Value Stream Coach

Overview

Guardian's Digital and Technology (D&T) organization is undergoing a transformation to drive the growth and future strategy of the business. As a Value Stream Coach, you will be a part of the exciting shift we are making! As part of the coaching team, you will guide teams to optimize their workflows to deliver maximum value. Your focus is on building capability, elevating business and delivery performance, and fostering a continuous improvement culture. You will coach individuals and teams on dependency management, best practices, and alignment to objectives and key results. You will be a critical partner to your Value Stream Leader, Product and Technology leaders and team members to advance the teams' maturity and performance through targeted coaching plans and initiatives.

You Are:?

A change agent and facilitator, driving organizational focus on value delivery, flow and business outcomes. The ideal candidate will be highly collaborative, influential and driven about creating impactful change for the organization.

You Will:

Facilitate Value Stream Events:

• Lead and facilitate key value stream events such as PI Planning and Value Stream Syncs.

• Drive continuous exploration and backlog refinement ahead of PI Planning to maintain readiness and clarity.

• Ensure alignment and transparency across teams and stakeholders.

Coach Teams and Leaders:

• Guide teams and leaders to deliver end-to-end value across the value stream with a focus on customer outcomes.

• Coach teams and leaders in designing effective value stream structures and collaborative practices that minimize hand-offs, clarify product ownership, and define team outcomes with precision

• Provide guidance on business process improvements to enhance operational efficiency.

• Provide coaching to Value Stream leadership, Product Managers (PDMs), Product Owners (POs), and team coaches on product-platform principles, agile skills, and mindset shifts.

• Role model coaching practices and support Value Stream Team Coaches in leveraging digital tools and data for transparency and performance improvement.

Champion OKRs and Strategic Alignment:

• Champion the use of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) to align team efforts with value stream goals and measure performance. Ensure OKRs cascade effectively from value stream to team level, maintaining alignment across all layers.

• Ensure strategy, portfolio investments, and execution are connected, tying work to business priorities and outcomes.

• Play a critical role in portfolio planning and demand management. Facilitate dependency management and stakeholder engagement within and across value streams to reduce delivery risks.

Contribute to the Center of Excellence:

• Contribute to Communities of Practice and mentor Value Stream Team Coaches.

• Be an active member of the CoE, helping define, adopt, and evolve standards and practices based on collective feedback.

Own Tooling Standards and Governance:

• Define, update, and commit to maintaining standards across key tooling platforms (e.g., JIRA, Confluence, SPM).

• Ensure consistent usage and alignment to best practices across teams and value streams.

Promote Flow and Engineering Practices:

• Identify and address bottlenecks, dependencies, and waste to improve flow and speed of value delivery.

• Partner with engineering leaders to champion modern software development practices such as building automation, deployment automation, unit test coverage, and shift-left testing.

• Promote modern software development practices (e.g., CI/CD, unit testing, shift-left testing) in partnership with engineering and technology leaders.

You Have:

• 8-10 years of experience in roles such as a(n) Scrum Master, Release Train Engineer, or Agile Coach.

• Expertise with a product platform model constructs with Value Stream preferred.?

• Deep understanding of Agile methodologies, lean principles?and their application at scale

• Ability to identify and help value stream teams overcome impediments to flow and progress?

• Proficiency in using data and metrics to track progress and identify areas for improvement?

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to effectively convey concepts and facilitate collaboration?

• Proven as an influential coach with a track record of driving exceptional results through coaching teams and leaders, with experience facilitating various value stream and cross-system events, such as PI Planning and?value stream syncs?

• Strong understanding of business, the software development lifecycle and technology deliverables?

Location:

• Three days a week at a Guardian office in New York, NY, Holmdel, NJ or Bethlehem, PA.

Salary Range:

$118,980.00 - $195,465.00

The salary range reflected above is a good faith estimate of base pay for the primary location of the position. The salary for this position ultimately will be determined based on the education, experience, knowledge, and abilities of the successful candidate. In addition to salary, this role may also be eligible for annual, sales, or other incentive compensation.

Our Promise

At Guardian, you'll have the support and flexibility to achieve your professional and personal goals. Through skill-building, leadership development and philanthropic opportunities, we provide opportunities to build communities and grow your career, surrounded by diverse colleagues with high ethical standards.

Inspire Well-Being

As part of Guardian's Purpose - to inspire well-being - we are committed to offering contemporary, supportive, flexible, and inclusive benefits and resources to our colleagues. Explore our company benefits at . Benefits apply to full-time eligible employees. Interns are not eligible for most Company benefits.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Guardian is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to age, race, color, creed, religion, sex, affectional or sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, marital status, disability, military or veteran status, or any other classification protected by applicable law.

Accommodations

Guardian is committed to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, its services, programs, and activities. Guardian also provides reasonable accommodations to qualified job applicants (and employees) to accommodate the individual's known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, unless doing so would create an undue hardship. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact [email protected]. Please note: this resource is for accommodation requests only. For all other inquires related to your application and careers at Guardian, refer to the Guardian Careers site.

Visa Sponsorship

Guardian is not currently or in the foreseeable future sponsoring employment visas. In order to be a successful applicant. you must be legally authorized to work in the United States, without the need for employer sponsorship.

Current Guardian Colleagues: Please apply through the internal Jobs Hub in Workday.

Every day, Guardian helps our 29 million customers realize their dreams through a range of insurance and financial products and services. Our Purpose, to inspire well-being, guides our dedication to the colleagues, consumers, and communities we serve. We know that people count, and we go above and beyond to prepare them for the life they want to live, focusing on their overall well-being - mind, body, and wallet. As one of the largest mutual insurance companies, we put our customers first. Behind every bright future is a GuardianTM. Learn more about Guardian at guardianlife.com .

Visa Sponsorship:

Guardian Life is not currently or in the foreseeable future sponsoring employment visas. In order to be a successful applicant, you must be legally authorized to work in the United States, without the need for employer sponsorship.