Scrum Master and Quality Assurance Manager

Linda Sikes

+1-425-***-**** *******@*******.*** Snohomish, Washington

SUMMARY

** ***** ** ***** ******** experience with a proven record of boosting team productivity by 40% through effective Scrum practices.

Led cross-functional teams to reduce defects by 35% and improve sprint performance in high-velocity environments.

Skilled in sprint backlog management, user story refinement, and Jira/Confluence administration to optimize team workflows.

Experienced Release Manager overseeing promotion of frontend, middleware, and backend applications through development environments to production.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Mad Mobile

Scrum Master and Quality Assurance Manager Oct 2021 – Nov 2024

Served as Certified Scrum Master for the Payments Team, facilitating Agile ceremonies and increasing team productivity by 40% using Jira, Confluence, and Teams automated workflows.

Mentored team members in Agile practices, enhancing sprint outcomes and ensuring consistent delivery.

Managed a cross-functional offshore team of 4 QA Engineers and 15 Developers, increasing test coverage by 50% and reducing defects by 35%.

Contributed to company-wide Agile transformation by implementing SAFe practices, participating in Scrum of Scrums and PI Planning, creating initiatives, tracking timelines, and delivering end-of-sprint presentations in Big Room Retrospectives.

Spearheaded QA and infrastructure test planning, cutting integration issues by 40% and boosting system performance by 20%.

Facilitated Agile workshops to improve backlog prioritization and dependency management through refined user story techniques.

Oversaw QA strategy and execution for payment platforms, ensuring compliance with standards (e.g., PCI DSS) across three payment devices, three proprietary portals, and Salesforce-based onboarding tools tailored to internal teams.

Directed test planning and execution for complex payment workflows, including functional, integration, and regression testing.

Removed blockers and promoted continuous improvement through data-driven retrospectives and coaching.

Collaborated closely with stakeholders to align sprint goals with product and quality expectations.

Championed automation and CI/CD practices, leveraging AWS, Docker, Jenkins, and version/image tracking to improve release processes.

TableSafe Inc.

Supervisor, Quality Assurance Mar 2019 – Oct 2021

Oversaw daily QA operations, managing a team of 5 QA Engineers to ensure product quality across all releases.

Coordinated test planning, execution, and documentation in alignment with project schedules and quality benchmarks.

Maintained compliance with internal and external standards, including PCI DSS L1/L2, PTS, and SOC 2.

Monitored defect trends using tools like JIRA, TFS, and Rally, supporting RCA and continuous improvement for 4,500+ defects.

Collaborated with Development, DevOps, Product, and Support teams to address quality issues and drive user satisfaction.

Provided coaching and performance feedback to QA team members, promoting growth and accountability.

Led process audits, authored quality reports, and contributed to risk assessments for release and regulatory readiness.

Lead Quality Assurance Engineer Oct 2013 – Mar 2019

Led a team of 3–4 engineers in reducing bug escape rates by 30% across web portals, mobile apps, and a proprietary fine-dining Pay-at-the-Table solution.

Directed test strategy and execution for enterprise-scale applications and payment devices in an Agile/Scrum environment.

Worked closely with cross-functional teams throughout the SDLC to uphold software quality and project timelines.

Designed and maintained automation frameworks using Selenium, Cypress, Postman, and Jenkins—boosting test efficiency by over 50%.

Drove QA best practices including CI/CD adoption, shift-left testing, and risk-based testing strategies.

Managed defect tracking and reporting using TFS, Microsoft Test Manager, and SharePoint.

Conducted performance, security, and load testing with JMeter and Python scripts.

Mentored junior QA Engineers and led internal training sessions on automation tools and testing approaches.

Delivered detailed QA reports and KPIs to influence key product and release decisions.

EDUCATION

University of Washington – Bothell, WA

BA, Business Administration – Marketing and Management Jan 2008 – Jan 2010

Edmonds Community College – Edmonds, WA

AA, Business Administration Jan 2006 – Jan 2008

CERTIFICATIONS

Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) – Scrum Alliance Feb 2023 – Feb 2027

SKILLS

Agile & Scrum Methodologies:

Scrum, Agile Delivery, Sprint Ceremonies, Backlog Refinement, Project Planning, SAFe Practices, PI Planning, Scrum of Scrums

Project & Release Management:

Release Management, Dependency Management, Product Backlog Prioritization, Project Planning, Value Stream Mapping

Tools & Technologies:

Jira, Confluence, Postman, Docker, Microsoft Teams, TFS, SharePoint, Jenkins, Rally, SoapUI, Selenium, Cypress

Team Leadership & Collaboration:

Cross-functional Leadership, Team Mentoring, Agile Coaching, Team Morale, Workshop Facilitation, DevOps, UAT

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