Senior SAFe Program Manager / Release Train Engineer

Roles & Responsibilities

• Lead and facilitate Agile Release Train (ART) execution using SAFe principles and Lean-Agile practices.
• Drive successful planning and execution of Program Increment (PI) Planning, Scrum of Scrums, Inspect & Adapt workshops, Solution Demos, and other ART ceremonies.
• Partner with Product Management, Product Owners, Engineering, Architecture, and business stakeholders to ensure alignment between strategic priorities and execution.
• Enable predictable, high-quality delivery by improving flow, removing impediments, managing risks, and resolving cross-team dependencies.
• Coach Scrum Masters, Agile teams, Product Managers, and leaders to continuously improve Agile maturity and delivery effectiveness.
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement through retrospectives, data-driven decision making, innovation, and Lean thinking.
• Monitor ART health using delivery metrics and Agile performance indicators, providing transparent reporting and actionable insights to leadership.
• Drive execution of strategic portfolio initiatives across multiple cross-functional teams while balancing business priorities and organizational objectives.
• Facilitate collaboration across globally distributed teams to ensure seamless delivery and operational excellence.
• Manage and optimize the flow of value through the Agile Release Train using tools such as Program Kanban, Jira, Jira Align, Confluence, and other Agile information radiators.
• Coordinate with support, operations, and service teams to ensure successful product releases and issue resolution.
• Lead organizational readiness activities for PI Planning, including stakeholder alignment, dependency management, communication, and planning logistics.
• Champion Lean-Agile transformation by coaching leaders and influencing organizational change that improves execution and business outcomes.
• Support continuous evolution of Agile delivery practices, governance models, and operational excellence across the organization.

What we expect of you

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Biotechnology, Information Technology, or a related discipline.
• 12–17 years of experience in software delivery, Agile program management, product delivery, or related technology leadership roles.

Must-Have Skills

• Strong expertise in Agile methodologies, particularly the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) .
• Experience serving as a Release Train Engineer, Agile Program Manager, Scrum Master, or similar enterprise Agile leadership role.
• Proven experience facilitating PI Planning and other SAFe events across multiple Agile teams.
• Strong understanding of Agile software delivery and the end-to-end Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC).
• Hands-on experience with Jira, Jira Align, Confluence, and Agile planning/reporting tools.
• Experience identifying, managing, and resolving cross-team dependencies, risks, and impediments.
• Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence leaders and teams across a global matrix organization.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, facilitation, and communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to coach teams and leaders while driving continuous improvement and organizational agility.
• Demonstrated experience managing data-focused projects, including initiatives involving data platforms, data integration, analytics, or data transformation.
• Provide people leadership by coaching, mentoring, and developing team members, fostering a high-performing, collaborative, and accountable culture while supporting individual growth and organizational objectives.

Good-to-Have Skills

• Experience within biotechnology, pharmaceutical, healthcare, or other regulated industries.
• Understanding of DevOps practices, CI/CD, and Test Automation.
• Experience supporting enterprise portfolio planning and Lean Portfolio Management.
• Workshop facilitation, organizational change management, and Agile transformation experience.

Professional Certifications

Soft Skills

• Strong servant leadership and coaching mindset.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to influence without authority across multiple stakeholder groups.
• Strong collaboration and relationship-building capabilities.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Strategic thinking with a strong focus on execution and business outcomes.
• Commitment to continuous learning and continuous improvement.

What you can expect of us