Advanced Scrum Master

Job Description

Job Description

ISSAC is seeking a driven, innovative, and experienced Advanced Scrum Master to support an Agile Release Train (ART) team, delivering high-impact digital engineering solutions in support of the Missile Defense Agency's (MDA) Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program.

In this role, you will blend Agile expertise with servant leadership to enable teams to perform at their highest potential. You will champion collaboration, drive program execution, remove systemic impediments, and foster a culture of transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement. Your support will directly influence the delivery of mission-critical capabilities supporting national defense.

As an Advanced Scrum Master your duties will include the following, but are not limited to:

• Champion and drive the adoption of Agile and Scrum best practices across the organization, extending beyond immediate teams.
• Organize and facilitate Program Increment (PI) Planning events
• Provide support and guidance across multiple scrum teams
• Lead and organize ART level Agile ceremonies, including Scrum Masters/Product Owner sync, backlog refinement meetings, Sprint Planning, Sprint Review and demonstration sessions
• Provide customers with meaningful Agile metrics and a clear roadmap for increasing ART maturity and agility
• Coach and mentor teams, leaders, and stakeholders on Agile principles and SAFe practices to elevate performance and delivery outcomes
• Support the optimization of value delivery across the ART
• Lead backlog refinement and creation events that support ART backlog and team backlogs
• Proactively identify, manage, and resolve cross-team dependencies, risks, and impediments
• Partner with Product Owners, Subject Matter Experts, and key stakeholders to ensure alignment on vision, priorities, and execution strategy
• Define, collect, and communicate actionable program-level metrics and status reporting
• Cultivate strong communication and collaboration across all ART participants
• Drive and measure progress of continuous improvement initiatives to enhance program effectiveness
• Stay current on emerging Agile trends, tools, and industry best practices
• Recommend and implement tooling and process improvements for value stream and project management
• Coordinate with project management tool administrators to manage system access and permissions
• Mediate and resolve complex interpersonal and cross-team conflicts, fostering a collaborative and psychologically safe environment

Qualifications

• U.S. Citizenship
• Bachelor's degree or higher in Systems Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related technical field
• 5+ years of applicable systems engineering experience, to include 3+ years of experience as a Scrum Master in an Agile environment
• Active Secret clearance
• SAFe Certification (RTE, Scrum Master, or Product Owner)
• Experience supporting remote or geographically distributed teams
• Experience supporting organizational or program-level change management initiatives
• Strong knowledge of Agile principles, Scrum framework, and SAFe methodology
• Exceptional communication, facilitation, and interpersonal skills
• Proven ability to lead, influence, and align cross-functional teams
• Experience with Agile project management tools (e.g., Jira, GitLab)
• Demonstrated success driving continuous improvement initiatives
• Demonstrated ability to manage projects within complex, multi-stakeholder environments

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting the Missile Defense Agency (MDA)
• Familiarity with DevSecOps practices and modern digital engineering environments
• Experience facilitating scaled Agile ceremonies
• Experience supporting the configuration and sustainment of planning tools (e.g. GitLab project Owner or Jira admin)
• Prior management or formal leadership experience