IT Scrum Master Senior - Austin Water

Job Description:

IT Scrum Master Senior - Austin Water

Description

JOIN THE CITY OF AUSTIN TEAM

At the City of Austin, we are more than just an employer-we are a vibrant community dedicated to shaping one of the nation's most dynamic and innovative cities. Our guiding principles-Empathy, Ethics, Excellence, Engagement, and Equity - anchor our approach in delivering services that significantly impact the lives of Austin residents. Joining the City of Austin means embarking on a purposeful career, contributing to the community, and being part of a forward-thinking organization that values every employee.

What Makes the City of Austin Special?

• Make a Difference: Join a team driving meaningful change in one of the fastest-growing cities in the nation.
  
• Diverse and Inclusive Workplace: Work in an environment where every voice is valued, and Innovation thrives.
  
• Competitive Benefits: Enjoy a comprehensive compensation package that includes generous leave, work-life balance programs, and extensive benefits.
  
• Retirement Security: Plan for the future with the City of Austin Employees' Retirement System.
  
• Sustainable Transportation Options: Commute easily with access to public transit and bike-friendly infrastructure.
  
• Focus on Wellness: Stay healthy through wellness programs, on-site fitness centers, and mental health support.
  
• Career Growth: Advance your skills and expertise with professional development and leadership opportunities.
  
• Modern Workspaces: Work in innovative and sustainable environments designed to foster collaboration and inspiration.
  

By joining us, you become part of a community that values its people and is committed to making Austin the most thriving and resilient city in the country.

ABOUT AUSTIN WATER:

For over 100 years, Austin Water has been committed to providing safe, reliable, high-quality, and affordable water services to our customers. Today, we serve over 1,000,000 people in the Austin metropolitan area, across more than 548 square miles. As one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, we’re not just keeping up-we’re leading the way with sustainable infrastructure, advanced treatment technology, and environmental innovation.

Austin Water consistently ranks among the best in the country when it comes to water quality. We also treat, return, and recycle wastewater in ways that protect environmental resources. Austin Water exceeds federal and state requirements for clean water and environmental compliance at our water and wastewater treatment plants.

Job Description:

Purpose:

IT Scrum Master Seniors facilitate and champion the agile software development process by coaching and mentoring development teams, identifying and eliminating impediments, and promoting the use of standards and best practices. Ensuring smooth operation of agile processes and activities is critical and this position is responsible for leading the teams through development, leading daily stand-ups, backlog prioritization meetings, and retrospectives all in support of achieving organizational strategies.

Duties, Functions and Responsibilities:

Essential duties and functions, pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act, may include the following. Other related duties may be assigned.

• Works with multiple stakeholder groups and technical teams to define/refine scope, ensuring initiative work is aligned with stakeholder outcomes.
  
• Facilitates cross-initiative or cross-team planning discussions and identifies dependencies.
  
• Works across agile teams to manage and/or coordinate dependencies.
  
• Partners with sponsor(s) and key stakeholders to communicate project goals, objectives, and outcomes.
  
• Maintains feedback loop with key stakeholders to ensure identified program adjustments deliver increased business value.
  
• Leverages business and technical knowledge related to program initiatives to drive increased business value and emerge as a trusted partner.
  
• Drives execution of the backlog, provides feedback for sprint planning, and identifies any potential prerequisites.
  
• Establishes a framework or guidelines for the use of contractors and professional service providers and determines their use across initiatives.
  
• Addresses resource gaps as necessary, proactively escalating and resolving concerns.
  
• Works with Service and Product Managers to develop release plans, roadmaps and backlogs.
  
• Proposes level of initiative documentation and definition of “done” and facilitates agreement across stakeholders.
  
• Organizes and facilitates scrum ceremonies.
  
• Works with Service/Product Managers to update backlog estimates based on teams’ performance & stakeholder priority.
  
• Ensures the inclusion and effectiveness of Organizational Change Management activities and may coordinate change efforts across initiatives.
  

Responsibilities - Supervisor and/or Leadership Exercised:

May provide leadership, work assignments, evaluation, training, and guidance to others.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

Must possess required knowledge, skills, abilities, and experience and be able to explain and demonstrate, with or without reasonable accommodations, that the essential functions of the job can be performed.

• Knowledge of product life cycle, including software development methodologies, design, and implementation.
  
• Knowledge of Scrum, Lean, XP, Kanban, and other Agile development techniques.
  
• Knowledge of test automation concepts and methods.
  
• Knowledge of agile principals across project management, scrum, product management, etc.
  
• Knowledge of the organization’s mission, values, operations, and goals.
  
• Knowledge of data and integration architectures to manage, transform, and exploit data across the enterprise.
  
• Knowledge of the principles and methods to identify, analyze, specify, design, and manage functional and infrastructure requirements.
  
• Skill in leading facilitation, test driven development, quality assurance, release and deployment management, reporting, and agile estimation and planning.
  
• Skill in scrum and leading process improvement.
  
• Ability to be self-motivated and work independently and perform multiple tasks under minimal supervision.
  
• Ability to train, coach and mentor the team.
  
• Ability to resolve conflicts by facilitating discussion and providing alternatives or different approaches.
  
• Ability to continuously improve by learning new tools and techniques and finding new ways to accomplish work activities and objectives.
  
• Ability to connect and influence others to achieve team goals.
  
• Ability to innovate by experimenting, accepting constructive feedback, adapting, and evolving.
  
• Ability to achieve broadly communicated objectives with a minimal amount of supervision.
  
• Ability to adhere to required compliance to all change management policies and procedures.
  
• Ability to adhere to required compliance to all information security policies and procedures.
  

Minimum Qualifications:

• Graduation with a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university with major course work in a field related to the job, plus six (6) years of experience in a related field
  
• Experience may substitute for education for up to 4 years
  
• Master's Degree in a related field may substitute for two (2) years of experience
  

Licenses and Certifications Required:

Scrum Master certification required.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Demonstrated experience in implementation of complex projects using Agile methodology, daily scrum meetings, sprint planning, sprint review, and other scrum ceremonies.
  
• Experience developing, testing, and providing business user support for Power Apps.
  
• Demonstrated understanding of phases in software development lifecycle.
  
• Demonstrated experience developing scope, performing business analysis and creating user stories, backlog management, identification, and documentation of requirements for software development projects
  
• Experience facilitating and functioning as a liaison between business and technical units
  
• Experience performing analysis to determine viable solutions for business process improvement and/or customer service improvement
  
• Experience creating software test plans, performing quality assurance (QA/QC) tasks and user acceptance testing (UAT)
  
• Experience creating documentation and training users on new/enhanced systems
  
• Ability to travel to more than one work location as needed
  

Notes to Candidate:

Position Overview:

This position will assist the Power Apps team to develop applications using Microsoft Power Apps technology by acting as the liaison between technical and business users and facilitating scrum ceremonies to keep track of progress of Power Apps development. Responsibilities will include taking charge of gathering requirements, determining viable solutions, and assisting the Power Apps team to define user stories in Microsoft Azure DevOps (ADO), as well as leading sprint planning, sprint review, retrospective, performing testing, and managing backlogs and defects in ADO.

Pay Range:

$94,057.60 - $122.262.40 Annual

Position(s) will be filled at the following location:

Waller Creek Center (625 E. 10th St., Austin, 78701)

Days and Hours:

Monday - Friday 8:00am - 5:00pm

Benefits:

Working with Austin Water provides a number of health and welfare benefits, such as medical, paid leave time, a great retirement plan, training opportunities and more - click HERE for more information.

When completing the City of Austin employment application:

• A detailed, complete employment application is required. It helps us to better evaluate your qualifications and will be used to determine salary if you are selected for this position.
  
• Provide each job title and accurate employment dates for all jobs included on the application.
  
• Your work history should include the duties you performed, any supervisory or lead responsibilities, and any equipment and computer software used.
  
• The City of Austin employment application is an official document; incomplete applications will not be considered.
  
• A résumé is required but will not substitute for a complete employment application. Incomplete applications will not be considered.
  
• A cover letter is also required. In the cover letter candidates should describe, in concise detail, their interest in this position and highlight any prior experience that is relevant to this position.
  

If you are selected as a top candidate:

• Verification of your education (which may include high school graduation or GED, undergraduate and/or graduate degrees) will be required. You must provide proof of education from an accredited organization/institution.
  
• If you are in the military or a veteran, you will need to provide a copy of your DD-214 prior to confirming a start date.
  
• A criminal background investigation is required
  

Technical Licensure:

Scrum Master certification is required in order to be considered for an interview.

Travel:

If you are selected for this position and meet the Driver Safety Standards in the City of Austin Driver Safety Program, you may drive when necessary to multiple locations as part of your regular job duties. Otherwise, you are responsible for getting to and from these locations.

Critical Employee:

• This position has been designated as critical for the City of Austin. Critical positions are necessary and vital and support activities that impact City or department operations. Work can be done while at a designated work site or while working at an alternate work location. Critical employees may be reassigned to another area to provide essential services to support any extraordinary situations or emergency conditions.
  

Secondary Employment:

• All Austin Water employees are prohibited from accepting or engaging in any secondary employment that might conflict or interfere with an employee’s duty and responsibility to the Department.
  
• Austin Water will review all secondary employment.
  
• Employees are required to submit a Secondary Employment Application for review and approval upon being hired with Austin Water, as well as current Austin Water employees considering secondary employment.
  

90-day Provision:

This posting may be used to fill additional vacancies that occur within the department.

All Austin Water worksite locations are tobacco-free. Use of tobacco products and/or e-cigarettes is not permitted on any AW worksite - including construction sites, parking lots, garages or in any personal vehicle located on the premises.

Please note this posting may close any time after 7 days.

Important Note to Applicants:
Please be aware that the Job Posting Close Date reflects the final day to apply, but the posting will close at 11:59 PM the day before the date listed. All application steps, including attachments and submission, must be fully completed before that time.

We also recommend that you save or print a copy of the job posting for your records. Once a posting has closed, it will no longer be viewable in the system.

EEO Statement for City of Austin:

The City of Austin will not discriminate against any applicant or employee based on race, creed, color, national origin, sex, gender identity, age, religion, veteran status, disability, or sexual orientation. In addition, the City will not discriminate in employment decisions on the basis of an individual's AIDS, AIDS Related Complex, or HIV status; nor will the City discriminate against individuals who are perceived to be at risk of HIV infection, or who associate with individuals who are believed to be at risk.

City of Austin is committed to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. If you require reasonable accommodation during the application process or have a question regarding an essential job function, please call (512) 974-3210 or Texas Relay by dialing 7-1-1.

Closing Date/Time: 2025-09-26