Agile Release Engineer

Orchard•Chantilly, VA

19h•$62,000 - $185,000

About The Position

Agile Release Engineer – Multiple Levels Chantilly, VA Active Top-Secret Clearance with SCI and CI Polygraph Required @Orchard is actively supporting a proposal expected to be awarded in Fall 2026 for a Virginia client in the Intelligence Sector. We are seeking individuals with the necessary skills, experience, and clearance to sign a letter of intent to join the team once the program is awarded. This is an exceptional opportunity to join one of our clients, a leader in the IC space with exceptional benefits and opportunities for advancement. We are seeking Agile Release Engineers to provide technical, coordination, and process‑driven support to the National Reconnaissance Office. Release Engineers will help orchestrate directorate‑level software delivery, ensure alignment across development teams, and strengthen Agile and DevSecOps practices that underpin mission‑critical capabilities across the organization. As the Release Engineer, your responsibilities will include. Plan, coordinate, and execute release activities across multiple Agile teams supporting customer programs and enterprise services. Maintain and manage release calendars, ensuring synchronization with program increments, sprint cycles, and enterprise milestones. Facilitate release readiness reviews, go/no‑go decisions, and post‑release retrospectives. Track release dependencies, risks, and issues, escalating to leadership as needed. Support Agile Release Trains (ARTs) by aligning development, integration, testing, and deployment activities. Collaborate with Scrum Masters, Product Owners, System Engineers, and Government Program Offices to ensure consistent Agile execution. Promote DevSecOps best practices, including CI/CD pipeline usage, automated testing, and continuous integration of mission applications. Help teams adopt and mature Scaled Agile Framework (SaFe) processes within the customer environment. Coordinate with customer leadership to ensure releases align with enterprise GEOINT architecture priorities and mission needs. Support enterprise‑level planning events, including PI Planning, backlog refinement, and cross‑team synchronization forums. Provide transparency into release status, metrics, and performance indicators to government stakeholders. Maintain documentation for release processes, configuration management, and deployment workflows. Ensure compliance with NRO security, accreditation, and configuration control requirements. Identify opportunities to streamline release processes and reduce cycle time through automation and workflow improvements. Support integration of cloud‑based environments, containerized applications, and modern deployment architectures.

Requirements

US citizen with an Active TS/SCI with CI Polygraph.
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field. Alternatively, demonstrate an additional 4 years of related experience per level if no bachelor's degree is held.
Experience supporting Agile software development environments, preferably within the IC or DoD.
Strong understanding of Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe) and release management practices.
Excellent communication and coordination skills, with the ability to work across diverse technical teams.

Nice To Haves

SAFe certification (e.g., RTE, SA, SSM, SASM) or equivalent Agile credentials.
Familiarity with CI/CD tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Confluence, and JIRA), version control systems, and automated deployment pipelines.
Experience supporting NRO, NGA, or other GEOINT mission partners.
Knowledge of cloud environments (AWS, C2S, GovCloud) and container orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes).
Familiarity with DevSecOps toolchains, automated testing frameworks, and infrastructure‑as‑code.
Experience with enterprise‑level configuration management and change control processes.

Responsibilities

Plan, coordinate, and execute release activities across multiple Agile teams supporting customer programs and enterprise services.
Maintain and manage release calendars, ensuring synchronization with program increments, sprint cycles, and enterprise milestones.
Facilitate release readiness reviews, go/no‑go decisions, and post‑release retrospectives.
Track release dependencies, risks, and issues, escalating to leadership as needed.
Support Agile Release Trains (ARTs) by aligning development, integration, testing, and deployment activities.
Collaborate with Scrum Masters, Product Owners, System Engineers, and Government Program Offices to ensure consistent Agile execution.
Promote DevSecOps best practices, including CI/CD pipeline usage, automated testing, and continuous integration of mission applications.
Help teams adopt and mature Scaled Agile Framework (SaFe) processes within the customer environment.
Coordinate with customer leadership to ensure releases align with enterprise GEOINT architecture priorities and mission needs.
Support enterprise‑level planning events, including PI Planning, backlog refinement, and cross‑team synchronization forums.
Provide transparency into release status, metrics, and performance indicators to government stakeholders.
Maintain documentation for release processes, configuration management, and deployment workflows.
Ensure compliance with NRO security, accreditation, and configuration control requirements.
Identify opportunities to streamline release processes and reduce cycle time through automation and workflow improvements.
Support integration of cloud‑based environments, containerized applications, and modern deployment architectures.