Principal Release Train Engineer

LPL Financial•Fort Mill, SC

4d•$134,312 - $223,922

About The Position

The Vice President (VP), Release Train Engineer (RTE) will serve as a strategic leader within the Enterprise Program Management Office (EPMO) organization. This role combines Agile leadership with Technical Program Management expertise to drive enterprise-scale delivery of technology initiatives. The AVP will partner closely with Senior Vice Presidents and cross-functional stakeholders to align roadmaps with business priorities, provide transparent executive-level status reporting, and coach delivery teams to achieve operational excellence.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Business, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent experience.
7+ years of experience in Agile delivery, program management, project management, or technology leadership roles.
7+ years of experience serving as a Release Train Engineer, Agile Program Manager, Senior Scrum Master, or equivalent role.
7+ years experience leading large-scale, cross-functional programs involving multiple Agile teams.
10+ years expereince/knowledge of Agile frameworks, including SAFe.
Demonstrated experience facilitating PI Planning and other large-scale Agile ceremonies.
Proven experience facilitating Agile Release Trains (SAFe RTE certification strongly preferred).
Strong working knowledge of JIRA, JQL, Confluence or similar tools and has advanced Excel skills
Strong executive presence with demonstrated ability to engage, influence, and provide insight to SVPs and C-level leaders.
Relationship builder with ability to navigate complex organizational structures.
Coaches the Agile delivery team on Agile mindset and methodologies, and relevant processes. Exemplifies and promotes Agile values and principles.
Has knowledge of intake processes and prioritization. Is able to prioritize own work and to contribute to the prioritization of work of the team.
Guides team members in understanding their role. Helps team identify and resolve conflicts, with help from others. Helps the team break down and deliver incremental work.
Effectively partners / coaches Product Owner and Dev Team to deliver value. Tracks progress and visualizes work by measuring progress and velocity through defined processes including generating a burn-down chart.
Partner internally and externally to make effective decisions solving complex problems, escalating high priority issues or impediments as appropriate, monitoring progress and results, and recognizing and capitalizing on improvement opportunities.
Be proactive and exercise initiative in identifying, tracking, and removing impediments to program success.

Nice To Haves

Experience handling Hybrid team of Multi vendors and complex projects.
PMP, PgMP, SAFe certifications

Responsibilities

Facilitate Agile Release Train (ART) events (e.g., PI Planning, Inspect & Adapt, Scrum of Scrums), ensuring alignment to organizational goals.
Drive continuous improvement across delivery teams, embedding Agile best practices in Technology Infrastructure & Operations.
Remove delivery impediments by coordinating across teams, leaders, and external stakeholders.
Serve as a servant leader and coach for ART members, leaders, and stakeholders.
Manage large-scale programs and portfolio deliverables, ensuring scope, timeline, budget, and risk are effectively governed
Partner with SVPs and senior stakeholders to develop and maintain program roadmaps that align with strategic objectives.
Deliver clear and concise executive-level updates, dashboards, and status reporting for technology and business leadership.
Coordinate across multiple initiatives to ensure dependencies are understood, managed, and communicated effectively.
Serve as the primary servant leader for the Agile Release Train, Facilitate ART events, including: PI Planning, ART Syncs, Scrum of Scrums, System Demos, Inspect & Adapt Workshops.
Ensure alignment between business priorities, technology strategy, and ART execution.
Drive adherence to Agile, Lean, and SAFe principles.
Monitor and communicate ART progress toward committed Program Increment objectives.
Identify, track, and manage risks, issues, dependencies, and blockers across teams.
Escalate and resolve impediments that impact delivery timelines and business outcomes.
Facilitate coordination among multiple Agile teams to achieve program objectives.
Partner closely with Product Management, Product Owners, Business Owners, Architecture, Portfolio Management, and Technology Leadership.
Provide transparent reporting on ART performance, delivery status, risks, and capacity.
Facilitate decision-making and alignment among business and technology stakeholders.
Support executive communications regarding program health and delivery outcomes.
Drive continuous improvement initiatives across teams and the ART.
Utilize metrics and performance indicators to identify opportunities for optimization.
Coach teams and leaders on Agile practices, servant leadership, and Lean-Agile mindset.
Facilitate problem-solving sessions and root cause analysis efforts.
Maintain visibility into cross-team dependencies and delivery commitments.
Coordinate mitigation strategies for delivery risks and resource constraints.
Collaborate with Portfolio Management and leadership teams to ensure strategic alignment.
Mentor Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and team leaders.
Promote Agile best practices and organizational Agile maturity.
Support teams through transformation and change management initiatives.
Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, innovation, and continuous learning.