Hire proven Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) professionals in Cologne, matched in minutes from 15,000 CVs with the power of AI.
CSM holders help teams work with Scrum in a clear, disciplined way. They support sprint planning, daily collaboration, backlog flow, and removing blockers so delivery stays focused. Find vetted freelancers in Cologne fast, with precise matching for the role and team setup you need.
About the certification
What CSM means
Certified ScrumMaster, usually called CSM, is a Scrum Alliance certification for people who guide teams in using Scrum well. It shows that a professional understands the Scrum framework, the Scrum Master role, and how to support delivery without turning the role into command and control. For companies, it is a signal that the freelancer can help a team work in shorter cycles with more focus and less friction.
Core strengths
A CSM holder is expected to help a team keep Scrum events useful, reduce blockers, and protect the team from avoidable noise. In practice, that often means coaching team habits, improving collaboration, and keeping work transparent.
- Sprint planning and refinement support
- Daily Scrum facilitation
- Retrospectives that lead to action
- Backlog flow and dependency management
- Impediment removal and team coaching
Who holds it
People with this certification are often Scrum Masters, Agile coaches in a hands-on role, delivery leads moving into Scrum, or project professionals working with product and engineering teams. They are common in software, digital product, and transformation work, but the framework is also used in marketing, operations, and internal change programs. In Cologne, companies often look for CSM freelancers who can join hybrid teams, work in German or English, and fit into established delivery routines quickly.
What they know
The certification points to practical knowledge of:
- Scrum roles, events, and artefacts
- Servant leadership and facilitation
- Team dynamics and conflict handling
- Inspect-and-adapt thinking
- Agile coaching at team level
That mix matters when a team needs structure without heavy process. A strong CSM freelancer knows when to keep Scrum simple and when to challenge habits that slow delivery.
What it tells companies
When you engage a freelancer with the Certified ScrumMaster title, you should expect someone who can help teams become more predictable, open, and collaborative. The certification alone does not prove seniority, industry depth, or deep technical knowledge. It does show a shared Scrum foundation, which makes it easier to bring the person into an existing team, a new product setup, or a rescue situation where delivery has lost rhythm.
When it matters most
CSM is especially relevant when a team is new to Scrum, when meetings have become empty rituals, or when product and engineering need a cleaner working rhythm. It also matters in organisations scaling agile habits across multiple teams. In Cologne, it can be useful for on-site workshops, but it is just as relevant for remote or mixed setups where the Scrum Master needs to keep communication clear across locations.
Meet FRATCH Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)
Marc Hammerschmidt
Senior Product Manager / Product Lead
Last position:
Own AI product project & AI training at Self-employed
- Built and validated SupportPiloten, an AI-powered content operations service; won first paying pilot customers
- Tested agentic workflows with Claude Code and Codex for analysis, research, documentation, and prototyping
- Further developed own AI product; training: AI governance, AI compliance, and the EU AI Act (ongoing)
Olaf Konopka
Liquidation of a warehouse site
Last position:
Liquidation of a warehouse site at Cegeka
- Project plan creation and monitoring
- Coordination of necessary activities
- Regular status meetings
- Personnel planning for cut over
- Completion and handover of all trades to the end customer with documentation
Sebastian Hefczyk
Overall Project Manager; Turnaround Manager & Coach
Last position:
Overall Project Manager; Turnaround Manager & Coach at Statutory Health Insurance Fund
- Taking over the troubled project from the internal project management and successful turnaround of project phase 1 (cutover of approx. 1000 servers (VMs)/standard desktops, specialized desktops)
- Responsible project management for the successful phase 1 transition (planning in the shortest possible time followed by implementation (very successful with low ticket volume))
- Stakeholder management – taking over direct (daily before cutover) communication with the client from the Chief Operation Manager in the format of regular meetings in taskforce mode. Rapid rebuilding of the previously lost trust base and restoration of the client relationship for optimal satisfaction
- Taskforce mode to eliminate all existing issues/showstoppers before cutover
- Scope clarification, setup, and scheduling of phase 2 activities (e.g. silo/admin servers)
- Kick-off of phase 2 / handing the project back to the success line for the internal project management/line to handle the remaining defined topics
- Establishing, preparing, and conducting steering committees with V-1 management to align the guardrails
- Moderation of various regular meetings and operational workshops
- Participation in the lessons learned with the client to address dissatisfaction related to the internal project management (before my start! They are extremely satisfied with my work)
- Tools: Atlassian Suite (Confluence/JIRA), MIRO, Sharepoint; MS Office (PowerPoint, Excel, MS Project)
Alina Ohrem
Strategic Requirements Manager for OZG Project
Last position:
Strategic Requirements Manager for OZG Project at INIT AG
- In my key role in strategic requirements management for the UVO online service, I established a comprehensive process from concept to execution.
- The responsibility included effectively collecting and prioritizing user feedback and requirements from municipalities and state administrations for direct service improvements.
- Developed, implemented, and led strategic requirements management for the OZG 2.0 UVO online service
- Gathering, prioritizing, and handling functional requirements, issues, improvement suggestions, and requests from municipalities and state administrations
- Creating release documentation
- Communicating implemented requirements to municipalities and UV offices
- Aligning with service managers and stakeholders
- Coordinating XFamily changes and version updates
- Managing and maintaining the Jira backlog and Confluence pages
- Responsible for Jira sprints, sprint planning, and review
- Coordinating with business, Product Owner, and development team for requirement implementation
- Testing implemented requirements in the online service
- Project documentation
Hans Reinl
Engineering and Leadership Consultant
Last position:
Engineering and Leadership Consultant at Self-employed
Leveraging 15+ years of high-scale platform architecture and engineering leadership to consult with companies, focusing on enhancing their engineering capabilities and accelerating adoption of the AI-native web.
- AI & Machine Learning: Hands-on architecture and implementation using Vercel AI SDK, Next.js, Supabase, and Serverless architectures to build production-ready AI applications.
- Reference Architecture: Designed and implemented a full-stack, conversational coach (N+One AI Coach) based on Next.js and Vercel Edge Network for personalized training, demonstrating expertise in performant serverless applications and AI-powered experiences.
- Agentic Systems & Data Processing: Developed agentic-led, low-code crawling and indexing processes for fiber internet network information, showcasing proficiency in automation, LLM integration, and data structuring.
Niels Gernant
Managing Director and Founder
Last position:
Managing Director and Founder at rheinsprung UG
- Coaching, business consulting, and investments in growth companies
- Digital transformation consulting in the central customer service of a retail company
Fatih Karakurt
Mobile App Developer
Last position:
Mobile App Developer at ING Belgium
- Part of a squad focused on intensive module development and integration
- Close collaboration with other squads and teams to integrate modules and essential components
- Use of SwiftUI and the Coordinator pattern to develop clean and understandable code
- Creative collaboration with UX designers in Figma and implementation in code
- Industry: Banking
- Project language: English
- Organizational form: Kanban
- Tools: Azure, Confluence, Figma, Teams
- Team size: 40 people
- Version control: Git, GitFlow, Azure
- App Store product: ING Banking
- Programming languages: SwiftUI, Swift
- Patterns: Coordinator, MVVM
- Swift Package Manager
- Localization: Yes
- Testing: XCTest, XCUITest
Jacqueline Haefke
Last position:
Kitchen Appliance Manufacturer
Setting up and enhancing an international subscription management system
Migrating and decommissioning a Hybris-SAP system and integrating Zuora
Implementing numerous interfaces to various systems (external and internal)
Setting up and improving monitoring with Grafana, Prometheus, and Databricks
Introducing logging with Loki
Implementing business requirements using jQuery, Thymeleaf, Spring Boot, Java, Go, and Python
Adjusting and extending the GitLab CI pipelines
Setting up and extending infrastructure as code with Terraform and ArgoCD on AWS
Setting up and running E2E and performance tests
Expanding the Databricks business intelligence solution to provide various KPIs
Responsibilities: Architecture, DevOps, development, unit tests, coaching employees and apprentices, E2E, smoke, and integration tests, agile methods consulting (Kanban, Scrum)
Technologies and methods: Java, Go, Kotlin, Node.js, Spring Boot, SOAP/REST, Quarkus, Thymeleaf, Vaadin, Slack, Jira, Confluence, IntelliJ, GitLab, SQS, Kafka, AWS, Kubernetes, Terraform, Maven, Gradle, GitLab CI, Databricks
Pia Wenkel
Process and Requirements Manager
Last position:
Stadtwerke Unna
- Process analysis and documentation of the current state (Level 1–2)
- Identifying optimization needs and proposing implementation solutions
- Developing training materials for core customer care processes
- Project planning and reporting as well as decision templates for department heads and management
Ronny Herold
Senior Business, IT and Data Analyst, Portfolio Analyst
Last position:
Förderbank Deutschland
- Extraction and transformation of relevant data from the SAP system developed for the bank and consolidation into the existing reporting environment
- Integration of the data into the existing BI model (extending the star schema to a galaxy schema) for generating the funding committee report and the business development report
- Ensuring data quality
- Knowledge transfer to department staff (SAP, SQL database, Power Pivot, DAX)
Jonas Rau
Digital Strategy & Execution
Last position:
Digital Strategy & Execution at Jonas Rau
Digital strategy and execution expert with more than 10 years of digital work experience.
Supports creative π shaped agencies, well-known brands, agileminded startups and medium enterprises.
Focused on being customer-centric, efficiency-driven, and solution-focused.
Certified Scrum Master with a passion for creating outstanding results.
Strategic support includes brand, campaign, mission and vision, digital transformation, digital media mix, UX strategy, SEO SEA strategy, award-winning creation, workflow optimization, and conceptual ideation.
Executional support includes project management, client consulting, budget planning and cost proposals, workshop preparation and execution, pitch coordination, project setup and team lead, product ownership, requirement engineering, campaign management, and content creation.
Utilized instruments include Scrum framework, OKR model, Double Diamond model, Business Model Canvas, Design Thinking technique, Radical Collaboration, Data-driven approach, Rapid prototyping, Pareto principle, and shift model.
Tools used include JIRA, Trello, Keynote, PowerPoint, Adobe Creative Suite, Slack, Discord, Zoom, MS Teams, Google Analytics, Trends, Search Console, TYPO3, WordPress, Silverstripe, Microsoft Office 365, Google Suite, UXPin, and Adobe XD.
Discover over 15,000 top freelancers
Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) statistics
Typical experience
18 years
Average project duration
2.3 years
Certifications per freelancer
4
Top business areas
Information Technology, Project Management, Product Development
Top industries
Information Technology, Professional Services, Retail
Most common languages
German, English, French
Bachelor's degree or higher
80%
Master's degree or higher
40%
Salary / Daily Rate Distribution
The chart shows how the daily rates of freelancers holding this certification are distributed, based on recent contracts on our platform. Each bar covers a rate range — its height shows how many freelancers charge within that range. Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
Average rates for Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) & Seniority distribution
Rates are based on recent contracts and do not include FRATCH margin.
The average daily rate is the mean of all daily rates from recent contracts of comparable freelancers on our platform.
The median daily rate is the middle value of all daily rates — half of comparable freelancers charge less, half charge more. Unlike the average, it is barely affected by outliers.
Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
Frequently Asked Questions
Questions in mind? Get key insights about FRATCH
The Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) shows that a professional understands Scrum and can support a team in using it in a practical way. It validates knowledge of the Scrum Master role, team facilitation, and how to remove blockers without taking over the team. For companies, that usually means better structure, clearer ceremonies, and stronger delivery habits.
The CSM focuses on the Scrum Master role, not on product ownership or technical delivery. It is about helping the team work well together, keep Scrum events useful, and improve flow. A Product Owner certification is more about value, backlog priorities, and product decisions.
Certified ScrumMaster is a good fit for people who want to guide teams, facilitate collaboration, and support agile delivery. It is common for new or experienced Scrum Masters, delivery leads, project managers moving into agile work, and team coaches. It also helps professionals who want a clearer understanding of Scrum before stepping into a team-facing role.
A freelancer with CSM should be able to help teams work in a more disciplined and transparent way. Expect support with ceremonies, impediment handling, and team coaching rather than detailed product strategy or technical architecture. The certification is a strong sign of Scrum fluency, but experience still matters for complex teams or difficult change work.
Preparation for the Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) usually combines Scrum theory with practical examples of how teams work day to day. Candidates often study the Scrum framework, the Scrum Master stance, facilitation, and common team problems. Training is typically interactive and focused on understanding rather than memorising facts.
For CSM, the main expectation is that learners engage with Scrum Alliance training before the certification path is completed. It is often chosen by people who are new to the role as well as by experienced professionals who want a formal Scrum foundation. Deep prior Scrum experience is helpful, but not always required to start.
The Certified ScrumMaster credential is maintained through Scrum Alliance renewal requirements, which keep the certification active over time. Holders typically need to continue learning and complete the renewal steps set by the issuing body. Companies should see it as a living credential rather than a one-time badge.
CSM matters most in software, digital product, transformation, and cross-functional team work where Scrum is already in use or being introduced. In Cologne, it can be useful for companies that run hybrid teams, international collaboration, or workshop-heavy change programs. It is especially valuable when the team needs stronger facilitation and a steadier delivery rhythm.
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Philipp Thomaschewski
FRATCH CEO
