Employer: USAA
Purpose of Job
We are currently seeking a talented Lead Scrum Master – Release Training Engineer in our San Antonio, TX or 100% remote opportunity.
The candidate selected for this position is going to work with the Product Management and Delivery Teams in USAA’s Contact Center Technology organization. They will oversee execution for the new Enterprise Member Service Representative (MSR) desktop platform and/or Enterprise Employee Experience Products.
USAA values a culture that is highly collaborative, and we have found that a hybrid work type helps employees gain the best of both worlds collaborating in-person in the office and working from home when needed to achieve focused results. The actual days’ onsite are resolved between each employee and the employee’s manager. . This position may also be in a 100% remote work environment.
Responsible for ensuring teams and programs live Agile values and principles and follows processes and practices that the teams agree they will use within Agile (i.e. Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, etc.) frameworks to self-organize while delivering value to customers. The Scrum Master is a servant leader and champions the Agile mindset through effective guidance, coaching, education and through removal of impediments to team progress. This role is responsible for building high-performing teams focused on constantly improving team dynamics and performance. Scrum Masters at the Lead level demonstrate an expert understanding of Agile delivery, product knowledge and the ability to influence Program and Portfolio operational practices.
Job Requirements
About USAA
USAA knows what it means to serve. We facilitate the financial security of millions of U.S. military members and their families. This singular mission requires a dedication to innovative thinking at every level.
About USAA IT
Our most meaningful qualification isn’t technical, it’s human. Here, we don’t just sit in front of a screen. We stand behind our 13 million members who rely on us every day.
We’re proud of USAA’s strong history — and we’re even more passionate about our future. That’s why we have a team of supportive and collaborative hardworking technology professionals focused on doing more for our members. And why we’re continuing to add innovative problem solvers to our team. With us, you’ll find exciting challenges that inspire you to continue learning and growing.
Tasks:
- Identifies and manages existing and emerging risks that stem from business activities and the job role.
- Ensures risks associated with business activities are effectively identified, measured, monitored, and controlled.
- Follows written risk and compliance policies and procedures for business activities.
- Provides hands-on facilitation of major program ceremonies across multiple development teams; consults and coaches teams (including the Product Manager and Product Owner) to support a smooth transformation to Agile practices
- Drives continuous improvement and facilitates communication across teams to proactively manage dependencies and remove impediments and establish standards for Agile processes and tools.
- Manages impediments to progress whether internal or organizational in nature.
- Leads efforts to resolve systemic impediments that continually block teams within their organization.
- Supports and educates product owners, product managers and other program level personnel, especially with respect to refining and managing the product backlog and decision making.
- Ensures effective communication within or across Programs; schedules and facilitates cross-functional meetings, and ensures appropriate progress tools, information radiators, and reports effectively provide transparency on Program’s/Programs’ progress/productivity.
- Acts as Agile SME to teams, departmental teams, senior management, product owners, and management.
- Provides leadership for Scrum Master community of practice and mentors other Scrum Masters and RTEs.
- Performs risk, issue, and dependency management e for the program(s) and/or portfolio.
- Drives release management practices across team to ensure alignment to enterprise standards and leverages existing change management routines as needed.
- Provides agile leadership and training, continuously assesses the team’s agile maturity and constantly raises the bar to improve the team’s velocity.
- Serves an active member of the Agile Community of Practice that covers different functional areas and Agile Release Trains (ARTs), and successfully encourages participation, facilitation and subject matter delivery
- Actively liaises with assigned professional coaches to actively conduct training sessions of value across the ARTs in the department.
- For technology related efforts: Understands release-when ready, test-driven development, continuous integration, product demonstration and other technical engineering practices and guides Train on leveraging them.
- Adheres to Enterprise Project management Office (EPMO) processes, procedures, controls, standards, tools and templates (as required).
Minimum Education:
- Bachelor’s degree or 4 additional years of related experience beyond the minimum required may be substituted in lieu of a degree.
Minimum Experience:
- 8 years of experience in process improvement, project management and/or program management, software engineer, or business/requirements analysis with at least 6 years as Scrum Master or Release Train Engineer or has development experience working in a similar role in a lean or Scrum environment.
- Expert knowledge and experience with multiple agile delivery frameworks (e.g., Kanban, Scrum, XP, Lean, SAFe, DevOps).
- Advanced knowledge of Agile Lifecycle Management (ALM) Tools (Jira, Rally, VersionOne, etc.).
- Awareness and experience with widely successful Agile techniques: ATDD, TDD, BDD, Continuous Integration, Continuous Testing, PairProgramming, Automated Testing, Agile Gaming, Story mapping, etc.
- Knowledge of compliance and risk management frameworks, including experience to identify and mitigate risks.
- One or more Agile certification(s) such as: Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Agile Certified Professional (ACP), SAFe Program Consultant (SPC), SAFe Agilist (SA), SAFe Scrum Master or SAFe Advanced Scrum Master (SASM).
- Expert knowledge of Microsoft Office products.
When you apply for this position, you will be required to answer some initial questions. This will take approximately 5 minutes. Once you begin the questions you will not be able to finish them at a later time and you will not be able to change your responses.
Preferred Experience:
- 2 or more years of formal leadership experience with leading people
- 2 or more years with managing risks across multiple teams and programs
- 2 or more years of measuring program/ART effectiveness
- 2 or more years of working in financial institutions with the expectations of executing strong controls environment
The above description reflects the details considered necessary to describe the principal functions of the job and should not be construed as a detailed description of all the work requirements that may be performed in the job.
Compensation:
USAA has an effective method for assessing market data and establishing ranges to ensure we remain competitive. You are paid within the salary range based on your experience and market position. The salary range for this skill is: $117,600 to $211,700.
Employees may be eligible for pay incentives based on overall corporate and individual performance or at the discretion of the USAA Board of Directors.
Geographical Differential: Geographic pay differential is additional pay provided to eligible employees working in locations where market pay levels are above the national average.
Shift premium: will be addressed on an individual basis for applicable roles that are consistently scheduled for non-core hours.
Benefits:
At USAA our employees enjoy best-in-class benefits to support their physical, financial, and emotional wellness. These benefits include comprehensive medical, dental and vision plans, 401(k), pension, life insurance, parental benefits, adoption assistance, paid time off program with paid holidays plus 16 paid volunteer hours, and various wellness programs. Additionally, our career path planning and continuing education assists employees with their professional goals.
