Release Train Engineer

Job description

Lead, facilitate and coordinate the operation of the Agile Release Train (ART), ensuring quarterly synchronization between business and technology in assigned programs. Facilitate PI Planning events (pre-PI refinement, the 2-day event, Confidence Vote and ROAM exercise), the cross-team ceremonies during the increment (Scrum of Scrums, PO Sync, ART Sync and System Demo) and the Inspect & Adapt workshop at PI close — ensuring plan compliance, cross-team dependency management and predictable delivery of business value in every Program Increment. DIRECTLY INVOLVED IN THE FOLLOWING PROCESSES Agile coaching services and SAFe framework adoption. Facilitation and governance of PI Planning events. Management of the ART operating rhythm (cross-team ceremonies). Continuous improvement at program level (Inspect & Adapt). Health, safety and work environment compliance. Key Processes Supported Agile coaching and SAFe adoption PI Planning governance and facilitation ART operating rhythm management Program-level continuous improvement Health, safety, and workplace compliance ROLE REQUIREMENTS Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science , Engineering, Business Administration, or related field Preferred graduate-level education in Agile Project Management, Organizational Transformation, or related disciplines Minimum two (2) active SAFe / Agile certifications (SAFe RTE preferred). 5+ years leading software delivery programs 2+ years coordinating multiple teams at the program level Minimum 3 PI Planning events facilitated or co-facilitated in any prior context. KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS — TECHNOLOGIES Backlog and planning: Jira (including Jira Plans), Azure DevOps, Linear. Familiarity with Dynata two-Jira-project model (PM board and Engineering board). Visualization and Program Board: Miro, Mural, Lucidchart, Aha! Roadmaps. Documentation and knowledge management: Confluence, Notion, SharePoint, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace. Communication and collaboration: Microsoft Teams, Slack, Zoom, Google Meet. Live polling and surveys: Mentimeter, Slido, Poll Everywhere (for Confidence Vote and PI Planning dynamics). Metrics and dashboards: Tableau, Power BI, Jira Dashboards, EazyBI (reading and interpreting Predictability, Flow and Business Value metrics). Spreadsheets and modeling: Excel, Google Sheets (Sprint Capacity Planner, capacity debt tracking, ad-hoc analysis). Frameworks and methodologies: SAFe 6.0 (ART, Program Increment, PI Planning), Scrum, Kanban, Lean. Working knowledge of Dynata Product & Engineering Process (V1, May 2026). GENERAL RESPONSIBILITIES These are the strategic, ongoing accountabilities of the role. They apply continuously across every Program Increment. The responsibilities are grouped in two blocks: SAFe-canonical (what any RTE does anywhere) and Chapter-specific (what an RTE at Dynata does within the Chapter structure). SAFe-canonical responsibilities Own the ART operating rhythm end-to-end. The RTE is the single accountable owner of every cross-team ceremony that operates above the sprint level: pre-PI refinement, PI Planning, Scrum of Scrums, PO Sync, ART Sync, System Demo and Inspect & Adapt. Be the single point of escalation for cross-team dependencies and impediments within the ART. Teams escalate to the RTE; the RTE escalates upward only when a decision is needed above the ART level. Maintain the Program Board as the source of truth for what every team is committed to in the current PI. The Program Board is the RTE's primary artifact — updated by them or by named delegates, never left stale. Coach the PEMs, Tech Leads and Product Managers of the ART on the SAFe operating model. Coaching is delivered through observation, feedback and structured 1-on-1s — not through training events. Hold the trust relationship with the Business Owners of the ART. Business Owners must believe the RTE is operating in service of business outcomes — this is the precondition for BO commitment to 2-day PI Planning attendance and to honest Business Value scoring. Track and report Predictability, Flow and Business Value metrics for the ART. Where dashboards are not yet in production, the RTE owns interim manual reporting. Facilitate the Inspect & Adapt workshop at PI close and drive the resulting improvement backlog into the next PI. Continuous improvement at ART level is an RTE-owned outcome. Manage the ART's interfaces with adjacent teams, vendors and strategic initiatives. When dependencies cross the ART boundary, the RTE is the named liaison. Chapter-specific responsibilities (Dynata Agile Chapter) Report weekly to the Chapter Lead on ART health — Predictability trajectory, in-flight impediments, cross-team dependencies at risk, capacity debt balance, upcoming decisions. Participate in the monthly Chapter Council (90 minutes). Bring cross-ART issues, template evolution proposals, community-of-practice status. Coordinate with peer RTEs as additional ARTs stand up. When features or capabilities span multiple ARTs, peer RTEs collaborate on synchronization — chair-rotated between RTEs. Contribute team-level and ART-level data to the Metrics & Reporting Steward for the Chapter's cross-ART dashboards. Support the PEM Community Lead and the Agile Team Coach when they need ART-specific input for their communities of practice. Own the ART's contribution to the Chapter's rolling 12-month roadmap: onboarding of new teams, tooling improvements, capacity for training or certification. Represent the ART at the Chapter Lead's quarterly review with the CPO and Executive Sponsor. SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES Pre-PI refinement (Weeks 1–6 of the PI cycle) Facilitate the weekly pre-PI refinement cadence per team: 60-minute session where PM, PEM and Tech Lead jointly groom the top-priority features for the next PI. Required output per team: features sized, acceptance criteria written, dependencies flagged. Publish each team's capacity envelope 2 weeks before PI Planning — KTLO / Investable Capacity (BAU + Strategic) split, agreed with the team and reviewed with the Business Owner. Uses the Sprint Capacity Planner (Process Doc V1 Template 1) at PI scale. Run a mini Program Board pilot in Week 5: pick 2-3 in-flight features, map them on a digital board, surface dependencies, apply ROAM. This rehearses the actual PI Planning event artifact. Confirm Business Owners' calendar commitment for the full 2 days of PI Planning. Escalate any availability gap to the Chapter Lead and the Business Owner Liaison at least 3 weeks out. Test the hybrid PI Planning tooling in Week 4 — Program Board digital surface, Confidence Vote polling tool, breakout video channels. Any tool failure at PI Planning is an RTE failure. Finalize the Day-0 execution plan for PI Planning: room, agenda, attendees, materials, catering. Distribute pre-read to all attendees 5 business days before the event. PI Planning event (Days 1-2 of the event itself) Facilitate Day 1 end-to-end: executive opening from Sponsor, business vision and top features from PM Management, architecture vision from the Architect, team breakouts for draft planning. Close Day 1 with the draft-plan review and risk identification session. Facilitate Day 2: finalize team plans, walk the Program Board with every cross-team dependency as a string, apply ROAM to every risk, drive PI Objectives sign-off per team with Business Value scores (1–10) assigned by Business Owners. Conduct the Confidence Vote at PI Planning close (1–5 scale). If the average falls below 3.0, call an immediate re-plan on the lowest-confidence team's scope before closing the event. This is a non-negotiable RTE responsibility. Publish within 24 hours: signed PI Objectives per team, snapshot of the Program Board, ROAMed risk register with named owners, meeting minutes distributed to all attendees. In-PI execution (5 sprints + IP, approximately 10 weeks) Facilitate Scrum of Scrums twice per week (30 minutes): each Tech Lead reports impediments, dependencies in motion and emerging risks; keep the Program Board current with what changed. Facilitate PO Sync weekly (60 minutes): PEMs review priority changes, scope adjustments, capacity debt status and new requests from PMs; keep the program backlog current. Facilitate ART Sync weekly (60 minutes): cross-team program-level coordination across PEMs, Architects and PMs; document decisions and trade-offs in the decision log. Facilitate System Demo every 2 weeks (45 minutes): all teams demonstrate completed work to PMs, BOs and stakeholders; capture acceptance live; rejected items return to the backlog. Manage cross-team impediments as they emerge. Severity-1 (will miss a PI Objective) is escalated to the sponsor in under 4 hours; lower severities are logged in the impediment register and reviewed at the next ART Sync. Maintain the Predictability dashboard sprint over sprint. If at mid-PI the metric is trending below 60%, trigger a re-plan with PMs and PEMs. PI close — Inspect & Adapt (half-day workshop) Facilitate the PI System Demo: end-to-end demonstration of integrated value delivered across all ART teams. Present the quantitative PI close metrics: Predictability per team, Flow metrics, capacity debt balance and Business Value committed vs delivered. Facilitate the problem-solving workshop: root-cause analysis on the 2 to 3 most significant issues from the PI using structured techniques (5-Whys, fishbone, A3). Output: backlog of improvement actions with owners and target sprints in the next PI. Sign and distribute the Inspect & Adapt report; inputs feed the QBR data for the next quarter. Chapter-tied responsibilities (continuous) Send a weekly ART health note (email or Confluence) to the Chapter Lead: Predictability trajectory, top 3 in-flight impediments, dependencies at risk, upcoming decisions. Attend the monthly Chapter Council (90 minutes): bring cross-ART issues, contribute to template evolution, share community-of-practice status from the ART's perspective. Coordinate with peer RTEs on cross-ART dependencies. Where a feature or capability spans two ARTs, peer RTEs schedule a synchronization touchpoint within the same week the dependency surfaces. Represent the ART at the Chapter Lead's quarterly review with CPO and Executive Sponsor. Present ART-level data and outlook for the next PI. Contribute one template improvement or documented learning per quarter to the Chapter's shared library (playbooks, templates, decision aids). Cross-cutting responsibilities of the role Ensure that ART members comply with the engineering process defined by Dynata and with the requirements of the assigned program. Ensure the methodological quality of the assigned program, in terms of SAFe framework adoption and Dynata process guidelines. Ensure the proper documentation of program artifacts: Program Board, ROAM register, PI Objectives, capacity envelopes, Sprint Completion Report Cards, decisions and escalations. Perform impact analysis on scope changes during the PI and propose trade-offs to the business areas. Coach the ART team and propose the training they should receive; act as mentor / sponsor for any other internal coach or program-level role that requires guidance. Participate in the performance evaluation of Dynata staff assigned to the ART. Perform peer reviews on key program artifacts: PI Plans, Program Boards, Confidence Votes, Inspect & Adapt reports. Ensure the status and progress of PI commitments are updated in the assigned program's management system. Collaborate with cross-functional business and technical teams to understand business needs and support decision-making, both for ongoing and new programs. Analyze business needs focused on Dynata tactical and strategic plans, and propose, plan and execute the interventions required to meet such needs. At Dynata, we deliver the highest quality first-party data to help businesses around the world gain precise insights, activate the right audiences, and confidently measure impact. With industry-leading respondent accuracy, reliability, and a commitment to continuous improvement, Dynata is the trusted foundation for smarter decision-making. At Dynata, we are committed to creating an inclusive and accessible environment where every employee and customer feels valued, respected, and supported. We strive to build a workforce that reflects the diversity of the communities we serve. Dynata welcomes and encourages applications from individuals with disabilities and is dedicated to fostering a work culture that supports everyone. Accommodations are available upon request for all aspects of the selection process. Dynata is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We consider all qualified applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), national origin, marital status, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other legally protected status under applicable laws. The base salary range for this position in is $95K-$115K/yr; however, base pay offered may vary depending on location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. A discretionary incentive program may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to a full range of medical and other benefits, dependent on full-time employment status. #LI-Remote