Agile Coach

LufCo•Aberdeen, MD

9h•$80,000 - $115,000

About The Position

This role is responsible for bridging the gap between high-level agile strategies and the practical implementation and team execution of continually evolving methodologies and processes. The Agile Coach is a dedicated servant leader whose primary mission is to unlock the diverse potential of individuals and teams by fostering an environment of psychological safety, mutual respect, and shared purpose. By understanding the unique motivations and challenges of team members and stakeholders, an Agile Coach acts as a mentor, facilitator, and bridge-builder, clearing impediments so that teams and program leadership can focus on what they do best: rapidly and continuously delivering meaningful value to customers and stakeholders. At LufCo, “Agile” is not a ‘thing’ we do, it’s the way we do everything.

Requirements

SAFe 6 Practice Consultant (SPC) or SAFe 6 Release Train Engineer (RTE)
B.S. degree ideally in Computer Science or related Engineering discipline
Minimum of 5 years in IT/Software development, with at least 2 years dedicated to Agile Coaching, Transformation, and Leadership
Demonstrated experience leading agile transformations, launching at least one Agile Release Train (ART), or serving as Agile Coach for at least one large-scale program (50+ people)
2+ years of demonstrated experience navigating government reporting structures, security protocols, and inter-agency collaboration in collaboration with federal or state agencies.
Characteristics of servant leadership
Organizational wizardry
Unparalleled communication skills (that means talking/writing AND listening/reading)
Getting off the “Agile” soapbox and actually making things better
Being a mostly decent human
Generally being not willing to take...uh…guff, from SW developers
Caring that people actually improve and succeed
Expert-level proficiency in Atlassian Tool Suite Administration
Ability to travel as required.
Standard office environment with occasional requirements to visit client sites, labs, or field environments.
US Citizenship required with the ability to obtain a government security clearance.

Nice To Haves

ICAgile Certified Professional in Enterprise Agile Coaching (ICP-ENT) OR Project Management Institute - Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)
Atlassian Certified Professional (Jira/Confluence Administration, Cloud and On Prem)

Responsibilities

Facilitate and document continual improvement by teaching Agile and Lean-Agile mindsets, leading quarterly "Inspect and Adapt" cycles, and designing unique Retrospectives that engage critical introspection and which result in accountable SMART goals; foster a culture of Kaizen where small, incremental changes are validated through continuous feedback and analysis
Act as the steward of agility for the program, exemplifying and advocating for the 12 Principles of Agile Software Development and the 10 SAFe Lean-Agile Principles . Evolve and expand these principles to include hardware-focused and hybrid HW/SW projects.
Provide 1-on-1and team professional development, mentorship, and coaching to new hires, Scrum Leaders, Product Owners/Managers, Resources Leads, Release Train Engineers (RTEs), and customers and stakeholders as requested/required
Manage, train, and develop all program Scrum Leaders and assist them where needed by monitoring and/or facilitating Agile Team Events
Encourage and promote all team and company best practices
Design, organize, and launch Agile Release Trains (ARTs) and Agile teams using Scrum, Kanban, and Hybrid methods based on the specific needs of the team or program.
Balance and coalesce Agile delivery cycles with rigorous government compliance, reporting, and milestone/event requirements without sacrificing agility
Lead the preparation and implementation of large, hybrid Program Increment (PI) Planning workshops, Inspect and Adapt (I&A) workshops, and leadership and improvement focused sessions to include Scrum of Scrums, Sprint Reviews, and team-based Technical Deep Dives.
Identify and eliminate bottlenecks in the delivery pipeline to reduce lead time and improve the flow of value, establishing clear and consistent direction for program teams via value stream mapping
Monitor, compile, analyze, and present qualitative feedback and data-driven insights to identify systemic impediments and to evaluate improvements, providing program leadership with critical information to drive decision-making and evaluation of KPIs and OKRs.
Own and update all program documentation related to Agile best practices
Act as the primary administrator for Jira, Confluence, and Jira Service Desk software in both Cloud and Data Center implementations, operating instances deployed in secured, virtual environments.
Configure, optimize, and maintain complex custom Jira workflows, automations, schemes, permission structures, etc. in order to create custom project and board configurations
Develop automated reporting dashboards (within Jira and via custom platforms using data from the Jira API) and Advanced Roadmaps to provide real-time visibility into individual and team velocity, flow, burn-up/down charts, and program predictability metrics
Create, organize, and maintain multiple Groups, Calendars, and Drive file structures to include permissions management. Requires Sheets, Docs, and Slides familiarity.
Manage combined communications to include Slack, Meet, and MS Teams, among others
Create, organize, and maintain all channels, canvases, groups, organizations, etc. in all tools.