Hybrid Application Administrator/Scrum Master bei National Heritage Academies

SUMMARY:

Working within the SAFe Agile process, the SIS & Application Administrator / Scrum Master will build strong collaborative relationships with business partners and system users to provide outstanding support, be a strategic partner, and act as a servant leader and coach for your assigned product team. You will be a key member of the team responsible for understanding business logic and user needs that will help continuously improve our custom-built software, supporting a community of users, and a portfolio of software applications and services that are critical to the successful operations of our organization. You will act as liaison and point of contact between the product team and other stakeholders, as well as communicate with other management, Scrum Masters, developers, product managers and technical support specialists on product issues or roadblocks.

The selected individual will work out of our Service Center which is in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This person will be solution-focused, quality-driven, and will contribute on a team of talented and dedicated individuals.   

You’ll Make an Impact: Working as a professional at the Service Center grants you the opportunity to become part of a team focused on better educating more children and ensuring that each of the students in NHA classrooms are challenged to achieve.  This is an opportunity to use your professional talents for the betterment of more than 60,000 students across the United States.

An Experienced Team: More than 400 experienced and talented professionals work at the Service Center, which is led by business professionals and top caliber educators with the skills and resources needed to support our schools to ensure high rates of student achievement. Service Center departments include Accounting, Recruitment, HR, Marketing, Legal and Compliance, IT, Curriculum and Assessment and others.  Working with specialist professionals offers a great opportunity for collaboration and the development of unique solutions to common problems in education and business.

This is an in-person position at our NHA Service Center located at 3850 Broadmoor Ave., Grand Rapids, MI.

COMPANY INFORMATION:

National Heritage Academies (NHA) partners with communities to build and operate public charter schools. Founded in 1995, today NHA serves over 100 schools in nine states, with more than 65,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Our schools are designed to eliminate the achievement gap and provide school choice to families so their children are prepared for success in college, career, and life. A majority of our schools consistently outperform their local district on the state test. According to the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University, NHA is a leading performer among charter schools and management organizations, outperforming both conventional district schools and other charter school operators. In addition, according to our employee survey, over 90% of respondents agree that the work they do is meaningful to them. Join our team.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

You will be a key member of an Agile software product team with responsibility for helping all members of the team take collective ownership for the success of software systems by communicating effectively, planning & coordinating work as a team, advocating for customers, and supporting the team to meet delivery goals.

Partner with a Product Owner in developing strong partnerships with key business and education teams to understand their goals, business requirements, coordinate priorities, and help our partners achieve successful outcomes through a continuous improvement model. 

Serve as a trusted advisor for our business and education partners.

Be an advocate for our customers’ success by collecting regular feedback from users to identify new opportunities, help solve problems and continuously improve our software tools.

Develop a strong knowledge of the business processes for the software in your portfolio, combined with a developed understanding of our customers, to translate requirements and acceptance criteria into user stories and deliverables. 

Partner with Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Quality Assurance Analysts, and Software & Database Engineers to prioritize work and plan iterations that reflect the needs of our customers. 

Build an understanding of customer support trends and issues, and then incorporate this feedback into the work prioritization process to help ensure customer success. 

Assist with the change management process representing your program and applications. 

Provide feedback to the product team to ensure successful system deployments, configurations, and maintenance.

Work with software vendors and other product team members to upgrade and enhance systems.

Ensure that system integrations meet functional specifications and technical requirements and provide ongoing monitoring and support. 

Perform daily monitoring and troubleshooting of assigned modules, applications, and systems.

Provide outstanding second-tier customer service to users who are experiencing issues with myNHA.

Work to continuously improve how the SIS & Application Administrators process user tickets.

Organize and facilitate project/feature planning, daily stand-up meetings, reviews, retrospectives, iteration and release planning, demos and other Scrum-related meetings.

Track and communicate team velocity and iteration/release progress.

Maintain and educate the product team on team processes and procedures.

Ensure the product teams are practicing the core agile principles of collaboration, prioritization, team accountability, and visibility.

Monitor team workflow and remove obstacles as needed.

Help the product teams achieve higher levels of scrum maturity.

Remove impediments and resolve conflicts and issues that occur outside and within the product team.

Cultivate and support a culture of learning and teaching.

Assist with internal and external communication, improving transparency, and radiating information.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field or equivalent job experience.

3+ years of work experience with enterprise applications.

Scrum Master certification or completed training.

1-3 years of experience working as a Scrum Master or similar position.

Experience with custom-developed software systems and working with application development teams in an Agile environment.

Excellent written and verbal communication skills, as well as being a great listener.

Experience with Microsoft SQL Server and other enterprise applications helpful but not required.

Customer service skills, understanding of and focusing on clients’ needs, establishing credibility, and building positive, professional, relationships with partners are required.

Has an understanding of the software development life cycle.

Team skills, including the ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with all levels within the organization, internally and externally.

Requires strong time management skills, attention to detail, and must be resourceful.

Organized and detail-oriented with analytical, problem-solving, and troubleshooting skills.

Experience providing requirements for custom-developed software and working with application development teams is helpful but not required.

Experience with technology, working with students or teachers using technology, or rolling out new technology to schools is preferred.

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National Heritage Academies is an equal opportunity employer.