Release Train Engineer (RTE) — SAFe

Release Train Engineer (RTE) — SAFe

Job Description

Position Summary

The Release Train Engineer (RTE) is a servant leader and coach responsible for launching, enabling, and continuously improving an Agile Release Train (ART) using Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) practices. The RTE establishes the operating model, ceremonies, governance, and collaboration mechanisms required to align multiple Agile teams around a shared mission and predictable delivery. This role partners closely with Product Management, System Architecture, Business Owners, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and delivery teams to manage dependencies, remove systemic impediments, improve flow, and deliver measurable business value.

Key Responsibilities

Stand Up and Enable the Agile Release Train

• Lead the formation and launch of a new ART, including readiness assessment, team alignment, role clarification, working agreements, governance, and initial planning.
• Establish the ART cadence, calendars, collaboration forums, metrics, and communication channels needed for sustainable execution.
• Plan and facilitate Program Increment (PI) Planning, ART Sync, Scrum of Scrums, System Demos, Inspect and Adapt events, and other SAFe ceremonies.
• Partner with Product Management, System Architects, Business Owners, and delivery leaders to clarify vision, priorities, capacity, objectives, and expected outcomes.
• Promote alignment to Lean-Agile principles while adapting implementation to the organization’s context and maturity.

Coach Teams and Scrum Masters

• Coach Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and team facilitators in servant leadership, effective ceremonies, backlog stewardship, flow management, dependency coordination, impediment removal, and continuous improvement.
• Build a strong Scrum Master community of practice to share standards, techniques, lessons learned, and reusable approaches.
• Support Agile teams in improving backlog readiness, estimation, capacity planning, predictability, quality, and delivery discipline.
• Observe team and ART behaviors, provide constructive coaching, and help leaders and teams address systemic issues without taking ownership away from the teams.
• Develop Agile maturity through targeted training, mentoring, facilitation, and hands-on support.

Drive Cross-Team Collaboration and Delivery

• Create transparency across teams by maintaining visibility into PI Objectives, milestones, risks, dependencies, impediments, and delivery progress.
• Facilitate cross-team planning and problem-solving to identify, sequence, and resolve dependencies before they affect delivery.
• Use SAFe ROAM practices to support effective management of program risks and ensure clear ownership of mitigation actions.
• Escalate and help resolve systemic impediments that cannot be addressed within an individual team.
• Strengthen collaboration among business, product, architecture, engineering, process, quality, operations, security, and other enabling functions.
• Promote DevOps, built-in quality, automation, and continuous delivery practices that improve speed, reliability, and value flow.

Measure Performance and Improve the System

• Track and communicate ART health using meaningful flow, predictability, quality, value, and maturity measures.
• Facilitate data-driven retrospectives and Inspect and Adapt workshops that result in prioritized, owned, and measurable improvement actions.
• Identify trends, bottlenecks, recurring risks, and capability gaps; partner with leaders to implement sustainable improvements.
• Provide concise status, decision needs, and delivery insights to stakeholders while protecting teams from unnecessary reporting overhead.
• Foster a culture of transparency, accountability, learning, inclusion, and relentless improvement.
• Configure, customize, and maintain Jira Align and Jira boards to provide traceability across epics, features, dependencies, team capacity, and ART delivery.
• Design and present executive-ready status reports, progress metrics, and leadership summaries in PowerPoint.

Required Qualifications

• SAFe Release Train Engineer (RTE) or SAFe Practice Consultant (SPC) certification is required.
• Minimum of five years of experience acting as an RTE in a medium- or large-scale enterprise environment.
• Demonstrated experience as a Release Train Engineer, Senior Scrum Master, Agile Coach, or similar leader in a multi-team delivery environment.
• Hands-on experience launching, stabilizing, or improving an Agile Release Train or comparable scaled delivery model.
• Strong working knowledge of SAFe, Scrum, Kanban, Lean, Agile product delivery, and DevOps principles.
• Proven ability to facilitate planning events and complex discussions involving business and technology stakeholders.
• Experience coaching multiple Scrum Masters and Agile teams at different maturity levels.
• Strong skills in dependency management, risk management, conflict resolution, systems thinking, and organizational change.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, facilitation, influencing, and executive-level presentation skills.
• Ability to use delivery data and flow metrics to identify constraints and guide improvement.