Scrum Master Lead/Release Train Engineer

Why USAA?

Let’s do something that really matters.

At USAA, we have an important mission: facilitating the financial security of millions of U.S. military members and their families. Not all of our employees served in our nation’s military, but we all share in the mission to give back to those who did. We’re working as one to build a great experience and make a real impact for our members.

We believe in our core values of honesty, integrity, loyalty and service. They’re what guides everything we do – from how we treat our members to how we treat each other. Come be a part of what makes us so special!

The Opportunity

As a dedicated Scrum Master Lead/Release Train Engineer, you will oversee an enterprise-level business process management (BPM) platform powered by Flowable. This is an exciting opportunity to support a critical platform that underpins our organization’s workflow automation, enhancing efficiency and driving impactful business outcomes.

In this role, you will be an extension of our leadership team, contributing to both strategic and tactical decisions that shape the platform’s development and operational success. You will serve as a leader, mentor, and guide to our scrum teams, bringing Agile best practices to the forefront of our operations while ensuring seamless, coordinated delivery. Beyond the traditional Scrum Master responsibilities, you will also take on Release Train Engineer duties, orchestrating cross-team planning and ensuring alignment with business objectives.

This position offers the chance to significantly influence the modernization and operational excellence of a platform essential to our enterprise. As a Lead Scrum Master, you will drive continuous improvement across teams, support the development of Agile and Lean thinking, and ensure that our BPM platform evolves to meet the dynamic needs of our business.

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 true 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, solving complex relationship conflicts and the ability to influence Product and Portfolio operational practices.

We offer a flexible work environment that requires an individual to be in the office 4 days per week. This position can be based in one of the following locations: San Antonio, TX, Plano, TX, Phoenix, AZ, or Charlotte, NC. Relocation assistance is not available for this position.

What you'll do:

• 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 Release Train Engineers s.
• 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.
• Resolve complex relationship conflicts among team members.
• 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).
• Ensures risks associated with business activities are effectively identified, measured, monitored, and controlled in accordance with risk and compliance policies and procedures.

What you have:

• Bachelor’s degree; OR 4 years of related experience (in addition to the minimum years of experience required) may be substituted in lieu of degree.
• 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, Pair Programming, Automated Testing, Agile Gaming, User 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).

What sets you apart:

• Release Train Engineer experience:  Demonstrated success in coordinating and managing Agile Release Trains, including planning, execution, and continuous improvement of program increments.
• Budget management Experience:  Experience managing and tracking budgets for agile teams and/or enterprise initiatives, ensuring alignment with project financial goals.
• Change Management proficiency:  Experience leading organization change management initiatives, facilitating smooth transitions, and achieving stakeholder alignment during process, technology, or cultural changes.
• Cross-Functional Leadership:  Ability to influence and collaborate across diverse teams, including product owners, engineers, and senior leadership, to drive strategic outcomes and ensure delivery of high-quality solutions.

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.

What we offer:

Compensation: USAA has an effective process 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 data of the position. The actual salary for this role may vary by location. The salary range for this position is: $120,550-$230,400.

Employees may be eligible for pay incentives based on overall corporate and individual performance and at the discretion of the USAA Board of Directors.

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.

For more details on our outstanding benefits, please visit our benefits page on USAAjobs.com.

Applications for this position are accepted on an ongoing basis, this posting will remain open until the position is filled. Thus, interested candidates are encouraged to apply the same day they view this posting.

 

USAA is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.