Agile Process SME (Scrum Master) - Contingent

Aretum•McLean, VA

8h•Remote

About The Position

Aretum is seeking an Agile Process SME (Scrum Master) to join our team supporting a large-scale federal technology modernization program. As a team-level Scrum Master, you will be fully embedded within a single Agile development team inside a Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Agile Release Train, performing the traditional activities associated with Agile SAFe methodologies. You will coordinate, oversee, and manage all standard Scrum ceremonies for your team, document ceremony outputs, keep team metrics and status current without disrupting delivery, identify and remove impediments, and partner with the team's federal Product Owner on backlog refinement and roadmap maintenance. You will coach your team on SAFe practices, collaborate with the senior program-level Scrum Master and the other team-level Scrum Masters across the Agile Release Train, and work closely with the Solution Architect, UX, Accessibility and QA leads to align sprint goals. This role is scoped to standard Scrum Master services, it does not include Business Analyst services. Due to the nature of our work as a federal consulting organization, employees may be expected to handle Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) and must adhere to applicable safeguarding and compliance requirements.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in a related field (or 3 years of additional experience)
Active Scrum certification (e.g., Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Professional Scrum Master (PSM), or SAFe Scrum Master (SSM))
Minimum 4 years of applicable experience as a Scrum Master on delivery teams
Hands-on experience operating within a Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) environment, including participation in Program Increment (PI) Planning as a team-level Scrum Master
Demonstrated experience facilitating the full set of standard Scrum ceremonies (Sprint Planning, Daily Standup, Sprint Review, Retrospective, and Backlog Refinement) and documenting outputs consistently
Hands-on proficiency with Jira and Confluence for Agile delivery, including board and sprint configuration, workflow setup, dashboards, and reporting
Demonstrated ability to identify and remove impediments, including tracking them to resolution and escalating appropriately when resolution requires authority outside the team
Experience partnering with a Product Owner on backlog refinement, prioritization, and roadmap maintenance, including preparing backlogs for upcoming PI planning
Experience maintaining team-level Agile metrics (velocity, commitment reliability, flow, defect rates) and producing clear, accurate status updates for program leadership
Experience coordinating cross-team dependencies within a multi-team Agile environment
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to coach technical teams, engage federal stakeholders, and communicate Agile concepts clearly to technical and non-technical audiences
Public Trust Eligibility Required
Applicants must be U.S. citizens or currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis.
Requires the ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust or Suitability Determination, depending on the agency’s background investigation requirements.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting federal government clients
SAFe Scrum Master (SSM) certification specifically, in addition to any base Scrum certification held
Advanced Certified Scrum Master (A-CSM), Certified Scrum Professional - ScrumMaster (CSP-SM), or Professional Scrum Master II (PSM II)
Experience supporting a team within an Agile Release Train that includes multiple synchronized Scrum teams
Experience coaching software engineering teams specifically (backend, frontend, QA, UX)
Experience with Kanban practices and supporting teams that operate Scrum/Kanban hybrids or pure Kanban within a broader SAFe environment
Experience facilitating Retrospective formats beyond the default template and driving continuous improvement actions to completion
Experience supporting federal Product Owners and collaborating with federal UX and QA leads to align cross-discipline priorities with sprint goals

Responsibilities

Perform the traditional activities associated with Agile SAFe methodologies at the team level, embedded fully within a single Agile development team
Coordinate, oversee, and manage the standard Scrum ceremonies (Sprint Planning, Daily Standup, Sprint Review, Retrospective, and Backlog Refinement) and document the outputs of each ceremony clearly and consistently
Identify, surface, and drive resolution of team-level impediments, escalating to the senior Scrum Master, the federal Release Train Engineer, or program leadership when impediments cannot be resolved within the team
Support the team's participation in Program Increment (PI) Planning, including preparing the team's backlog for PI planning, facilitating team-level PI planning sessions, and documenting PI objectives, dependencies, and commitments
Partner with the federal Product Owner and the engineering team to maintain the 24-month roadmap for the team's Epic area, surfacing technical items and level-of-effort estimates alongside Product-Owner-driven priorities
Facilitate Sprint Planning to ensure stories are well understood, properly sized, and aligned to sprint goals; facilitate Retrospectives that produce concrete, tracked improvement actions
Embed an Agile culture on the team using techniques drawn from a wide range of Agile and Lean methodologies and frameworks, remaining methodology-aware rather than prescriptive
Coach team members, the federal Product Owner, and adjacent stakeholders on team roles, behaviors, structure and culture, Agile ceremonies and practices, and knowledge transfer
Equip engineers and leads on the team with the skills and techniques to coach one another, supporting a self-organizing, continuously improving team
Maintain team-level Agile metrics (velocity, commitment reliability, flow, defect rates) and keep project and team status accurate and current so that any stakeholder can find out where the team stands without disrupting delivery
Contribute to weekly status reporting, including accomplishments, planned work, associated ticket numbers, and risks and issues with proposed solutions
Coordinate with the senior program-level Scrum Master and other team-level Scrum Masters across the Agile Release Train to identify and resolve cross-team dependencies, align practices, and maintain consistency of ceremony quality, tooling, and reporting
Collaborate closely with Tech lead, UX, Accessibility and QA leads to ensure UX, Accessibility and QA priorities are aligned with sprint goals
Maintain Jira and Confluence hygiene for the team, board configuration, sprint setup, workflow states, Definition of Ready, Definition of Done, so that the team's work is transparent and reportable
Support onboarding of new team members and contribute to consistent application of SAFe practices and reporting standards across the team
Operate within the scope of standard Scrum Master services; this role does not include Business Analyst services