Principal Release Train Engineer

LPL Financial LLC; Fort Mill, Town of Charlotte (SC, NY); On-site; USD 134,000 - 224,000; Full time

Job summary

LPL Financial LLC in the United States is seeking a Vice President, Release Train Engineer to lead agile delivery at enterprise scale. You will partner with senior leaders to align roadmaps with business priorities and coach ARTs to deliver programs on time and within budget.

This role requires deep SAFe expertise, strong executive presence, and proven ability to remove impediments, manage risks, and report status with clarity to SVPs and C‑level leaders.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in a related field.
• 7+ years of experience in Agile delivery, program management, project management, or technology leadership roles.
• 7+ years experience serving as a Release Train Engineer, Agile Program Manager, Senior Scrum Master, or equivalent role.
• 10+ years experience/knowledge of Agile frameworks, including SAFe.

Responsibilities

• Lead Agile Release Train events and ensure alignment between business priorities, technology strategy, and ART execution.
• Monitor and communicate ART progress toward program objectives; identify and manage risks, issues, dependencies, and blockers.
• Partner with Product Management, Product Owners, Architecture, and Technology Leadership to provide transparent reporting on performance and delivery outcomes.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives across teams and the ART; coach teams on Agile practices and Lean‑Agile mindset.
• Maintain visibility into cross-team dependencies and coordinate mitigation strategies with leadership.

Skills

Agile leadership

Executive communication

Stakeholder management

Coaching teams

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Business, Engineering, or related field

Tools

JIRA

JQL

Confluence

Excel

Job description

Where Ambition Meets Innovation Build a career that matches all your initiative with an impressive dose of innovation. From cutting-edge resources and a collaborative environment to the freedom to make an impact and more, you’ll find the ingredients you need at LPL Financial to shape your success while helping clients pursue their financial goals.

The Vice President (VP), Release Train Engineer (RTE) will serve as a strategic leader within the Enterprise Program Management Office (EPMO) organization. This role combines Agile leadership with Technical Program Management expertise to drive enterprise-scale delivery of technology initiatives. The AVP will partner closely with Senior Vice Presidents and cross-functional stakeholders to align roadmaps with business priorities, provide transparent executive-level status reporting, and coach delivery teams to achieve operational excellence.

Release Train Engineer (RTE) Leadership

• Facilitate Agile Release Train (ART) events (e.g., PI Planning, Inspect & Adapt, Scrum of Scrums), ensuring alignment to organizational goals.
• Drive continuous improvement across delivery teams, embedding Agile best practices in Technology Infrastructure & Operations.
• Remove delivery impediments by coordinating across teams, leaders, and external stakeholders.
• Serve as a servant leader and coach for ART members, leaders, and stakeholders.
• Manage large-scale programs and portfolio deliverables, ensuring scope, timeline, budget, and risk are effectively governed.
• Partner with SVPs and senior stakeholders to develop and maintain program roadmaps that align with strategic objectives.
• Deliver clear and concise executive-level updates, dashboards, and status reporting for technology and business leadership.
• Coordinate across multiple initiatives to ensure dependencies are understood, managed, and communicated effectively.

Responsibilities

• Agile Release Train Leadership : Serve as the primary servant leader for the Agile Release Train, Facilitate ART events, including: PI Planning, ART Syncs, Scrum of Scrums, System Demos, Inspect & Adapt Workshops. Ensure alignment between business priorities, technology strategy, and ART execution. Drive adherence to Agile, Lean, and SAFe principles.
• Program Execution & Delivery : Monitor and communicate ART progress toward committed Program Increment objectives. Identify, track, and manage risks, issues, dependencies, and blockers across teams. Escalate and resolve impediments that impact delivery timelines and business outcomes. Facilitate coordination among multiple Agile teams to achieve program objectives.
• Stakeholder Management : Partner closely with Product Management, Product Owners, Business Owners, Architecture, Portfolio Management, and Technology Leadership. Provide transparent reporting on ART performance, delivery status, risks, and capacity. Facilitate decision-making and alignment among business and technology stakeholders. Support executive communications regarding program health and delivery outcomes.
• Continuous Improvement : Drive continuous improvement initiatives across teams and the ART. Utilize metrics and performance indicators to identify opportunities for optimization. Coach teams and leaders on Agile practices, servant leadership, and Lean‑Agile mindset. Facilitate problem‑solving sessions and root cause analysis efforts.
• Dependency & Risk Management : Maintain visibility into cross-team dependencies and delivery commitments. Coordinate mitigation strategies for delivery risks and resource constraints. Collaborate with Portfolio Management and leadership teams to ensure strategic alignment.
• Agile Coaching & Enablement : Mentor Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and team leaders. Promote Agile best practices and organizational Agile maturity. Support teams through transformation and change management initiatives. Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, innovation, and continuous learning.

What are we looking for?

We’re looking for strong collaborators who deliver exceptional client experiences and thrive in fast-paced, team-oriented environments. Our ideal candidates pursue greatness, act with integrity, and are driven to help our clients succeed. We value those who embrace creativity, continuous improvement, and contribute to a culture where we win together and create and share joy in our work.

• The successful candidate will consistently deliver Program Increment commitments.
• Improve predictability and delivery performance across the ART.
• Reduce organizational and cross-team impediments.
• Increase stakeholder satisfaction and transparency.
• Drive continuous improvement and Agile maturity.
• Ensure alignment between strategic priorities and execution outcomes.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Business, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent experience.
• 7+ years of experience in Agile delivery, program management, project management, or technology leadership roles.
• 7+ years of experience serving as a Release Train Engineer, Agile Program Manager, Senior Scrum Master, or equivalent role.
• 7+ years experience leading large-scale, cross-functional programs involving multiple Agile teams.
• 10+ years expereince/knowledge of Agile frameworks, including SAFe.
• Demonstrated experience facilitating PI Planning and other large-scale Agile ceremonies.

Core Competencies

• Proven experience facilitating Agile Release Trains (SAFe RTE certification strongly preferred).
• Strong working knowledge of JIRA, JQL, Confluence or similar tools and has advanced Excel skills.
• Strong executive presence with demonstrated ability to engage, influence, and provide insight to SVPs and C-level leaders.
• Relationship builder with ability to navigate complex organizational structures.
• Coaches the Agile delivery team on Agile mindset and methodologies, and relevant processes.
• Exemplifies and promotes Agile values and principles.
• Has knowledge of intake processes and prioritization.
• Is able to prioritize own work and to contribute to the prioritization of work of the team.
• Guides team members in understanding their role.
• Helps team identify and resolve conflicts, with help from others.
• Helps the team break down and deliver incremental work.
• Effectively partners / coaches Product Owner and Dev Team to deliver value.
• Tracks progress and visualizes work by measuring progress and velocity through defined processes including generating a burn-down chart.
• Partner internally and externally to make effective decisions solving complex problems, escalating high priority issues or impediments as appropriate, monitoring progress and results, and recognizing and capitalizing on improvement opportunities.
• Be proactive and exercise initiative in identifying, tracking, and removing impediments to program success.

Preferences

• Experience handling Hybrid team of Multi vendors and complex projects.
• PMP, PgMP, SAFe certifications.

Pay Range

Pay Range: $134,312.00 - $223,922.00. Actual base salary varies based on factors, including but not limited to, relevant skill, prior experience, education, base salary of internal peers, demonstrated performance, and geographic location.

Additionally, LPL Total Rewards package is highly competitive, designed to support your success at work, at home, and at play – such as 401K matching, health benefits, employee stock options, paid time off, volunteer time off, and more.

Company Overview

LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: LPLA) is among the fastest growing wealth management firms in the U.S. As a leader in the financial advisor-mediated marketplace(6) , LPL supports over 32,000 financial advisors and the wealth management practices of approximately 1,100 financial institutions, servicing and custodying approximately $2.3 trillion in brokerage and advisory assets on behalf of approximately 8 million Americans.

The firm provides a wide range of advisor affiliation models, investment solutions, fintech tools and practice management services, ensuring that advisors and institutions have the flexibility to choose the business model, services, and technology resources they need to run thriving businesses.

For further information about LPL, please visit www.lpl.com.

At LPL, independence means that advisors and institution leaders have the freedom they deserve to choose the business model, services, and technology resources that allow them to run a thriving business. They have the flexibility to do business their way. And they have the freedom to manage their client relationships, because they know their clients best. Simply put, we take care of our advisors and institutions, so they can take care of their clients.

For further information about LPL, please visit www.lpl.com.

Join the LPL team and help us make a difference by turning life’s aspirations into financial realities.

EOE.

Information on Interviews

LPL will only communicate with a job applicant directly from an @lplfinancial.com email address and will never conduct an interview online or in a chatroom forum. During an interview, LPL will not request any form of payment from the applicant, or information regarding an applicant’s bank or credit card. Should you have any questions regarding the application process, please contact LPL’s Human Resources Solutions Center at [phone].

EAC 5.19.26 LPL Financial is the nation’s largest independent broker-dealer.*

Our company is widely known for its financial strength, exceptional service, and favorable industry reputation among financial professionals. To understand who we are, it’s important to know our core belief: financial guidance is a fundamental need for everyone. LPL Financial creates the space to let you do what you do best – create personal, long-term client relationships that turn financial aspirations into realities. Each year, thousands of financial professionals successfully manage billions of dollars in assets. Because our company is not too big and not too small, you can seize the opportunity to make a real impact. To learn more about our organization visit our About LPL page.

* As reported by Financial Planning magazine, June 1996-2019, based on total revenue.

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