Release Train Engineer

Envision; St. Louis (MO); On-site; USD 100,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A consulting firm is seeking a strong Agile Release Train Engineer in the St. Louis, MO area. This role requires leading Agile teams and optimizing CI/CD delivery practices. Candidates should have over 5 years of experience in Agile methodologies, be able to facilitate PI planning, and work well with stakeholders. The position is full-time, local candidates preferred, and offers an opportunity to enhance DevOps practices in a collaborative environment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in Agile methodologies in a SAFe environment.
• 3+ years in a servant leadership role within software development or IT operations.
• Certified SAFe Program Consultant (SPC) or equivalent.

Responsibilities

• Act as a servant leader and coach for the Agile Release Train (ART).
• Ensure smooth delivery of CI/CD pipelines and AWS cloud infrastructure.
• Facilitate PI Planning and support ART backlog refinement.

Skills

Agile methodologies

Servant leadership

Communication skills

DevOps principles

Team coordination

CI/CD pipelines

AWS

Scrum artifacts

Project management

Agile coaching

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree

Tools

Jira

Confluence

ServiceNow

Splunk

Jenkins

GitHub

SonarQube

JFrog

Job description

Overview

We are seeking a strong Agile Release Train Engineer for our client in the St. Louis, MO area. This role requires on-site presence, with 2-3 on-site meetings per month. Local candidates in the St. Louis, MO area or within driving distance are preferred. US Citizens or Green Card Holders only. No C2C. No third-party agencies.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited university or college is required; master's degree preferred.
• 5+ years of experience in Agile methodologies in a SAFe environment.
• 3+ years of experience in a servant leadership role within software development or IT operations.
• Strong understanding of DevOps principles and practices.
• Excellent facilitation, coaching, and communication skills, with Release Train Engineer experience.
• Proven ability to coordinate large, complex programs with multiple teams.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, cloud technologies (AWS), and monitoring tools.
• Certified SAFe Program Consultant (SPC) or equivalent certification.
• Experience working with product owners and integrating product management practices into agile frameworks.
• ServiceNow and ITIL incident and change management.
• Exposure to designing and developing DevOps toolchains.
• Understanding of cybersecurity and compliance tools and controls.
• Exposure to Cloud, DevSecOps, Logging, and Monitoring applications.
• Experience with Jira and Confluence.
• Exposure to AWS, Splunk, Jenkins, GitHub, SonarQube, JFrog.
• Location and eligibility: St. Louis, MO candidates or those within driving distance only; US Citizens or Green Card Holders only; No C2C; No third-party agencies; On-site meetings 2-3 times per month.

Additional Qualities

• Proven ability to develop product and marketing strategies and effectively communicate recommendations to executive management.
• Strong analytical skills and proven ability to make sound decisions with ambiguous information.
• High energy and a passionate outlook to the job.
• Ability to effectively influence others and build consensus.
• Ability to build trust and rapport that creates a comfortable and productive workplace.
• Ability to promote innovative thinking within the team and across the organization.
• Confidence to be voice of authority – not afraid to do what is best for the customers and the organization.
• Creativity as a self-starter with strong interpersonal skills - able to work effectively within a team and with various stakeholders at all levels of the organization.

Responsibilities

The Release Train Engineer (RTE) acts as a servant leader and coach for our Agile Release Train (ART) that delivers our DevOps toolchain. The RTE coordinates multiple agile teams and ensures the smooth delivery of the CI/CD pipeline, AWS cloud infrastructure, Splunk logging and monitoring, and Digital Data Platform (DDP) initiatives. This role focuses on establishing and improving ART events and practices, coordinating multiple agile teams, and fostering continuous improvement, collaborating closely with the technical product owner to integrate product thinking into our agile practices.

ART Leadership and Facilitation

• Establish, mature, and facilitate ART events and practices, including PI Planning, System Demos, and Inspect & Adapt workshops.
• Collaborate with Product Management, System Architect, and Business Owners to ensure effective ART leadership.
• Coordinate activities across multiple agile teams, including CI/CD pipeline, AWS cloud, Splunk logging and monitoring, and DDP teams.
• Support Scrum Masters/Team Coaches in removing impediments and promoting continuous improvement.

PI Planning and Execution

• Prepare the ART for PI planning, ensuring readiness in continuous exploration, ART backlog alignment, and event logistics.
• Facilitate the PI Planning event, including opening the event, introducing speakers, conducting Coach Syncs, and overseeing plan reviews.
• Support PI execution by maintaining progress, facilitating ART events, and supporting ART backlog refinement.
• Promote DevOps and continuous delivery practices across the ART.

Coaching and Servant Leadership

• Adopt a servant leadership approach, supporting teams to become self-organizing and self-managing.
• Coach ART roles, including Business Owners, System Architects, and Product Managers.
• Use powerful questions to encourage deeper reflection and self-discovery among team members and leaders.
• Create an environment where everyone on the ART can share challenges openly.

Stakeholder Management and Communication

• Communicate program status, achievements, and challenges to leadership and stakeholders.
• Coordinate planning efforts with other ARTs when necessary.
• Assist Business Owners in economic decision-making and operating within Lean Budgets.

Flow Optimization

• Establish and maintain the ART Kanban system to ensure smooth value flow.
• Implement and monitor all five SAFe flow metrics across the ART: Flow Distribution, Flow Velocity, Flow Time, Flow Efficiency, Flow Predictability.
• Use flow metrics to identify bottlenecks, guide decision-making, and drive continuous improvement.
• Facilitate value stream mapping to identify and address delays and inefficiencies in the development process.
• Work to reduce or eliminate cross-team dependencies that impede flow.
• Collaborate with teams to establish and refine WIP limits that optimize flow and quality.
• Coach teams and stakeholders on interpreting flow metrics and using them to guide improvements.
• Regularly report on flow metrics to ART leadership and stakeholders, highlighting trends and opportunities for optimization.
• Align flow optimization efforts with the overall goals of the DevOps toolchain and the organization's strategic objectives.
• Drive relentless improvement through Inspect and Adapt workshops and just-in-time improvements.
• Leverage SAFe core competency assessments to increase mastery of Lean-Agile practices.
• Collaborate with the Community of Practice (CoP) and other leaders to align with broader transformation initiatives.

Collaboration with Technical Product Owner

• Work closely with the new technical product owner to integrate product thinking into the ART's agile practices.
• Support the technical product owner in developing and maintaining the product roadmap within the agile framework.
• Facilitate the alignment of the product vision with the ART's objectives and PI planning process.
• Coach the technical product owner on effective ways to communicate product strategy and priorities to the ART.
• Collaborate on backlog refinement to ensure that product requirements are well-defined and aligned with the DevOps toolchain vision.
• Actively participate in agile team's ceremonies and represent the team in project or program planning events.

Seniority level

• Mid-Senior level

Employment type

• Full-time

Job function

• Consulting

Industries

• Information Services