ZipStaff Inc.
Senior Agile Delivery Coach
Washington, District of Columbia•Contract
$55 - $56 hourly
$55 - $56 hourly
About the Job
Job Title: Senior Agile Delivery Coach
Location: Washington, DC (On-site)
Employment Type: Contract (W2 through ZipStaff — No C2C or 1099)
Location: Washington, DC (On-site)
Employment Type: Contract (W2 through ZipStaff — No C2C or 1099)
About the Opportunity:
ZipStaff is seeking a Senior Agile Delivery Coach to serve as the hands-on operational and execution coach across the Fleet delivery ecosystem for a leading transportation organization.
ZipStaff is seeking a Senior Agile Delivery Coach to serve as the hands-on operational and execution coach across the Fleet delivery ecosystem for a leading transportation organization.
Partnering directly with active release trains, product teams, engineering squads, and operational stakeholders, this role instills sustainable agility on the ground. Operating as the delivery counterpart to strategic leadership, the coach translates enterprise operating model principles into disciplined execution cadences, clear backlog structures, proactive dependency tracking, and predictable value delivery. The ideal candidate blends pragmatic agile coaching with strong operational acumen to eliminate delivery friction, improve team flow, and uplift agile maturity across complex, highly regulated enterprise systems. This is an on-site role in Washington, DC.
What You’ll Do:
- Partner directly with Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and cross-functional technical teams to mature agile practices, refine team cadences, and improve delivery predictability and flow.
- Facilitate key program- and team-level ceremonies—including Program Increment (PI) planning sessions, System Demos, Inspect & Adapt workshops, and cross-team synchronization forums.
- Track and analyze delivery flow across teams, proactively identifying delivery bottlenecks, process friction, and technical impediments, and driving swift resolution with team leads.
- Coach Product Owners and teams on disciplined backlog management, user story decomposition, acceptance criteria definition, and realistic capacity-based forecasting in hybrid environments.
- Map and monitor operational interdependencies across engineering, operations technology, infrastructure, and third-party delivery partners to protect committed delivery milestones.
- Drive consistent best practices across Jira Software, Confluence, and Jira Align, establishing meaningful delivery metrics (e.g., velocity, cycle time, throughput, say/do ratios) to guide continuous improvement.
- Cultivate a collaborative, high-trust delivery culture through targeted retrospectives, agile health assessments, and hands-on mentoring of Scrum Masters and delivery leads.
Required Qualifications:
- 6+ years of hands-on agile coaching and delivery leadership experience guiding multi-team programs, Agile Release Trains (ARTs), and technical squads in complex enterprise environments.
- 4+ years of prior experience working directly in IT, software development, operations technology, or enterprise systems engineering, establishing technical credibility with engineering and architecture peers.
- Strong, practical command of Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, and hybrid Waterfall-to-Agile frameworks, with the ability to balance framework theory with real-world operational constraints.
- Advanced, hands-on proficiency with Jira Software and Confluence for sprint- and release-level tracking, along with experience using Jira Align for program-level rollups and dependency tracking.
- Active SAFe certification (such as SAFe Practice Consultant [SPC], SAFe Release Train Engineer [RTE], or SAFe Scrum Master [SSM]) or equivalent recognized credentials (e.g., ICAgile, PSM/CSM).
- Exceptional interpersonal, conflict-resolution, and meeting-facilitation capabilities, with a proven track record of aligning technical contributors with business and operational managers.
- Ability to thrive in an active, camera-on virtual team environment, with willingness to travel periodically along the Northeast corridor for quarterly PI Planning events and key working sessions.
- Ability to work on-site in Washington, DC.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience coaching in highly regulated or complex operational environments such as transportation or fleet systems.
- Strong track record of improving delivery flow, reducing impediments, and uplifting agile maturity across multi-team programs.
- Hands-on experience establishing delivery metrics and continuous improvement practices using Jira Align and related tools.
Benefits:
- Health Insurance.
- Dental Insurance.
- Vision Insurance.
- 401(k) + 401(k) matching.
- Paid time off.
- Referral Program.
About ZipStaff:
ZipStaff partners with leading organizations to connect skilled technology professionals with high-impact contract opportunities. We focus on quality matches, clear communication, and long-term success for candidates and clients.
ZipStaff partners with leading organizations to connect skilled technology professionals with high-impact contract opportunities. We focus on quality matches, clear communication, and long-term success for candidates and clients.
To apply, submit your resume highlighting your 6+ years of hands-on agile coaching experience with multi-team programs or ARTs, 4+ years of IT/software development background, SAFe or equivalent certification, and proficiency with Jira, Confluence, and Jira Align. Pure research or junior experience will not be considered.