Scrum Master

NCI; United States; Remote; USD 87,000 - 135,000; Full time

Job summary

Empower AI is seeking a Scrum Master to enable Agile delivery for a DoD customer-support program. The Scrum Master guides cross-functional teams delivering customer support, ITSM, automation, analytics, and application capabilities against a government-prioritized backlog. The role serves as a servant leader and Agile coach in a compliance-driven environment with documented testing and controlled releases.

THIS IS A REMOTE ROLE BASED WITH UP TO 10% OF TRAVEL INVOLVED.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree with 5+ years of related experience; 4 years may substitute.
• U.S. Citizenship with Active Secret Clearance to start.
• Within investigation scope / Continuous Evaluation.
• 5+ years as Scrum Master, Agile Lead, or Agile Coach.
• Experience with Jira, Azure DevOps, or ServiceNow Agile Development.
• Experience facilitating Scrum ceremonies and coaching teams.
• Ability to translate business needs into user stories and backlog items.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Facilitate Agile ceremonies for delivery teams (planning, daily scrums, reviews, retrospectives).
• Maintain a prioritized backlog with product owners and technical leads.
• Coach teams on Scrum values, agile practices, and Definition of Ready/Done.
• Identify and remove impediments; manage cross-team dependencies.
• Maintain delivery metrics and dashboards; report trends to leadership.
• Coordinate demonstrations, support UAT, and ensure stakeholder acceptance.
• Lead retrospectives and drive measurable improvements in predictability.
• Support planning across multiple IT and digital teams.

Skills

Agile delivery leadership

Scrum Master

Facilitation

Cross-functional collaboration

Jira/Azure DevOps knowledge

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Jira

Azure DevOps

ServiceNow Agile Development

Job description

Open Full-time 87,320–135,160 USD per year as stated in the posting Remote

Open — NCI has a posting for this job. Posted 29 Oct 2026.

This posting

SCRUM MASTER

About this job

Overview

Empower AI is AI for government. Empower AI gives federal agency leaders the tools to elevate the potential of their workforce with a direct path for meaningful transformation. Headquartered in Reston, Va., Empower AI leverages three decades of experience solving complex challenges in Health, Defense, and Civilian missions. Our proven Empower AI Platform® provides a practical, sustainable path for clients to achieve transformation that is true to who they are, what they do, how they work, with the resources they have. The result is a government workforce that is exponentially more creative and productive. For more information, visit www.Empower.ai.

Empower AI is proud to be recognized as a 2024 Military Friendly Employer by Viqtory, the publisher of G.I. Jobs. This designation reflects the company’s commitment to hiring and supporting active-duty and veteran employees.

Responsibilities

Description

Empower AI is seeking a Scrum Master to enable Agile delivery for DCSA Customer Support Services. The Scrum Master guides cross-functional teams delivering customer support, IT service management, automation, analytics, and application capabilities against a government-prioritized backlog. The role serves as a servant leader and Agile coach, facilitating transparent planning and delivery, removing impediments, protecting team focus, and helping Government stakeholders, product owners, and delivery teams maintain a shared understanding of priorities, dependencies, risks, and outcomes. Work is performed in a compliance-driven environment requiring documented testing, stakeholder demonstrations, formal acceptance, and controlled releases. This is a salaried, FLSA-exempt position in which you will independently analyze situations, determine the appropriate course of action, and exercise discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance to the program and its customers.

THIS IS A REMOTE ROLE BASED WITH UP TO 10% OF TRAVEL INVOLVED.

JOB DUTIES

• Facilitate Agile ceremonies for assigned delivery teams, including sprint planning, daily scrums, backlog refinement, sprint reviews, retrospectives, and release-planning activities.
• Partner with Government product owners and technical leads maintaining a prioritized, well-defined backlog of epics, features, user stories, defects, and technical-debt items aligned to mission outcomes.
• Coach teams and stakeholders on Scrum values, Agile practices, estimation, acceptance criteria, Definition of Ready, Definition of Done, and continuous improvement methods.
• Identify, track, and remove impediments; coordinate resolution of cross-team dependencies, environmental constraints, approvals, and resource conflicts that affect sprint commitments.
• Maintain transparent delivery metrics and dashboards, including sprint velocity, burndown or burnup, backlog health, work in progress, release readiness, and impediment status; communicate meaningful trends and risks to program leadership and Government stakeholders.
• Coordinate demonstrations of completed work, support User Acceptance Testing, and ensure stories are closed only after documented stakeholder acceptance and required evidence are complete.
• Facilitate retrospectives and maintain actionable improvement plans; track commitments through completion and promote measurable improvements in team predictability, quality, and customer outcomes.
• Support planning and coordination across application development, ITSM platform development, automation, analytics, UX, cybersecurity, infrastructure, and service management teams.
• Ensure Agile delivery aligns with Government change, configuration, release, security, and quality-management processes, including required test evidence, release notes, rollback plans, and approvals.
• Assist with dependency mapping, risk management, capacity planning, and roadmap development for iterative delivery and larger releases.
• Promote disciplined use of approved work-management and collaboration tools; maintain accurate sprint artifacts, decision records, action items, and status reporting.
• Support the transition of work from development through deployment and operational support, including knowledge transfer and post-implementation review activities.

Qualifications

REQUIREMENTS

• Bachelor's degree and a minimum of 5 years of related experience; an additional 4 years of related experience may be substituted for the degree.
• Must be a U.S. Citizen.
• Must have an Active Secret Clearance (favorably adjudicated T3/T3R) to start.
• Must be within investigation scope and/or currently enrolled in Continuous Evaluation / Continuous Vetting.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently, analyze problems, determine the appropriate course of action, and exercise discretion and independent judgment with limited day-to-day supervision.
• Minimum of 3 years of experience serving as a Scrum Master, Agile Delivery Lead, or Agile Coach for software development or IT-service delivery teams.
• Demonstrated experience facilitating Scrum ceremonies, managing impediments and dependencies, and coaching cross-functional teams and stakeholders in Agile practices.
• Experience translating business needs into well-formed user stories, acceptance criteria, and prioritized backlog items with product owners and technical teams.
• Experience with Agile work-management tools such as Jira, Azure DevOps, ServiceNow Agile Development, or comparable platforms.
• Experience with Agile metrics, delivery reporting, risk management, sprint forecasting, and stakeholder communications.
• Experience supporting User Acceptance Testing, formal stakeholder demonstrations, and controlled release or change management processes.
• Strong facilitation, conflict-resolution, organizational, written, and verbal communication skills.

DESIRED SKILLS

• Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Professional Scrum Master (PSM), SAFe Scrum Master, or comparable Agile certification.
• ITIL 4 Foundation or higher certification.
• Experience supporting Department of War, DoD, Intelligence Community, or other compliance-driven Federal IT environments.
• Experience with ServiceNow Agile Development, Jira, Azure DevOps, or comparable work-management tools.
• Experience with customer-experience metrics, dashboards, automation, Power BI, or service-portal modernization.
• Experience scaling Agile delivery across multiple teams and coordinating program increments, releases, or enterprise roadmaps.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Sitting for long periods
• Standing for long periods
• Ambulate throughout an office
• Stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl as required
• Repeatedly lift and carry weight up to 35 pounds
• Travel by land or air transportation 10%

About Empower AI

All hiring and promotion decisions at Empower AI are based on merit to bring the best talent available to contribute to our firm’s overall success. It is the policy of Empower AI not to discriminate against any applicant for employment, or employee because of age, color, sex, disability, national origin, race, religion, or veteran status. Empower AI is a VEVRAA Federal Contractor.

The base salary range represents the anticipated low and high end of the salary range for this position. Actual salaries may vary based on various factors including but not limited to work location, skills, experience, gov con contractual requirements, and performance. The range listed is just one component of Empower AI's total compensation package for employees.