# Who is Agile Coach? The role of an agile coach in a company and in agile teams > Discover what an Agile Coach does, how the role is defined in practice, and Agile Coach vs Scrum Master differences in modern organizations. _Source: https://lucidbaydigital.com/glossary/agile-coach/_ _Published: 2025-12-28_ _Updated: 2026-04-07_ --- ![Agilní kouč, seniorní scrum master, agile coaching, mentoring](https://lucidbaydigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/mentor-kopie-scaled.jpg) ROLE DESCRIPTION ## Agile Coach An **Agile Coach** is a role focused on helping teams and organizations adopt, improve and sustain **agile ways of working**. In practice, there is no single universal definition of what an Agile Coach does, because the role is interpreted differently across companies and markets. Sometimes you can infer the meaning from a job description or company context, but in many cases it’s best to ask directly what the organization expects under the title “Agile Coach”. Below are **two of the most common interpretations** of the Agile Coach role. ## 1) Agile Coach as a Senior Scrum Master One common approach is to define an Agile Coach as a **senior-level Scrum Master** with broader scope and deeper expertise, not only in Scrum, but also in other agile methods, organizational change, and collaboration with leadership. The Scrum framework (as described in the **Scrum Guide**) includes the **Scrum Master** role, but it does not formally define an **Agile Coach** role. That’s why many organizations use “Agile Coach” as an expanded version of Scrum Master — typically more strategic and cross-team. If you are looking for someone who, in addition to Scrum, understands **Kanban, Lean, Lean Startup**, can compare and recommend scaling frameworks (e.g. SAFe, LeSS, Nexus), and can effectively work with management, you will often be looking for an Agile Coach in this sense. ### Typical responsibilities of an Agile Coach (Senior Scrum Master) In this interpretation, an Agile Coach usually: - **trains and develops** Scrum Masters, Product Owners, agile teams, and leadership, - **mentors, coaches, shadows** individuals and provides feedback, - helps remove **complex systemic impediments** related to adopting agility, - acts as a **partner to management** and supports organizational change, - designs **agile team structures** and collaboration models, - supports agile adoption across the organization (e.g. **HR, Finance, Procurement**), - may or may not be assigned to specific teams (some focus only on organizational agility, others support 1–2 teams and spend the rest of their time on company-wide improvements), - helps shape the **vision and direction of agility** in the organization — either directly with other agile roles or by supporting an Agile Transformation Lead. ## 2) Agile Coach in the Spotify Model approach In organizations inspired by the Spotify model (or similar agile structures), the **Agile Coach** role often replaces the **Scrum Master**. Seniority varies widely in this approach from junior coaches to highly experienced professionals and in many companies the responsibilities closely mirror those of a Scrum Master: helping teams improve collaboration, processes, agile mindset, and delivery effectiveness. ### What changes when one coach supports multiple teams? A major difference appears when an organization assigns **one Agile Coach to multiple agile teams**. In that case, the coach cannot work in the same day-to-day way a dedicated Scrum Master does. Instead, the Agile Coach becomes partly a **mentor/consultant across teams**, focusing on building team capability so teams can improve their agility more independently. This setup has both advantages and potential downsides: - **Benefit:** teams develop stronger ownership and learn agile practices more independently. - **Risk:** if one coach supports too many teams, there is less time for direct interaction, which may **slow down adoption and improvement**. ## Summary: Agile Coach vs Scrum Master The **Agile Coach** role is not consistently defined across the market. Most commonly, you will encounter one of these two interpretations: - **Agile Coach as a Senior Scrum Master** with broader scope, cross-team impact, and organizational focus, or - **Agile Coach as a Scrum Master–like role** in the Spotify model, sometimes shared across multiple teams. If a company is hiring an Agile Coach, it’s always worth clarifying **which interpretation they use**, because expectations and responsibilities can differ significantly. ## Other practical sources of information - [Agile Transformation in Practice](https://lucidbaydigital.com/agile-performance/agile-courses/agile-transformation-in-practice/): Are you interested in the practice of agile coaching? You can sign up for our course led by an experienced agile coach. - [Agile Transformation](https://lucidbaydigital.com/agile-performance/agile-transformation/): Take a look at the services we offer in the field of agile transformation - [How many teams can an agile coach have at once?](https://lucidbaydigital.com/how-many-teams-can-an-agile-coach-have-at-once/): Read our article about the number of teams an agile coach is responsible for and what happens when you let yourself get overloaded. - Check out the description of the [Agile Performance](https://lucidbaydigital.com/agile-performance/) service to see what we offer in the area of agile approaches. - [Agile Manifesto](https://agilemanifesto.org/): four main points on which agility is based - [Scrum Guide](https://scrumguides.org/index.html): repetition never hurts, take a look at the Scrum Guide --- _Lucid Bay Digital: Agile transformation and product management_ _https://lucidbaydigital.com_