Job Title: Agile Technical Project Manager / Scrum Master
Focus Area 1: MPAS-UFS Integration
Location: MD, DC, VA Preferred - Remote
Clearance Required: Public Trust Eligible
Salary: $115k-$130K Based on Years of Experience
Application Deadline: September 30, 2026

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Overview

IBSS is seeking highly qualified candidates to potentially provide Agile program and project management services for NOAA's Modeling Moonshot Initiative. The work supports multi-organization scientific R&D programs with substantial software components and is distinct from IT program management.

The multi-year NOAA Modeling Moonshot Initiative advances U.S. leadership in Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) through GPU-accelerated modeling, continuous data assimilation (DA), AI-augmented ensemble prediction, and NOAA's transition to the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS) dynamical core.

Its Research-to-Operations (R2O) focus prioritizes moving advanced capabilities into NOAA's operational forecast suite through coordination among NOAA offices, federal laboratories, and scientific partners.

The Moonshot encompasses four interconnected technical focus areas:

• MPAS integration into the Unified Forecast System (UFS) for the next-generation Global Forecast System (GFS).
• Continuous DA using a global km-scale Joint Effort for Data Assimilation Integration (JEDI)-MPAS system.
• GPU acceleration and UFS refactoring for advanced hardware, cloud, and high-performance computing.
• AI for NWP (AI4NWP), including emulation, hybrid physics/AI models, and training datasets.

The services will operate across all four areas, providing WPO with program visibility, dependency and risk management, R2O tracking, deliverable coordination, and stakeholder engagement. Although not performing scientific or software development, personnel must understand NWP, scientific computing, and Agile development to engage technical staff and coordinate effectively.

Position summary

Provides science-aware Agile facilitation for one or more MPAS-UFS integration teams. Helps teams plan, execute, review, and report integration work while connecting local impediments, interfaces, verification needs, and operational-transition evidence to the wider portfolio.

Roles and responsibilities

• Serve as Scrum Master/facilitator for assigned MPAS-UFS teams; prepare and facilitate planning, refinement, reviews, retrospectives, and coordination events.
• Maintain backlog hygiene and distinguish MPAS standalone scientific capability from UFS-integrated operational capability.
• Track dynamical-core integration, physics/coupling dependencies, workflows, post-processing, restart/reproducibility behavior, regression evidence, performance, documentation, and operational tests.
• Help teams define testable increments, hypotheses, configurations, datasets, acceptance evidence, and fit-for-purpose definitions of ready/done.
• Maintain impediments, actions, risks, decisions, and dependencies; escalate aging or cross-team items with options and mission/schedule impact.
• Produce iteration summaries and progress inputs showing evidence completed, readiness/gate movement, forecast variance, flow indicators, and decisions needed.
• Coordinate handoffs and interface decisions with Continuous DA, GPU/UFS modernization, AI4NWP, operational organizations, and external partners.
• Coach teams in version control, peer review, automated testing, reproducible environments, configuration management, and continuous integration where appropriate.
• Provide workload-surge coverage to other focus areas and contribute to common facilitation practices and continuous improvement.

Required qualifications

• MA/MS degree (or accepted equivalent).
• 8-10 years of experience in the technical area being managed and 8+ years of IT management experience.
• Demonstrated success managing engineering or scientific-software teams and organizing complex delivery-order project activities.
• Strong Agile facilitation, backlog management, risk/impediment escalation, reporting, coaching, and stakeholder-communication skills.
• Sufficient technical literacy to facilitate model integration, scientific verification, software workflow, and operational-readiness discussions.

Preferred qualifications

• Direct experience with MPAS, UFS, RRFS/REFS, NWP model integration, physics/coupling, workflows, verification, or operational implementation.
• CSM, PSM, SAFe Scrum Master, PMI-ACP, or comparable certification.
• Experience supporting NOAA/OAR, NWS, EPIC, NCAR, DTC, or community earth-system modeling programs.
• Experience with CI/CD, DevSecOps, regression testing, HPC scheduling constraints, configuration baselines, and reproducibility.
• Advanced Smartsheet, Google Workspace, issue-tracking, dashboard, and technical-reporting skills.

IBSS offers a competitive benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, and prescription drug coverage with a company-paid deductible, paid time off, federal holidays, a matching 401K plan, tuition/professional development reimbursement, and Flex-Spending (FSA)/Dependent Care Account (DCA) options.