Job Title: Scrum Master
Location: National Harbor, MD (Hybrid)
Type: Full Time
Compensation: $70,000 to $80,000 DOE, Annually
Please note - applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa at this time.
Join our team as a Scrum Master, where you'll own the sprint cadence and delivery rhythm that keeps engineering focused, unblocked, and shipping. Your strong requirements background means you can also step in to sharpen stories, close gaps in acceptance criteria, and make sure intent survives the handoff from product to engineering — but your primary job is making the team effective, not writing the spec.
This isn't a Gantt-chart project management role or a process-heavy function. You'll focus on sprint execution and delivery discipline — reducing friction, protecting focus, and keeping stakeholders informed with accurate, current visibility. Reporting to the Development Manager, you'll work closely with the Sr. Director of Product, Application Architect, Lead Developer, and Delivery Manager to strengthen the areas where delivery most often breaks down: disciplined follow-through and clear communication.
Lead the full scrum cadence (planning, daily standups, refinement, review, retrospectives) with disciplined, pragmatic facilitation that respects the team's time.
Protect sprint commitments by managing scope changes transparently, surfacing impacts and trade-offs before they become surprises.
Remove blockers quickly; escalate decisively when impediments cannot be resolved within the team.
Coach and support the team in effective Agile/Scrum practices through credibility, consistency, and collaboration — not prescription.
Use delivery metrics (velocity, cycle time, throughput) and dashboards to improve predictability and drive continuous improvement — not to police.
Foster a team culture focused on clarity, accountability, outcomes, and continuous improvement over ceremony and activity.
Facilitate discovery workshops and refinement sessions to uncover true needs, constraints, and edge cases beyond initial requests.
Partner with product and engineering to ensure user stories are clear, testable, and carry well-defined acceptance criteria — filling gaps yourself when needed.
Challenge assumptions, resolve ambiguity, and make trade-offs explicit during refinement so engineers aren't guessing during implementation.
Maintain a single source of truth in JIRA (epics, stories, dependencies, links, priorities) and keep it accurate, current, and trustworthy.
Produce lightweight, high-value supporting artifacts as needed (process flows, decision logs, dependency maps) to aid alignment and execution.
Coordinate with Delivery Manager and stakeholders on readiness, risks, dependencies, and upcoming work to ensure smooth delivery.
Proactively identify and address process bottlenecks, quality gaps, and communication breakdowns before they become delivery issues.
3+ years as a Scrum Master or Agile facilitator within software delivery teams, with meaningful exposure to requirements and backlog management.
Certified Scrum Master (CSM, PSM, or equivalent) — valued for the knowledge, not the badge.
Strong facilitation skills — you can run a room (or a Teams call) and keep smart, opinionated people productive.
Practical experience with JIRA — workflows, dashboards, and backlog management at a level that keeps the board trustworthy.
Demonstrated ability to recognize weak or ambiguous requirements and improve them — you don't need to be the primary author, but you know a bad story when you see one.
Experience working directly with software engineers. You understand technical constraints without needing to write the code.
Experience decomposing complex requirements into clear, buildable user stories when the situation calls for it.
Experience in public sector (SLED).
Familiarity with Confluence or similar collaboration tools.
Exposure to CI/CD pipelines and modern release practices (enough to speak the language).
Experience with scaled frameworks (SAFe, LeSS) — but a preference for keeping things simple.
Learn and deploy modern technologies.
Perform as a self-starter and manage your own time.
Analyze and solve tough technical problems by leveraging leading-edge technologies.
Demonstrate your expertise through a consultative and collaborative approach to engineering.
Join monthly company outings and quarterly local service projects.
Eat lunch as a team every Friday and have your hand at conquering our reigning ping-pong champions.
National HarborFull-Timemid
