Job Description

Position Summary
The Release Train Engineer is responsible for managing and optimizing the flow of value through the Agile Release Train using various tools, such as the Program Kanban and other information radiators such as Jira, Confluence, ServiceNow, etc. They establish and communicate the annual calendars for Iterations and Program Increments (PIs), facilitate PI Planning readiness by fostering a Continuous Exploration process which drives the synthesis of a Vision, a Roadmap, and Backlogs, and through Pre- and Post-PI Planning events. They coach leaders, teams, and Scrum Masters in Lean-Agile practices and mindsets. They lead a team in end-to-end lifecycle management of an assigned IT Portfolio capability. Accountable for planning, delivery and operation of services, products and processes, as well as people leadership and vendor management. They continuously innovate their product or service, and contribute to achieving IT and Enterprise Strategies and KPIs.

Essential Responsibilities

Relationship Management: Partner with business areas, customers and other stakeholders to understand needs and opportunities. Establish and maintain collaborative partnership with internal partners. Provide coaching and work direction to less experienced team members.
Solution Delivery: Lead efforts in end-to-end solution lifecycle from strategic planning, through demand management, delivery lifecycle activities, and operation. Ensure solutions drive great user experience and operational performance. Drive speed to deployments and continuous delivery to meet changing customer and stakeholder needs.
Strategy & Planning: Lead efforts to understand operational health, customer satisfaction, and total cost of operation and build awareness of opportunities and risks. Represent business partners/stakeholders in strategic planning and investment prioritization.
Operations Management: Drive alignment with stakeholders on maintenance activities and schedules. Ensure delivery practices uphold continuous integration of operational functions. Provide escalated support as needed to drive restoration of service disruptions.
Subject Matter Expertise: Stay abreast of industry and technology trends to continuously improve solution delivery practices and customer satisfaction.

Minimum Requirements

Ten years of related functional experience. Bachelor’s degree in Technology, Science, Business or related field, or 4 years of experience equivalent to the position.
Excellent communication skills, effective with varying organizational levels and skill set, and able to translate between technical and non-technical concepts.
Excellent Relationship Management and collaboration skills, with a track record of working as one team cross-organizationally to drive innovation and business results.
Experience with Project or Product delivery practices, including SDLC, Agile and Waterfall.
Demonstrated ability to recommend innovative solutions to support complex business requirements.
Ability to drive continuous improvement through lean, agile, six sigma.
Demonstrated in depth knowledge of end-to-end process and system capabilities, industry standards and emerging technologies and methods.
Expertise in technical, functional, and operational details of respective solutions. Excellent problem-solving skills.
Demonstrated ability to build functional and technical subject matter expertise, process and tools expertise, and drive consistency in processes.
Experience with strategic planning, demand management, execution, and operation of IT solutions.
Experience with contract and vendor management.
In-depth expertise on core IT components within the respective domain.

Job Specific Skillset Requirements

Facilitate the PI planning event
Summarize Team PI Objectives into Program PI Objectives and publish them for visibility and transparency
Assist tracking the execution of features and capabilities
Facilitate periodic synchronization events, including the ART sync, etc.
Assist with economic decision-making by facilitating feature estimation by teams and the roll-up to Epics, where necessary
Help manage risks and dependencies
Escalate and track impediments
Provide input on resourcing to address critical bottlenecks
Encourage collaboration between teams and System Architects/Engineering
Work with Product Management, Product Owners, and other stakeholders to help ensure strategy and execution alignment
Improve the flow of value by improving and assessing the practices associated with DevOps and Release on Demand in the Continuous Delivery Pipeline
Help drive the Lean User Experience (UX) innovation cycle
Work with the Program Management Office on program execution and operational excellence
Understand and operate within budgets and ensure adherence to budget guardrails
Facilitate System Demos
Drive relentless improvement via Inspect and Adapt workshops; assess the agility level of the ART and help them improve
Foster Communities of Practice and the use of engineering and Built-In Quality practices
SAFe Certified Release Train Engineer (RTE)
Minimum of 5 -7 years of experience managing complex IT initiatives, programs and projects.
Experience with medium to large program resource management.
Knowledge of release management and related ITIL practices.