Release Train Engineer

At Ascendion, we make and manage software platforms and products that power growth and deliver captivating experiences to consumers and employees. Our engineering, cloud, data, experience design, and talent solution capabilities accelerate transformation and impact for enterprise clients. Headquartered in New Jersey, our workforce delivers solutions from around the globe.

• Facilitate the coordinated preparation and execution of release planning for the ART. This includes:
• Working with the ART team who prioritizes the features to be considered in the next program increment (PI) planning cycle.
• Facilitating the ART team’s refinement of features to be considered in the next PI planning cycle to meet the Feature Definition of Ready.
• Assists the ART in communication and coordination with stakeholders and customers during feature definition and delivery.
• Ensuring effective communication and coordination for and during quarterly planning.
• Managing change to the ART’s PI plan and the impacts of those changes.
• Drive cross team, ART, and departmental impediments, planning, collaboration, and coordination.
• Provide regular and open communication across the program and stakeholders for transparency and awareness of progress and impediments.
• Understand, visualize and manage upstream/downstream dependencies.
• Drive delivery and continuous improvement by utilizing feedback and metrics (quality, delivery rate, etc.) to identify areas of opportunity.
• Work across stakeholders and teams to continuously improve.
• Ensure the overall cost, schedule, and performance of the program.
• Analyze program budgets and estimates from participating organizations to provide direction for the overall development of all program budgets and integrated cost profiles.
• Manage program level coordination, such as creating timelines, milestones, and cadence of increments and releases and oversee the development of reports and analyses that document program activity.
• Lead project teams and provide and leadership; act as consultant/coach to management in resolving unusually difficult problems.
• Participate with management and cross-functional teams as subject matter expert to develop and improve operating policies and procedures related to Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and be an advocate in adopting Agile and SAFe best practices and processes.
• Act as a galvanizing force for sharing Agile and SAFe knowledge across the organization.
• Constantly refine and stay current with emerging themes in larger Agile community.
• Develop / modify processes, policies, and procedures to facilitate the working relationship between Global Technology and its business functions / partners.
• Support the configuration of SAFe to the needs of the organization, standardizing and documenting practices.
• Coach leaders, teams, and Scrum Masters in Lean-Agile practices and mindsets.

• Demonstrated Release Train Engineer experience in organizing, planning and executing large-scale projects from conception through implementation. Experience coordinating multiple teams in a technology environment.
• Demonstrated effective verbal and written communication skills for the purpose of providing and explaining technical and project related information to clients, vendors, senior management and staff.
• Ability to easily build new relationships and proactively establish a variety of contacts across the organization.
• Ability to work in multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural teams.
• Broad range of program management and leadership skills required.
• Proven ability to balance concurrent activities.
• Strong knowledge and experience in software development in an Agile environment.