team alignment.

Partnered with a single Product Owner to maintain a unified Product Backlog, ensuring backlog transparency, prioritization consistency, and clarity of upcoming features across teams. Improved backlog hygiene led to a 35% boost in sprint forecast accuracy.

Supported cross-team coordination and dependency resolution through joint backlog refinement, shared Sprint Reviews, and close collaboration with architects and technical stakeholders—cutting average dependency lead time by 40%.

Coached Scrum teams on Agile values, empirical process control, and LeSS principles—enabling teams to evolve into high-performing, self-managing units with a 50% improvement in psychological safety scores.

Led cross-team Sprint Reviews and integrated Increment delivery, aligning product outcomes with business goals, including a 30% improvement in case resolution efficiency for customer support operations.

Took ownership of risk identification and facilitated early mitigation strategies by collaborating with infrastructure, DevOps, and integration teams—enhancing system stability and release confidence.

Introduced technical agility enablers such as trunk-based development and structured peer review practices, reducing pull request turnaround by 75% and expediting GenAI capability deployments.

Championed Agile delivery metrics (velocity, capacity, burndown, cumulative flow) to improve predictability, transparency, and decision-making—leading to a 30% increase in leadership confidence.

Contributed to Agile adoption and maturity across CES by mentoring junior Scrum Masters, co-facilitating Communities of Practice, and sharing cross-team coaching strategies and facilitation techniques.

Senior SAFe Scrum Master Mar 2017 – Oct 2021

Client: E&J Gallo Winery, CA

Tech Stack: .NET, Web Services, SQL Server, Oracle, Azure DevOps, Jenkins, GitHub, JIRA, Confluence, Office 365, SmartSheet

Led Agile delivery for multiple teams supporting the automation of supply chain processes at E&J Gallo, operating within a SAFe framework.

Acted as Scrum Master for multiple Agile teams, driving delivery of high-impact features aligned with Program Increment (PI) objectives and business priorities.

Facilitated all Scrum events—Sprint Planning, Daily Stand-ups, Sprint Reviews, and Retrospectives—ensuring strong cadence, timebox discipline, and team accountability.

Supported PI Planning by preparing team capacity plans, refining backlogs, and coordinating dependencies—enabling consistent alignment with ART-level delivery plans.

Provided ongoing coaching to team members on Agile principles, Scrum roles, and continuous improvement practices—boosting team ownership, engagement, and performance maturity.

Mentored team members on writing high-quality user stories and estimation techniques (e.g., Planning Poker, Fibonacci sequencing) to foster shared understanding and sizing accuracy.

Worked closely with Product Owners and Product Managers to maintain and prioritize the team backlog, define sprint scope, and ensure stories met clear DoR and DoD standards.

Owned risk and impediment resolution, collaborating with DevOps, Database, and Infrastructure teams to unblock the team and maintain delivery momentum.

Drove execution through data-informed planning, using metrics like velocity, burndown, and committed vs completed work to optimize team performance and predictability.

Coordinated with other Scrum Masters and stakeholders during Scrum of Scrums to manage cross-team dependencies and address integration risks early.

Supported integration and delivery of solutions across platforms like Swisslog, GE Plant Apps, and LabWorks, contributing to operational efficiency gains within the supply chain.

Led estimation and capacity planning sessions using Planning Poker and Fibonacci sequencing, promoting shared understanding and team consensus on effort sizing.

Reduced deployment delays by 30% by organizing and facilitating Inspect & Adapt workshops and tracking improvement actions to closure.

Authored team documentation, knowledge base articles, and onboarding handbooks to ensure continuity, smooth knowledge transitions, and reduced ramp-up time for new team members.

Senior SAFe Scrum Master Mar 2016 – Mar 2017

Client: TransAmerica, IA

Led Agile delivery for the redesign of Transamerica.com, integrating annuities, mutual funds, and insurance into a unified SDL Web platform.

Facilitated all core Scrum ceremonies across the team, ensuring consistent sprint cadence and on-time delivery of prioritized features.

Coordinated pre- and post-PI Planning activities; aligned team objectives with business priorities, reducing scope churn by 25%.

Partnered with Product Owners on backlog grooming, DoR/DoD alignment, and sprint planning—boosting sprint forecast accuracy by 30%.

Proactively identified and resolved blockers, improving sprint flow and reducing average turnaround time by 20%.

Provided Agile coaching to team members on Scrum roles, events, and responsibilities, promoting a culture of ownership, self-organization, and continuous improvement.

Led coaching sessions on Agile concepts such as Definition of Ready (DoR), Definition of Done (DoD), and story slicing to enhance backlog quality and team alignment.

Conducted Planning Poker sessions to align the team on estimation and sprint capacity using the Fibonacci sequence.

Used Agile metrics (velocity, burndown, cumulative flow, defect leakage) to track team performance and provide visibility to leadership.

Ensured proper tracking and workload distribution via JIRA and Confluence, improving delivery transparency and team accountability.

Managed internal and external stakeholder coordination, streamlining communication across business and technical teams.

Led successful knowledge transitions to offshore vendors, reducing onboarding time and ensuring continuity during handoffs.

Senior Scrum Master Sep 2014 – Mar 2016

Client: Wells Fargo, CA

Tech Stack: .NET, Web Services, SQL Server, SDL Tridion, Jenkins, GitHub, JIRA, Confluence, Office 365, SmartSheet

Led Agile delivery for the implementation of a Web Content Management (WCM) solution across wholesale banking applications at Wells Fargo.

Facilitated all Scrum ceremonies—Daily Stand-ups, Sprint Planning, Reviews, and Retrospectives—ensuring alignment, focus, and disciplined sprint execution.

Maintained a 90%+ sprint completion rate by removing blockers early, ensuring backlog clarity, and keeping teams aligned with sprint goals.

Partnered with Product Owners and stakeholders to align backlog priorities with the product roadmap and ensure delivery of high-value increments.

Strengthened cross-functional collaboration between developers, QA, and business stakeholders—reducing defect leakage by 28% through tighter alignment and improved acceptance criteria.

Supported estimation and sprint planning through Planning Poker and T-shirt sizing, improving delivery predictability and team commitment accuracy.

Reinforced best practices in CI/CD, automated testing, version control, and build pipeline usage, resulting in more consistent quality and faster turnaround times.

Championed the use of Definition of Ready (DoR) and Definition of Done (DoD) to drive clarity, accountability, and shared understanding within the team.

Promoted continuous improvement and Agile discipline by tracking metrics, fostering team ownership, and facilitating actionable retrospectives.

Scrum Master Jan 2012 – Aug 2014

Client: Merck, PA

Tech Stack: .NET, Web Services, SQL Server, SDL Tridion, Jenkins, GitHub, JIRA, Confluence, Office 365, SmartSheet

Led Agile delivery for the implementation of a Web Content Management (WCM) solution at Merck, supporting digital transformation and content modernization.

Facilitated all core Scrum ceremonies, including Sprint Planning, Daily Stand-ups, Backlog Refinement, Reviews, and Retrospectives—ensuring alignment with sprint goals and timely delivery of business value.

Partnered with the Product Owner to manage backlog prioritization, maintain story clarity, and ensure sprint readiness—resulting in improved team focus and reduced rollover.

Resolved team-level blockers quickly, collaborating with cross-functional stakeholders to eliminate delivery obstacles and maintain iteration flow.

Tracked and analyzed team performance using key Agile metrics (velocity, burndown charts, cumulative flow), enabling accurate forecasting and better stakeholder visibility.

Managed cross-team dependencies and maintained alignment with broader program objectives through ongoing communication with business and technical teams.

Ensured consistent use of Agile tools like JIRA and Azure DevOps to monitor team capacity, visualize work, and maintain delivery transparency.

Sr .NET/Tridion Technical Consultant/Solution Architect Sep 2010 – Dec 2011 Technology platform: .NET, webservices, SQL Server, SDL Tridion, CI/CD pipeline with Jenkins and GITHUB, JIRA, Confluence, Wiki, office 365, smart sheet

Client: Sodexo, Hewlett Packard

Has been involved in the Technical Design and Development of TBB’S, Component/Page Template for Sodexo.com using Dreamweaver, c#, XML/ XSLT.

Designed and developed Structure group-based navigation (Top, Right and Footer links) functionality for Sodexo using .NET Assembly templates and XML/XSLT at the presentation.

Implemented managing and publishing CSS, JS files from Tridion.

Implemented SEO Functionality for Sodexo.com.

Involved in creating folder structure to manage content and layout in Tridion.

Client: Universal Studios Orlando

Has been involved in the enhancement and migration to SDL Tridion 2009 for UniversalOrlando.com.

Designed and developed site templates using c#/xml/xslt.

Designed and developed Tridion building blocks and templates for the sitemap, navigational layouts for the website.

Implemented URL Rewrite as part of the SEO.

Implemented SiteEdit2009 for Universal Orlando.

Involved in the design and development of Tridion solutions both at the content management as well as content delivery side.

Client: TYCO

Involved in design and development of Tridion solutions for Tyco Valves division of tyco.com site.

Involved in Tridion TBB and assembly development using Dreamweaver and C#

Involved in Schema, Component Creation and Blueprinting.

Developed page and component templates and published pages/components to multiple environments. Used Tridion content porter to migrate contents across dev /staging environments.

Client: Walmart Corporation

Designed and Presented POC solution for the migration of Documentum to SDL Tridion as part of Pre Sales.

Worked on the solution architecture, design and development of migration from documentum to SDL_Tridion project, which includes design and development of utilities such as export from documentum, transform modules developed in c#.net to Tridion friendly xml’s and import to SDL_Tridion utilities using TOM API’s.

Involved in the architectural reviews for customization of existing SDL_Tridion implementation (modifying templates) to accommodate the contents from documentum system.

Architected and Designed the proof of concept for US Global.

Mentored developers in a global work set up

Involved in the design and development of Tridion solutions both at the content management as well as content delivery side.

Client: UBI SOFT

Involved in the development of UBISoft translation system (both frontend and backend functionalities) that manages import and export localized contents to and from Tridion CMS. ( ASP.NET, C# and TOM)

Involved in the development of process automation that validate site pages and components before publishing to live site. This required extending Tridion event system to monitor status of workflow components, that needs to go through the approval process before a page or component can be published to live site. ( ASP.NET, C# and TOM)

Involved in Schema, Component and template Development in c#.

Sr Consultant/ Project Manager Aug 2009 – Sep 2010

Client: Kaiser Permanente, CA

Technology platform: Java, Redhat Linux 5.4, webservices, SQL Server, SDL Tridion, CI/CD pipeline with Jenkins and GITHUB, JIRA, Confluence, Wiki, office 365

Successfully led the end-to-end upgrade of SDL Tridion from R5.3 to Tridion 2009, overseeing full project lifecycle from planning to production rollout.

Developed and managed a comprehensive project plan with clearly defined milestones, resource allocation, risk mitigation strategies, and cross-team dependencies.

Coordinated cross-functional teams—including developers, system engineers, and QA—across Dev, QA, Staging, and Production environments to ensure timely and quality deployments.

Oversaw solution architecture and technical implementation related to Tridion GUI, Event System, Business Connector, .NET web services, and external workflow integration (Savvion).

Directed the successful integration of Kaiser’s enterprise Single Sign-On (WebGate) solution by designing and deploying a custom ISAPI filter for secure authentication.

Facilitated stakeholder communication and status reporting, ensuring alignment with IT leadership and compliance with enterprise change management protocols.

Managed enhancements and support to existing Tridion templates and modules (TBBs), ensuring business continuity during the transition.

Enabled seamless integration of Kaiser Permanente’s internal Java/.NET-based systems with SDL Tridion, supporting content delivery on Red Hat Linux 5.4 and JSP-based environments.

Sr Backend Consultant. May 2008 – Aug 2009

Client: Wells Fargo

Technology platform: .NET, C#, webservices, SQL Server, SSIS/SSRS, SVN,MS Visual Studio, JIRA, Confluence, Wiki, office 365

Planet wholesale group delivers the Business Information Tools and Services which features cross-sell, planning and prospecting that are being used by Sales Managers, Relationship managers and Client Service Managers to plan and forecast for their targeted Wells Fargo wholesale customers.

Involved in the design, development of planet wholesale web application (CRM App) which is being used by sales and relationship managers (Environment: ASP.Net, C#, SQLSERVER 2005, NET.3.5, SharePoint Services, LINQ, OOAD, SSIS, SSRS, SSAS)

Involved in the development of backend stored procedures.

Involved in analysis, design, and development of SSIS ETL packages.

Worked on SQL CLR to build C# based SP’s.

Sr .NET Consultant. Dec 2005 – Dec 2007

Client: Sprint Nextel, KS

Technology platform: .NET, C#, webservices, SQL Server, SVN, MS Visual studio

Have extensively involved in the Architecture and Development of Cable Partner provisioning Tool. ((ASP.Net, C#, SQLSERVER 205, .Net.3.0, Multi-threading, MSMQ, AJAX, stored procedures, OOAD using design patterns))

Have worked with the Application stability team within cable partner support, primary involved in the architectural reviews and enhancements.

Have involved in the Analysis, design and development of applications which process cable partner orders in Sprint using OOAD techniques with design patterns.

Could contribute towards the architecture, design and development of a web interface which is used to manage and communicate outages occurs within Sprint’s systems to the cable partners.

Have involved in the design and development of Middle Tier components and web services for Cable partner order processing system. (Webservices.Net)

Used MSMQ for distributed processing to process orders in a reliable fashion within a disconnected architecture.

Web Developer Jul 2002 – Dec 2005

Client: H&R Block, KS

Technology platform: .NET, C#, webservices, SQL Server, SVN, MS Visual studio

H&R Block Online Tax Program is widely used among US clients for filing their taxes online.

This applications is designed on top of .Net framework suing object oriented Methodology in which design patterns specific to .Net are also being used. Have played a key role in the System Development team of OTP for the last 3 Tax Seasons. ( Asp.Net, C#, VB.Net, SQLSERVER 2000/2005,.Net.3.5,stored procedures)).

Involved in the Design, development phase for the modules message board, Help Center, Interview Development using OOAD techniques using design patterns. Designed, Developed an Integrating process which Integrates H&R Block Call Center Data with Online Help. Design Developed, Deployed a. search Web service on .Net, used across the web servers in the web farm.

Other notable projects Tojo worked on:

JP Morgan Chase, Houston, TX, USA [Sep 2001 – June 2002]

User role management system.

Texas Educational agency, Austin Tx, USA May 2001 – Aug 2001]

Worked on Child Nutrition Program Monitoring System

Paramount Informatics India ltd, Chennai, India. [March 2000 – March 2001] Finance management system.

Mistral Systems India ltd, Chennai, India [May 1998 – Jan 2000] Inventory Management system.

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