Expert Systems Engineer - Agile Delivery & Jira Administration

Description

The Expert Systems Engineer serves as a senior technical and Agile delivery professional responsible for supporting the customer’s Agile processes, administering and maintaining Jira, and enabling effective planning, execution, collaboration, and continuous improvement across multiple teams.

This role owns and facilitates key Agile and Scrum activities, supports quarterly Program Increment (PI) planning, identifies and removes team impediments, manages cross-team dependencies, and ensures teams effectively apply Agile principles and frameworks. The position also provides hands-on Jira administration and configuration, including the development and maintenance of Jira boards, dashboards, plans, filters, workflows, and data-access structures.

The ideal candidate combines expertise in Agile delivery, Jira and Confluence administration, systems engineering, and scaled Agile frameworks such as SAFe and Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS).

Responsibilities

Agile Process Ownership & Team Enablement

• Own and support the Agile delivery process across customer teams to ensure Agile practices are understood, consistently applied, and effective.
• Guide teams in working through iterative and incremental delivery practices while promoting continuous improvement.
• Coach team members on Agile principles, processes, roles, and best practices.
• Evaluate team processes and recommend improvements that increase efficiency, transparency, collaboration, and delivery effectiveness.
• Foster an environment of open communication, accountability, collaboration, and continuous learning.
• Facilitate communication and assist with conflict resolution to help teams remain aligned and productive.

Scrum & Agile Event Facilitation

Own, facilitate, and manage key Scrum and Agile events to ensure meetings are structured, productive, and focused on delivery outcomes, including:

• Daily Stand-Ups: Facilitate team synchronization, maintain communication flow, identify blockers, and promote accountability.
• Sprint Planning: Support teams in defining achievable sprint goals, prioritizing work, and establishing realistic commitments.
• Sprint Reviews: Coordinate demonstrations and reviews of completed work and facilitate stakeholder feedback.
• Program Increment (PI) Planning: Support the development, alignment, and prioritization of team objectives and goals for quarterly Program Increments.
• Sprint Retrospectives: Facilitate team reflection, identify lessons learned, and develop actionable improvements for future sprints.

Impediment, Risk & Dependency Management

• Identify, track, escalate, and assist with resolving impediments that may affect team delivery.
• Address delivery challenges including unclear requirements, application or tool issues, process constraints, and cross-team dependencies.
• Coordinate with technical leads, Product Owners, stakeholders, and other Points of Contact (POCs) to communicate and resolve dependencies.
• Help shield delivery teams from unnecessary distractions so they can remain focused on sprint commitments and program objectives.
• Facilitate visibility and communication of risks, dependencies, and issues across teams and stakeholders.
• Support teams in developing mitigation strategies for risks and delivery constraints.

Jira Administration & Management

Administer, configure, develop, and maintain Jira capabilities supporting Agile delivery and program management.

Responsibilities include:

• Develop, configure, and maintain Jira boards supporting team and program-level Agile activities.
• Create, manage, organize, and maintain Jira work items, including:
• Epics
• Stories
• Dependencies
• Risks
• MVIs
• Tasks and other applicable work-item types
• Develop and maintain Jira dashboards that provide actionable visibility into team and program performance.
• Create and manage dashboard designs, reports, gadgets, individual and shared filters, and appropriate data access.
• Develop and maintain Jira Plans to support program-level planning, scheduling, dependency management, and roadmap visibility.
• Configure and manage filters and data views to support different users, teams, and stakeholders.
• Maintain Jira data quality and promote consistent use of Jira across teams.
• Support users with Jira functionality, configuration, reporting, and troubleshooting.
• Identify opportunities to improve Jira configurations and processes to better support Agile delivery and customer requirements.

Collaboration & Stakeholder Support

• Serve as a liaison among engineering teams, Product Owners, program leadership, stakeholders, and other customer representatives.
• Promote transparency by ensuring relevant project, sprint, risk, dependency, and delivery information is visible and accessible to appropriate stakeholders.
• Coordinate across teams to address dependencies and maintain alignment with broader program objectives.
• Use Confluence to support team documentation, knowledge sharing, collaboration, and Agile processes.

Qualifications

• Active TS/SCI with Full Scope Polygraph with this Customer
• 10+ years of relevant experience in a systems engineering role
• Agile software development and delivery methodologies
• Scrum and scaled Agile environments
• Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
• Sprint and Program Increment planning
• Agile coaching and team facilitation
• Risk, issue, impediment, and dependency management
• Jira administration and configuration
• Jira Boards, Dashboards, Plans, filters, and reporting
• Confluence administration and collaboration
• Cross-functional and cross-team coordination
• Continuous process improvement
• Systems engineering concepts and practices
• AWS functionality and cloud-based environments

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting multiple Agile teams within a complex technical or systems engineering environment.
• Demonstrated experience administering and configuring Jira for team and program-level Agile delivery.
• Experience supporting SAFe Program Increment planning and execution.
• Strong understanding of Agile metrics, reporting, dashboards, and delivery tracking.
• Experience coordinating technical dependencies across multiple engineering teams.
• Ability to translate customer and program requirements into actionable Agile work.
• Strong facilitation, communication, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to communicate effectively with technical teams, program leadership, and customer stakeholders.
• Experience working with Jira, Confluence, AWS, and related engineering and collaboration tools.

Salary Range

USD $200,000.00 - USD $215,000.00 /Yr.

The Markon pay range for this position is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.
Overview

Eager to join a team where your skills are valued, your growth is nurtured, and your impact is profound? Look no further than Markon, a premier consulting firm deeply dedicated to advancing our nation's most critical missions.

At Markon, we don't just offer jobs – we offer opportunities for personal and professional transformation. Empowering our employees to lead, innovate, and excel, we foster an environment where new ideas are not just welcomed but celebrated. As a perennial Washington Post Top Workplace, we prioritize the well-being and success of our team members, ensuring they can bring their best selves to work.

Headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, Markon has garnered national recognition for our unwavering dedication to excellence in serving the intelligence community, as well as federal civilian and defense agencies. Our growing reach extends across 17 states, 116 countries, and 5 continents, where our team of dynamic professionals collaborates to deliver unparalleled program and project management services.

Markon values people and the tremendous impact each individual can make – which is why we’re consistently recognized as one of the best places to work in federal government consulting. Here, you can help solve the nation’s most important challenges, surrounded by colleagues who help you grow, advance, and succeed. We are deeply dedicated to what matters – bringing out the best in each other to advance our clients’ missions.

Join us and make a meaningful impact.

Markon is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, national origin, age, protected veteran status, or disability status. This job posting will remain open until the position is filled.

Benefits Offered: Medical, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Short-Term Disability, Long-Term Disability, 401(k) match, Flexible Spending Accounts, EAP, Training and Tuition Assistance, Paid Time Off, and Holidays