Agile Scrum Master

Company Description

Join our client as we stand up a brand-new Agile development team at the forefront of federal IT modernization, delivering real digital transformation where it matters most. This is a rare ground-floor opportunity to architect, build, and integrate cutting-edge infrastructure solutions supporting some of our nation's most sensitive and critical missions.

What to expect:
Early-stage flexibility with partial telework during initial development phases
Full-time on-site presence at secure facility in Washington, DC will be required as the program matures
A collaborative, Agile environment where your input shapes the architecture from day one
Dev platform based on ServiceNow, Elastic, AWS and RedHat

What you'll need:
An active TS/SCI clearance (required for consideration)
Willingness to complete and maintain additional customer suitability screenings throughout employment
Current Security+ certification or higher/equivalent

We are seeking an experienced Agile Scrum Master to work on a large-scale software and hardware integration effort. The selected candidate will be responsible for facilitating either one large, complex agile team, or several small agile teams as part of a larger Agile Release Train (ART) delivering value to the customer using Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) as the agile framework. She/he will help educate the teams in Scrum or Kanban to ensure that the agile processes are being followed. She/he will help remove impediments and foster an environment for high-performing team dynamics, continuous flow, and relentless improvement. The selected candidate will work with team members, with other Agile Scrum Masters, and with support personnel to ensure that the team's commitments at the Program Increment (PI) Planning are met. She/he will facilitate horizontal communication across team members to identify any impediments that may prevent team progress while working mitigation plans. The selected candidate will be responsible for sensing, determining, and leading discussions when issues need to be analyzed or triaged, and for making improvements in determining and implementing improvements to processes. Strong attention to detail and focus on task completion is critical.

Primary Responsibilities

• Responsible for facilitating self-organizing team(s) to ensure the team is making progress against Program Increment commitments.
• Protects the team from scope creep during execution of the PI.
• Removes impediments for the team and coordinates with the Release Train Engineer or Project Manager in implementing solutions.
• Helps team members communicate, coordinate, and cooperate.
• Supports and enforces Scrum process and other rules.
• Ensures that the team has a clear understanding of Definition of Done and how to meet it.
• Coordinates with other teams on the Agile Release Train (ART) and communicates status to management.
• Works with the Product Owner(s) to review and prioritize features.
• Leads and facilitates SAFe ceremonies to include backlog grooming, sprint planning, sprint review, demos, sprint retrospectives, and PI planning.
• Works with Product Owner(s) to develop User Stories to meet the Feature acceptance criteria.
• Maintains and generates information radiators for the teams.
• Collects and shares team metrics with the team, determines when new metrics are needed, and develops improvements in metrics.
• Coaches' teams on agile and scrum principles with a goal of continuous improvement
• Observes team dynamics, recognizes strengths and weaknesses of individual team member's contributions, and coaches the team as a whole driving improvement in productivity.
• Creates a fun sharing and learning environment, experimenting with various ideas to improve delivery including pair-programming and cross-functional training.
• Promotes teamwork to achieve sprint goals.
• Leads teams towards agile maturity.
• Works with and mentors junior Scrum Masters to guide and coach them throughout each project.

Basic Qualifications

• Must hold an active TS/SCI clearance (required for consideration).
• Ability to pass and maintain additional suitability screenings as required by customer
• Ability to work on-site in the Washington, DC
• Bachelor's Degree in a related discipline with 8 - 12 years of relevant experience or Master's with 6-10 years of experience. Additional years of experience may be considered in lieu of degree.
• Security+ certification or higher/equivalent
• Ability to work effectively across multidisciplinary teams.
• Experience working as a Scrum Master on a software development or other technical team.
• Certified Scrum Master (CSM), SAFe Scrum Master (SSM) or similar agile project management certification (PMI-ACP).
• Experience using agile project management tools (e.g. Jira)
• Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills, and time management skills are a must.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment, across diverse systems and groups.
• Willing to assist and train junior Scrum Masters.