8+ years in software delivery, release or program management; 3+ years as a Release Train Engineer or equivalent.
Hands-on experience with Agile-Scrum at scale; SAFe RTE certification preferred.
Working knowledge of ServiceNow delivery, including update sets and ITSM change management.
Proven ability to manage release gates and cross-team dependencies in regulated environments.
Familiarity with Jira, Confluence, and ServiceNow SPM; strong metrics reporting skills.
Executive-level communication skills to manage scope and quality with stakeholders.
Responsibilities
Run cross-scrum release planning and backlog refinement.
Own an integrated roadmap and release calendar for ESM teams.
Plan capacity across US and India teams, flagging over-commitment early.
Manage the cross-scrum dependency process and escalate issues as needed.
Facilitate the Release-Readiness forum and enforce entry and exit gates.
Coordinate with change management for each release type and window.
Coach scrum masters and teams, ensuring continuous improvement.
Benefits
Opportunity to work in a dynamic, multi-team environment.
Exposure to cutting-edge release automation and AI technologies.
Chance to influence and improve Agile practices across teams.
Collaboration with global teams in the US and India.
Professional development through coaching and workshops.
Full Job Description
Job Responsibilities:
1 Planning, cadence and capacity
Run cross-scrum release planning, sprint planning alignment, backlog refinement readiness and sprint review/demo.
Own one integrated roadmap and release calendar across all ESM teams, replacing separate team calendars.
Plan capacity across US and India teams and flag over-commitment early.
Hold the line on release scope: baseline it at planning and manage late additions through an explicit decision, not by default.
2. Dependency and flow management
Own the cross-scrum dependency process: log, assign, track and escalate.
Run the weekly scrum of scrums; track WIP, cycle time and throughput; remove bottlenecks.
Keep the demand-to-delivery path visible from SPM intake through development, testing and release.
3. Release and SDLC governance
Facilitate the Release-Readiness forum and enforce release entry and exit gates, from demand approval and ready-for-dev through QA, release candidate, production readiness and post-release validation.
Maintain the release checklist and tracker (SIT to hypercare), production-readiness checklist, rollback planning and go/no-go record.
Coordinate with J&J change management so every release is tied to the right change type and window.
Manage the hotfix and sync-back process and the upgrade, clone and code-migration runbook cadence, including the twice-yearly ServiceNow upgrades.
Drive deployment discipline with the release manager: deployment order, update-set preview and collision review, and reduced manual steps through release automation.
4. Quality and testing alignment
Work with SQA and the test lead to confirm testing-evidence standards, SIT and UAT sign-offs and defect triage before every release.
Push for ServiceNow-native test management and ATF use, with test metrics available to leadership on request.
5. Governance, reporting and stakeholder alignment
Run the governance cadence; route escalations and exceptions to the right forum (architecture and technical review, platform owner review, steering) and record outcomes.
Own the bi-weekly status report and RAID log; keep J&J sponsors and scrum teams aligned on progress, risks and decisions required.
Report release health through the operational scorecards: throughput, cycle time, release success and platform health.
6. Ways of working, coaching and transition
Coach scrum masters and teams; run story-point calibration workshops and retrospectives; keep an improvement backlog and make sure actions close.
Make the ESM ways-of-working practised, not just documented (sprint checklist, ceremonies, scrum of scrums).
Build J&J capability and hand cadences and forums to a J&J-led owner as the engagement matures.
Required Qualifications:
8+ years in software delivery, release or program management, with 3+ years as a Release Train Engineer, release lead or equivalent for multi-team programs.
Hands-on experience running Agile-Scrum at scale (SAFe RTE certification strongly preferred; CSM/PSM or equivalent).
Working knowledge of ServiceNow delivery: update sets and environment promotion, ATF, ITSM change and release management, and upgrades.
Proven ability to run release gates, go/no-go decisions and cross-team dependency management in a regulated enterprise (SOX, GxP-adjacent controls or similar).
Comfortable with Jira, Confluence and ServiceNow SPM; strong reporting and metrics skills (cycle time, throughput, release success).
Executive-level communication; able to hold a firm line on scope and quality with senior business and IT stakeholders.
Preferred:
ServiceNow SPM or Agile Development experience; ServiceNow certifications (CSA, CIS-ITSM or CAD).
Experience in life sciences or healthcare, and with US/India distributed teams.
Experience introducing release automation and AI-assisted release readiness.
