Release Associate Jobs (NOW HIRING)

UPMC Health Plan is seeking an Associate Agile Release Train Engineer (RTE) to help us continue our Business Agility journey and goals. They will lead an Agile Release Train (ART)s team of teams through the preparation, facilitation and delivery of our Program Increments (PIs). Reporting to the Sr. Director of Business Agility, the Associate RTE is a critical role within the Health Plan's agile ways of working, anchored in relentless improvement, agility, design-thinking, and customer-centricity. The Associate RTE will partner with Product Management, Architects/Engineering, and ART leaders to leverage Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) processes, tools and mechanisms in support of a successful roll-out of Business Agility best practices, events and ceremonies for a single Agile Release Train. The candidate brings a positive attitude, sense of urgency and a proven track-record of team building and lean product delivery. By leveraging excellent communications skills, they work effectively with cross-functional team members and other roles. As a servant leader, RTEs use experience, facts and soft-skills rather than authority to achieve goals. They put our customers first and are passionate about delivering value.

This is a full time position working Monday through Friday daylight hours and will be a hybrid position consisting of working from home and in office which is located in Pittsburgh, PA.
Responsibilities:

• Coach ART leaders, ART teams, and Scrum Masters in Lean-Agile practices and mindsets.
• Prepare and lead ART events, such as Program Increment (PI) Planning, and PI Execution ceremonies.
• Facilitate PI readiness by ensuring available visions, roadmap and prioritized Feature backlog for the ART's PIs.
• Work closely with Product Management, Product Owners and Scrum Masters, Business Owners, ART leadership, System Architects, and other shared functions to support the ART in delivering committed PI Objectives.
• Facilitate the flow of value through the ART using the Program Kanban system for Feature readiness and delivery.
• Drive cross-team, ART and departmental impediment escalation, planning, collaboration, and coordination, including inter-ART dependencies
• Provide regular and open communication across the ART and stakeholders for transparency of progress and impediments via ART Syncs and System Demos.
• Help manage risks and dependencies, and escalate and track impediments.
• Work with Product Management, Product Owners and other stakeholders to help ensure strategy and execution alignment.
• Promote the use of DevOps culture and Continuous Delivery Pipeline for releasing.
• Drive relentless improvement via Inspect & Adapt workshops, along with acting as a binding agent that connects teams.
• Champion the use of Business Agility self-assessments and Flow metrics for the ART and review with the ART to identify improvement opportunities.
• Support scrum ceremonies for the teams where needed.
• Keep an objective perspective on issues and troubleshoots by applying agile principles.
• Perform other duties as assigned to accomplish organization goals and objectives.

• Bachelor degree preferred, or high school diploma/GED with 10+ years of relevant experience.
• 2+ years of Scrum Master experience, or Program Management within an Agile delivery environment.
• 6+ years of experience in a professional environment.
• At least 1 SAFe certification required.
• Experience running agile projects/programs of varying size and complexity.
• Strong servant leader, motivator, educator, and coach.
• Ability to interact and communicate effectively with senior leadership.
• Strong facilitation, strategic thinking, problem solving, and leadership skills.
• Exceptional leadership and strong executive reporting skills.
• Outstanding written and verbal communications skills.
• Ability to function in a team-oriented environment and influence staff, colleagues, and superiors.
• Ability to coach and motivate diverse agile teams and juggle multiple tasks.

• Experience with Microsoft Azure DevOps, Apptio, and/or Jira (preferred)
  Licensure, Certifications, and Clearances:
  At least 1 SAFe certification required.

  Act 34.

  UPMC is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Disability/Veteran
  UPMC is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Disability/Veteran