Job Description

Who We Are

Kessel Run is an Air Force software development organization that continuously delivers war-winning software that our Airmen love.  We are striving to be a “software company” within the Air Force that can sense and respond to conflict in any domain, anytime, anywhere.

We value continuous learning, continuous user feedback, continuous integration, continuous delivery, continuous security & continuous testing. We combine lean principles, user-centered design and eXtreme Programming (XP) using a flat management, balanced team approach to ensure we are always building the most valuable thing possible, the simplest way possible, and as fast as possible.

We are offering the opportunity to work in a modern work environment, to use cutting-edge technologies and modern processes, all while making a meaningful impact every single day. Come help us solve our nation’s toughest, most complex challenges while enjoying yourself at work every day.

The Position

The Kessel Run Portfolio Director  is the primary blocker-remover for KR product teams. The director is responsible for advocating for teams and resolving needs to shorten delivery cycles. They also ensure team health and deliver user value as fast as possible. As a director, you will be responsible for a portfolio of 3–5 product teams. In addition to helping teams clear their path to production by engaging other groups within Kessel Run (e.g., platform, security), you will also work with and manage external stakeholders. You will provide your teams with the resources they need and make mentoring and professional development a normal activity. Directors are crucial to evolving and cultivating Kessel Run culture.

What You Will Do

• People: You will ensure team health by solving staffing concerns, allocating resources appropriately and finding growth opportunities for your teams.
• Product: You will ensure productivity by ensuring that product teams are meeting OKRs, tracking and improving product value metrics and tracking and improving software delivery performance metrics.
• Portfolio: You will tackle cross-cutting concerns and find efficiencies across teams within your portfolio. You will negotiate multi-team decisions by ensuring that the teams are delivering portfolio-wide value in accordance with OKRs.
• Practice: You will work with Practice Leads to ensure that Kessel Run is constantly growing and evolving our practice and assessing our progress.
• Pipeline: You will lead the onboarding of new product teams, and help identify potential growth areas and opportunities for value delivery.

Who You Are

• You have experience with both lean startup and agile software development.
• You have experience leading teams practicing Pair Programming and Test Driven Development (TDD).
• You have experience leading software engineering teams responsible for the availability, reliability and observability of cloud-native runtime environments including Kubernetes.
• You have experience leveraging Gitlab for backlog management.
• You are a cultural change agent. You believe that culture is the most important tenet to achieving product success.
• You have experience shipping new products as well as improving existing ones.
• You have experience in a user-focused environment.

• You have top-quality written and verbal communication skills (e.g., capable of public speaking, changing your messaging based on the audience, etc.).
• You are comfortable providing advice, recommendations, and guidance with incomplete information.
• You have strong leadership and management skills with a diverse workforce.
• You have the ability to prioritize and manage expectations of competing and sometimes conflicting needs.
• You have excellent interpersonal skills and able to incorporate multiple perspectives.
• You are a U.S. citizen and are eligible to obtain a U.S. Security Clearance (see eligibility requirements here)

This is a Federal civilian service position within the United States Air Force. We are hiring at the equivalent of a GS-14 up to GS-15 level for this position. This means you can expect a base salary of $93,907 to $143,598 multiplied by your locality rate, based on your experience. You can find your locality definition here and see the pay tables for the GS scale here. Our headquarters is located in Boston, MA; for a Boston-based employee, this would translate to a range from $121,243 to $172,500

We also provide paid time off, health, and retirement benefits. There are advancement opportunities to promote to more senior levels after hiring.

We understand that there is no such thing as the ideal candidate for any job and we believe in empowering people to learn and grow throughout their careers. We encourage any applicant who is interested in making an impact in the Department of Defense to apply to this position regardless of background and qualifications.

How to Apply

Job Types: Full-Time.

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