The Agile Coach will be responsible for establishing disciplined, effective agile teams which embrace and exhibit the agile mindset, by instructing the team or teams in agile principles and best practices.

Responsibilities:

• Effectively leveraging and combining different industry standard scaling concepts to specific business problems in a manner that best supports scaled agile values and principles.
• Guiding teams on the first principle of Agile Coaching to deliver working software and services products.
• Offers credible guidance to begin pipeline and team process, structure work, create value streams, and start / growth of scaling activities.
• Develops collaborative working relationships with multiple levels of managers, and steering committees with a focus on scaling agile within an organization or line of business.
• Helps leaders understand associated continuous delivery implications and the structure required to sufficiently support the software.
• Fosters maturation of agile mindset by asking powerful questions focusing on scaled program planning, scrum-of-scrums, identification of cross-program dependencies, scaled release planning, empirical data for decision models, and ultimate delivery of work efforts.
• Objectively informs/assists leaders in a non-biased manner to consider highly complex and long-term implications of transformation to self-governing teams; uses systems view in facilitating impediment removal at the team / program / value stream level.
• Provides strategic thought leadership during engagements on approaches to overcome impediments to accelerated delivery; skillfully facilitates conflict resolution with and between teams.
• Fosters strong spirit of communication and collaboration between teams to align program goals, deliver final products, and ensure leadership transparency to impediments and progress.
• This resource shall be experienced launching Agile Release Trains (ARTs’), working in diverse environments (waterfall and agile), hybrid and transformation projects, preferably in a government setting.
• Participate in all Scrum ceremonies such as Program Increment Planning, Daily Scrum Meetings, Sprint Reviews and Sprint Retrospectives.

Required Skills:

• Experience developing effective, and well-articulated, written, and oral communications
• Experience delivering multiple complex projects/programs using Agile Delivery/Development Lifecycle.
• Experience implementing scaled Agile transformation in a complex, silo-driven environment.
• Experience coaching ARTs (Agile Release Trains), multiple Agile Teams, Product Management, and Senior Business & Technology Stakeholders.
• Proven experience coaching and guiding teams in understanding scaled agile principles and practices.
• Ability to effectively partners with leaders, Scrum Teams (Teams), other Agile coaches, and individuals to achieve greater clarity and continuous improvement.
• Ability to influence and lead without authority, including skill in establishing and maintaining a viable network of peers and influencers to continually grow insights, solution transformation impediments, and cultivate advocates.
• Skill in motivating and uplifting team members using teaching/ mentoring skills; actively (and effectively) coaches in the moment.
• Prior experience with team creation and team remediation.
• Demonstrates to use sound coaching plans to address team and individual needs; embodies effective teaching/ mentoring / coaching skills, demonstrating ability to coach in the moment.
• Projects affinity towards continuous learning.
• Understands the technical and business side to optimize credibility with teams and managers.

Preferred Skills:

• CMS or HHS experience preferred.
• Familiarity with USDS Digital Services Playbook preferred.

Education/Experience Level:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or equivalent.
• Certified by an agile body (i.e., Scrum Alliance, Scrum.org, ICAgile, SAFe or equivalent) as an enterprise, program or team coach, certified Agile Practitioner (PMI-APC®), or Scaled Agile Program Consultant (SPC).
• 7+ years’ experience in Information technology and software development preferably using Agile methodologies.
• 3+ years Agile coaching experience.
• Agile Coaching certification from recognized industry enterprise.

Sparksoft is a certified Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) SVC and DEV Level 3, ISO 9001:2015, ISO 27001:2013, HUBZone, 8(a), Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB), Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB), and Small, Women-owned, Minority-owned (SWaM), and MBE/DBE/SBE consulting firm. With our focused mission “to ignite innovation, inspire transformation, and implement digital solutions for a healthier nation”, we specialize in 6 specific digital health services: Test Automation, Cloud Services, DevOps Delivery, Cyber Security, Data Science, and Human-Centered Design. Since 2004, our exceptionally skilled people, proven leadership, and optimized processes all work together relentlessly to continuously push for more efficient solutions.

Sparksoft is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate against any applicant for employment or employee because of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic prohibited under Federal, State, or local laws.

In accordance with the Executive Order on Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors, Sparksoft Corporation is complying with the requirements that all employees assigned to a federal contract be vaccinated. Employees in need of an exemption from this policy due to a medical reason or because of a sincerely held religious belief must submit a physician’s note for a medical accommodation or a religious request for accommodation to the human resources department to begin the interactive accommodation process as soon as possible. Accommodations will be granted where they do not cause Sparksoft Corporation undue hardship or pose a direct threat to the health and safety of others. New hires must show proof of vaccination.