Release Train Engineer (Birmingham, AL)

Optomi, in partnership with a leading information technology and services company, is seeking an experience Release Train Engineer for their Birmingham, Alabama office! The Release Train Engineer will work in a hybrid format, onsite Tuesday-Thursday every week. The ideal candidate will be SAFe Certified, with at least 2 years of experience as an Agile practitioner or Scrum Master. The Release Train Engineer should have strong communication, negotiation and problem solving skills. The right candidate will enjoy working for an organization with the ability to make an impact from day one!

What the right candidate will enjoy!

• Working with a company that is driving forward the cutting edge technologies that are changing the world!
• The ability to make an impact on the organization from day one!
• The opportunity to work with large clientele and large budget projects!

Experience of the right candidate:

• Strong facilitation, communication (written and verbal), and negotiation skills.
• Excellent listener and mentor with outstanding interpersonal conflict-resolutions skills, and the ability to work in collaborative environments.
• Strong analytical and problem solving skills with a high attention to detail and lean thinking.
• Articulate, persuasive, and comfortable interacting with all levels of the organization.
• Solid background utilizing an Agile framework (e.g. Scrum, Extreme Programming, Kanban, SAFe) in software development, such as 2 years as an Agile practitioner, or 2 years as a scrum master, or 3 years as a program manager.
• Experience with the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe).
• Experience with processes and tools supporting Agile methodologies.
• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Computer Science, or related field or equivalent combination of industry-related professional experience and education.
• Experience in stakeholder relationship and team building.
• Expertise in Scrum including the values and principles, and how they are applied in large, enterprise environments.
• Familiarity with modern software engineering techniques such as Continuous integration, build, deliver, test-driven development and other automated acceptance testing techniques.
• Experience working with co-located and offshore teams.
• One or more Agile certification such as Certified Scrum Practitioner (CSP), Certified or Professional Scrum Trainer (CST, PST), Certified Enterprise Coach (CEC), Associate or Professional Certified Coach (ACC, PCC), or SAFe Program Consultant (SPC).
• Ability to understand technical issues.

Responsibilities of the right candidate:

• Manage and optimize the flow of value through the ART using various tools, such as the Program Kanbans and other information radiators.
• Establish and communicate the annual calendars for Iterations and Program Increments (PIs).
• Facilitate PI Planning readiness by fostering the preparation of Solution/Product Vision and Backlogs, and through Pre and Post-PI Planning meetings.
• Facilitate the PI planning event, System Demos, ART Synch, and other ART-level ceremonies.
• Summarize Team PI Objectives into Program PI Objectives and publish them for visibility and transparency.
• Assist tracking the execution of features and capabilities.
• Facilitate periodic synchronization meetings, including the ART sync at the Program Level.
• Assist with economic decision-making by facilitating Epic and feature and estimation by teams.
• Coach leaders, teams, and Scrum Masters in Lean-Agile practices and mindsets.
• Help manage risks and dependencies.
• Escalate and track impediments.
• Provide input on staffing to address critical bottlenecks.
• Encourage collaboration between teams and System and Solution Architects/Engineering.
• Work with Product Management, Product Owners, and other stakeholders to help ensure strategy and execution alignment.
• Improve the flow of value through value streams using the Continuous Delivery Pipeline and DevOps.
• Help drive the Lean User Experience (UX) innovation cycle.
• Report status to Lean Portfolio Team (LPT) and support related activities.
• Understand and operate within Lean Budgets.
• Drive relentless improvement via Inspect and Adapt workshops; assess the agility level of the ART and help them improve.