Head of Agile Release Train Engineering

Lumen; Lansing (MI); Remote; USD 145,000 - 194,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Life insurance

Voluntary lifestyle benefits

Wellbeing programs

Job summary

Lumen is the trusted network for the AI‑powered world, delivering high‑performance connectivity. The Senior Manager of Release Train Engineers leads RTEs to ensure ART execution aligns with business priorities, with a focus on outcomes, risk management, and continuous improvement.

The role emphasizes coaching, governance, and collaboration with Product, Engineering, Architecture, and TPMO to optimize delivery across complex initiatives and AI-enabled workflows.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in Agile delivery, release-train leadership, SDLC operations, project management, platform delivery, systems delivery, or enterprise technology delivery.
• 3+ years of people‑leadership experience managing RTEs, Sr. RTEs, Scrum Masters, Agile delivery leaders, or comparable roles.
• Experience establishing ART standards, governance routines, dashboards, planning calendars, escalation models, dependency-management practices, and reporting mechanisms.
• Strong knowledge of Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Lean‑Agile principles, SAFe, PI Planning, ART operations, SDLC execution, software delivery, and portfolio governance.
• Demonstrated ability to coach RTEs and delivery leaders, manage performance, resolve organizational impediments, and influence senior stakeholders.
• Ability to translate ART health, delivery data, risk, dependency exposure, and milestone confidence into executive‑ready insights and improvement plans.
• Demonstrated experience optimizing delivery systems through continuous improvement, automation, AI‑enabled capabilities, or agentic workflows; ability to foster responsible experimentation and creative problem‑solving.
• Advanced experience with Jira, Jira Align, Confluence, Clarity, ServiceNow SPM, Power BI, AI tools, Agile dashboards, roadmap tools, flow metrics, and executive reporting preferred.
• SAFe RTE, SPC, SAFe Agilist, PMI-ACP, CSM, CSPO, PMP, or equivalent experience preferred.

Responsibilities

• People Leadership: Manage, coach, develop, and evaluate RTEs and Sr. RTEs; set expectations, provide feedback, support career growth, and ensure the team operates with clear priorities, role clarity, and accountability.
• RTE Operating Model Ownership: Define and maintain standards, playbooks, templates, dashboards, cadence expectations, governance routines, and escalation models for ART execution.
• Portfolio Execution Alignment: Align RTE and Sr. RTE work with business priorities, PI planning calendars, portfolio objectives, product roadmaps, delivery commitments, and leadership expectations.
• Risk, Dependency & Escalation Governance: Establish consistent methods for managing ART risks, impediments, dependencies, escalation paths, accountability, and executive visibility.
• Metrics & Performance Management: Monitor ART health, RTE effectiveness, predictability, flow metrics, milestone confidence, dependency trends, and operating-model adoption. Use insights to drive improvement actions.
• Optimization & Agentic Creativity: Continuously improve ART operating models using systems thinking, Lean-Agile practices, experimentation, intelligent automation, and agentic AI. Encourage RTEs to develop innovative, responsible approaches that reduce administrative effort, improve decision quality, accelerate issue resolution, and strengthen delivery outcomes.
• Stakeholder Leadership: Partner with senior Product, Engineering, Architecture, TPMO, Operations, and business leaders to resolve delivery issues, clarify ownership, improve planning quality, and strengthen cross-functional execution.

Skills

Agile delivery

RTE leadership

SDLC operations

Project management

Portfolio governance

Jira & Confluence

Power BI

SAFe / PI Planning

Escalation management

Executive reporting

Tools

Jira Align

Confluence

Clarity

ServiceNow SPM

Power BI

AI tools

Job description

Lumen is the trusted network for the AI‑powered world, delivering high‑performance connectivity. The Senior Manager of Release Train Engineers leads RTEs to ensure ART execution aligns with business priorities, with a focus on outcomes, risk management, and continuous improvement.

The role emphasizes coaching, governance, and collaboration with Product, Engineering, Architecture, and TPMO to optimize delivery across complex initiatives and AI-enabled workflows.