Agile Coach / Release Train Engineer

Job Description - Agile Coach/RTE

Milestone is seeking an experienced RTE coming from an enterprise environment to support a large enterprise program. Requires a Certified SAFe RTE, with excellent executive level communication skills. Consultant will need hands-on experience running trains and performed Program Incremental (PI) Planning and provide ad hoc project management work.


Must Haves
SAFe RTE Certification
Facilitated and completed Program Incremental (PI) Planning
and budgeting.
Run trains (3-5 years).
Experience working with various Product Owners (PO)
Execute, facilitate all the ceremonies, and keep everyone on the train.
Excellent written and verbal executive level communication skills

Soft Skills
Servant leader mindset - to share best practices
Work with a very broad set of stakeholders
Standing up varying teams, to work with differing experiences
Bring together a team of teams for a couple of qtrs., then they are repurposed for another set of teams
Strong communicator
Active Listener
Team Player
Confident

Tools
Jira; (Jira Align)
MS Teams
Miro
Quip
Smartsheet

Role is 100% remote supporting PST

Job Summary

The Release Train Engineer (RTE) is a servant leader and coach for the Agile Release Train (ART). The RTE facilitates ART events and processes, assists teams in delivering value, and ensures alignment with Lean-Agile principles. The RTE plays a critical role in driving collaboration, removing impediments, and continuously improving processes to enable high-quality, on-time delivery of features.

Key Responsibilities

1. Facilitation and Coordination
- Facilitate Program Increment (PI) Planning, ART syncs, retrospectives, and system demos.
- Coordinate cross-team dependencies to ensure alignment and smooth delivery.
- Act as a communication bridge between stakeholders, Product Management, and Agile Teams.
2. Agile Leadership
- Foster a culture of continuous improvement by identifying bottlenecks and opportunities for optimization.
- Support Scaled Agile transformation by mentoring teams and individuals.
- Drive adherence to SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) practices and principles.
3. Program Execution
- Track and report ART progress, risks, and issues, typically using tools like Jira or ADO.
- Escalate and resolve impediments, working with stakeholders to remove obstacles.
- Ensure deliverables align with business goals and timelines.
4. Stakeholder Collaboration
- Partner with Product Management, Product Owners, and System Architects to maintain a cohesive roadmap.
- Collaborate with Scrum Masters, Team Leads, and other RTEs to ensure coordination across ARTs.
- Communicate status, risks, and dependencies to senior leadership and stakeholders.
5. Metrics and Reporting
- Monitor ART performance using metrics like velocity, predictability, and delivery lead time.
- Ensure teams are effectively estimating, planning, and meeting PI objectives.

Qualifications

Education and Experience:

- Bachelor s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or related field.
- 7+ years of experience in Agile, Scrum, or SAFe roles (e.g., Scrum Master, Agile Coach, or Program Manager).
- Certified SAFe Release Train Engineer (RTE) preferred.

Skills and Competencies:

- Deep understanding of SAFe, Agile frameworks.
- Proven ability to lead large-scale, cross-functional, geographically distributed, Agile teams.
- Strong facilitation, conflict resolution, and negotiation skills.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management abilities.
- Experience with Agile tools (JIRA, ADO).