Agile Team Lead

Why do you need to choose between doing important work and having a fulfilling life? At Ardent, we have both. Ardent employees are committed to solving our customers’ most difficult problems—and we are committed to the well-being, personal goals, and professional development of our employee. We are “All In.” We put forth our strongest effort possible to get the mission accomplished and we do it together. We respect the skills and experience you bring to the Ardent team. And we provide a rewarding environment to help you succeed. 

We offer highly competitive benefits, professional development opportunities, and an exceptional culture that embraces flexibility, innovation, collaboration, and career growth. A collective service mindset underpins our work, and a shared camaraderie to serve clients, colleagues and our communities set us apart. Our full commitment to being "All In" for our employees and our clients is not just our approach, it is our standard. If this sounds like the perfect fit for you, choose Ardent and make a difference with us. 

Ardent is seeking an Agile Coach to join our team. 

This is a hybrid/remote position located in the Washington, D.C. Metro area.

Position Description:

Ardent is seeking a seasoned Agile Coach to guide and support a large team of over 50 federal IT technical contractors within a multi-million-dollar program with the Department of Homeland Security. The ideal candidate will be deeply committed to implementing agile methodologies to enhance team performance and ensure exceptional delivery of IT services to federal clients. This role requires expertise in various agile frameworks, substantial experience in technology-driven environments, and a strong understanding of federal contracting procedures.

Key Responsibilities:

• Agile Leadership: Implement and foster agile values and practices across the program, tailoring methods such as Scrum, Kanban, and Lean to suit project-specific needs and federal guidelines.
• Collaboration with Government Leadership: Interact with and coordinate project activities with the Government Leadership.
• Agile Facilitator: Act as a facilitator who ensures that the assigned Contractor development team provides software development services using the prescribed agile practices.
• Agile Blocker: Remove impediments blocking team progress.
• Agile Storyteller:  Work with the development team and the Product Owner to estimate user stories planned for upcoming Sprints.
• Agile Story Approver: Work with the Contractor development team to ensure acceptance criteria are achieved for each delivered user story.
• Team Facilitation: Conduct agile ceremonies including daily standups, sprint planning, retrospectives, and sprint reviews. Ensure these practices are effectively understood and followed by all team members.
• Training and Mentorship: Provide ongoing education and coaching to team members and stakeholders on agile principles and practices. Develop tailored coaching plans to address the specific needs of various teams within the program.
• Performance Optimization: Collaborate with program managers and IT leads to optimize workflows, remove impediments, and enhance team performance and productivity.
• Technology Integration: Utilize industry-standard tools and technologies relevant to federal IT contracting, such as JIRA, Confluence, a tool(s) such as Azure DevOps (or similar tool) that requires a strong understanding of automatic builds and deployments to facilitate agile processes and enhance collaboration.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Engage regularly with federal clients and internal stakeholders to ensure alignment of project goals with agile methodologies and client expectations. Act as a bridge between technical teams and non-technical stakeholders.
• Continuous Improvement: Lead efforts in continuous improvement by fostering a culture of innovation and iterative development. Encourage feedback from team members and stakeholders to refine agile practices.
• Reporting and Metrics: Develop and monitor agile metrics to track team progress and health, such as velocity, sprint burn-down, and lead time. Use insights from data to drive better decision-making and reporting to senior management.

Requirements:

• Customs and Border Protection Background Investigation (CBP BI).
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Technology, or a related field; Master’s degree preferred.
• Minimum of 10 years of experience in agile coaching, preferably within federal IT projects or similar high-compliance environments.
• Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), or similar agile certifications.
• Proven ability to lead and coach large teams in agile adoption across multiple departments or groups.
• Deep knowledge of agile methodologies and frameworks like Scrum, Kanban, and SAFe.
• Strong analytical skills and experience with agile project management tools such as JIRA, and Confluence.
• Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, capable of working effectively with diverse teams and stakeholders.
• Understanding of federal contracting processes and compliance requirements.

Due to the nature of the work we support, all candidates in consideration for this role must be willing to undergo the government issued background investigation process.

Ardent is an equal opportunity employer. We will not discriminate and will take affirmative action measures to ensure against discrimination in employment, recruitment, advertisements for employment, compensation, termination, upgrading, promotions, and other conditions of employment against any employee or job applicant on the bases of race, color, gender, national origin, age, religion, creed, disability, veteran's status, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.