Release Train Engineer

Genesis Consulting has an immediate opportunity for an experienced, forward thinking Release Train Engineer with a passion for growth and business transformation. Join our team and utilize the latest technology to configure, develop, deliver and support applications for our clients while leveraging concepts of Lean, Agile, Kanban and SAFe. Our clients are some of the world’s leading companies and the candidate will be a part of challenging projects to build and support technical solutions for their needs. 

The Release Train Engineer’s (RTE) primary purpose is to launch and run Agile Release Trains (ARTs) to success and navigate the complexity of delivering technology solutions to our client and stakeholders consistently in large environments. 

The RTE is a critical stakeholder in an ART and in work related to but not within the ART.  They are key to ensuring that teams adopt and mature with the SAFe practices being targeted by the SAFe Transformation Team.  They are also responsible for organizing, facilitating, and improving the virtual PI Planning events involving over 25 teams and up to 350 participants. 

As part of the SAFe transformation team, they work with scrum masters, product owners, and delivery team members to adopt SAFe practices and to improve delivery through these practices. 

The RTE is the keeper of the SAFe practices for their ART.  As such, they must be in constant contact with their teams to ensure that practices are followed and that teams become more mature with each iteration.

As the key organizer for virtual PI Planning events, the RTE must be on top of all aspects of planning the event.  This includes setting the agenda, getting all necessary approvals, confirming which teams will participate and report, organizing licenses for the tools used, creating the facilitators’ guide, and more. 

During the PI Planning event, the RTE will be the key point of contact for all teams in the ART and must be able to resolve issues, escalate when needed, and keep other stakeholders abreast of changes and major events. 

During PI Execution, the RTE works with teams and reports out to Product Managers and other leadership in terms of issues and concerns teams have with their PI commitments, risk management, dependency management, and overall adherence to SAFe practices. 

The RTE facilitates weekly scrum of scrums meetings, participates in weekly product owner sync meetings, and attends team meetings as necessary.  Following up on these meetings with status reports and online dashboards is part of the weekly work that they do.  And on a daily basis, the RTE keeps track of JIRA tickets that are created and updated to ensure that unexpected risks and dependencies are communicated and/or escalated. 

Duties include, but may not be limited to:

• Plan, coordinate and launch successful release train with complex scope and interdependencies in a multi-vendor, public sector environment
  
• Facilitate the coordinated preparation of release planning for the release train, including communication and coordination with stakeholders and customers during PI Planning preparation
  
• Ensure that the ART adheres to and blends Lean Agile best practices
  
• Work with teams to define and collect metrics during PI Execution.
  
• Ensure that these metrics are addressed during the PI retrospective and the PI Demo.
  
• Resolve/report issues and manage dependencies and risks across the ART and between ART’s
  
• Drive continuous improvement through the facilitation of retrospectives every PI, or more often as needed, to improve backlog management, or release train coordination and higher-level function
  
• Actively participate in the RTE Community of Practice helping the organization to maintain alignment, learn new techniques, and improve technical and quality practices. Work with RTE community to determine ways to help ARTs across the company improve cross train and solution group coordination and collaboration.
  
• Teach, mentor, and coach teams, Scrum Masters, ARTs and Product Owners on emerging agile, lean, and XP methods
  

• 5+ years’ experience as RTE, Scrum Master, Product Owner, or Agile Project/Program Manager
  
• Experience with Program/Project Management
  
• Experience deploying SAFe Agile Framework and/or Activate methodology
  
• Experience managing end-to-end projects in a public sector implementation
  
• Experience assisting leadership and team members with removing barriers and embracing transformation by assisting each organization to customize its own path, approach and solutions to becoming Agile
  
• Experience launching agile teams and Agile Release Trains, building a Continuous Delivery Pipeline with DevOps culture, and empowering a Lean Portfolio
  
• Experience supporting and executing PI Planning events and coordinating multiple Agile Release Trains (ARTs)
  
• Servant leader and strong communicator with strong interpersonal skills who can:
  
• Strong technical aptitude and experience leading teams in delivering quality software
  
• Experience working in an Agile organization using Scrum, XP, Kanban, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), or other scaling model is required 
  

• Bachelor’s Degree and 5 years’ experience, or 10 years’ experience with no degree 
  

• SAFe Release Train Engineer Certification
  
• Scrum-certified by Scrum Alliance or Scrum.org 
  

• Must be US Citizen or Green Card Holder
  
• Must have ability to obtain a U.S. Public Trust Clearance
  
• Local travel to multiple client and team locations in DC, MD, VA