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Form of workJob Description
Position Summary:
The Agile Release Train Engineer/PM position is part of the Acquisition and Property Management (APM) Forms and Publications Orders (FPORDERS) Application Modernization team within the Acquisition and Property Management (APM) portfolio in support of the US Department of Veterans Affairs, Consolidated Corporate Support Services (CCSS) program.
Forms and Publications Orders (FPORDERS) is a legacy mainframe application hosted at a VA data center. This application is used enterprise-wide by as many as 350-700 end-users (End-user Actors) across 175+ VA locations to requisition items for their locations, including: paper forms, publications, Veteran burial flags, and gun locks (in support of the VA's Suicide Prevention program). The Office of Procurement, Acquisition and Logistics (OPAL) Service Distribution Center (SDC) uses the application to process and track the requisition requests and uses various system reports to conduct inventory management functions to ensure adequate stock is on hand to fulfill all requests.
The primary role will be to support the migration and integration of complex software systems to the VA’s Enterprise Cloud enclaves (AWS and Azure) including on-premises private cloud infrastructures. In addition to, facilitate program level processes and execution, drive continuous development, manage risks and escalate impediments while also acting as a full-time chief scrum master for a Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe).
The Agile Release Train Engineer/PM will:
- Partner with engineering and product managers to ensure business requirements are supported by corresponding technical requirements and infrastructure.
- Implement big visible charts to graphically present key metrics and measures that keep teams focused on what needs their attention and to promote transparency.
- Routinely stress test your processes and systems to ensure resiliency and recovery, and to expose weakness in both infrastructure and applications.
- Delivery in an Agile, Lean, SAFe-based environment utilizing DevSecOps, ARTs, CI/CD, and related processes, methodologies, and concepts.
- Manage and optimize the flow of value through the Agile Release Train (ART) using various tools, such as the Program and Solution Kanbans and other information radiators.
- Establish and communicate the calendars for Product Line (PL) Iterations and Program Increments (PIs).
- Facilitate PI Planning readiness by fostering a Continuous Exploration process which drives the synthesis of a Vision, a Roadmap, and Backlogs, and through Pre- and Post-PI Planning events.
- Facilitate the PI planning event.
- Summarize Team PI Objectives into Program PI Objectives and publish them for visibility and transparency.
- Assist tracking the execution of features and capabilities.
- Assist with economic decision-making by facilitating feature and capability estimation by teams and the roll-up to Epics; where necessary Coach leaders, teams, and Scrum Masters in Lean-Agile practices and mindsets.
- Help manage risks and dependencies.
- Escalate and track impediments.
- Provide input on staffing and resourcing to address critical bottlenecks.
- Encourage collaboration between teams and System and Solution Architects/Engineers.
- Work with Product Line Management, Product Owners/PMs, and other stakeholders to help ensure strategy and execution alignment.
- Improve the flow of value through value streams by improving and assessing the practices associated with DevSecOps and Release-on-Demand in the Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) Pipeline.
- Help drive the Lean User Experience (UX) innovation cycle; Work with and support the UX Lead.
- Facilitate System Demos and Solution Demos.
- Drive relentless improvement via Inspect and Adapt working sessions; assess the agility level of the ART and Solution Train and help them improve.
- Maintain a solid understanding of the security infrastructure required for deploying secure, scalable and reliable applications, while routinely conducting preventive and adaptive maintenance to increase security, performance, and reliability.
- Understanding of CI/CD tools such as Jenkins, GIT, AWS/Azure DevOps tools and Pipelines, CloudFormation, Terraform, Artifactory, etc.
- Experience with other Application Lifecycle Management tools such as JIRA.
- Skillsets must include mastery/certification in the following key areas:
- Agile, Kanban, Scrum, and SAFe
- Project and Program Management
- Demonstrated RTE experience in organizing, planning, and executing large-scale projects, including legacy, COTS/GOTS, and modernization.
- Experience leading and coordinating multiple teams in a fast-paced, complex technology environment.
- Ability to easily build new relationships and proactively establish a variety of contacts across the client’s and our own internal organization.
- Ability to work in/with multi-disciplinary teams.
- Broad range of program/project management and leadership skills required.
- Proven ability to balance multiple, concurrent/parallel activities.
- Strong knowledge and experience in software development in an Agile delivery environment.
- Experience of software development processes and code management tools and processes.
- Knowledge of DevOps Engineering Processes and Operations & Management (O&M).
- Ability to conduct in-depth triage, troubleshooting, and forensics across all facets of the cloud stack while executing process corrective action and continual service improvement.
- RTE experience within value streams at the product/product line/program/portfolio levels.
- Government contract delivery experience in an Agile delivery environment
Required Education, Experience, and Clearance:
- Bachelor’s Degree in computer science, electronics engineering or other engineering or technical discipline is required.
- 8 years of additional relevant experience may be substituted for education.
- Ability to obtain a VA Position of Public Trust – Medium Background Investigation (MBI).
