Hybrid Release Train Engineer

at GM Financial

• Job title: Release Train Engineer
• Job type: Full Time
• Experience level: Mid level, Senior
• Salary: Not specified
• Degree requirement: High School Diploma
• Location requirements: Hybrid, Arlington, United States

About the role

• Release Train Engineer facilitating Agile Release Train events and coaching Product Owners for GM Financial's digital innovation. Driving improvement and ensuring delivery value in a hybrid work environment.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a servant leader and facilitator for the Agile Release Train (ART), helping establish foundational SAFe roles, events, and ways of working across teams and stakeholders.
• Facilitate core ART ceremonies—including PI Planning, ART Syncs, System Demos, and Inspect & Adapt events—ensuring participants understand the purpose, outcomes, and expectations of each event.
• Support the initial launch and stabilization of the ART by helping teams, Product Owners, and leaders adopt Lean‑Agile and SAFe principles, practices, and terminology.
• Partner closely with Product Owners to establish healthy backlogs, clarify roles and responsibilities, and support effective backlog refinement and prioritization practices.
• Act as a player–coach and leader for Product Owners by providing hands-on guidance, modeling effective Product Ownership behaviors, and assisting with Product Owner responsibilities when capability or capacity gaps exist.
• Enable transparency and flow by introducing and maintaining basic visual management tools, and simple flow metrics appropriate for an early-stage ART.
• Help identify, track, and escalate impediments, risks, and dependencies, while coaching teams and leaders on shared problem-solving and decision-making.
• Foster a safe, collaborative environment where teams and individuals feel supported to experiment, learn, and improve as they adopt new ways of working.
• Future state - establish and communicate the initial cadence and calendars for Iterations, Program Increments (PIs), and key planning and alignment events.
• Coach leaders, Scrum Masters, and Product Owners on their evolving roles within SAFe, emphasizing collaboration, alignment, and value delivery over traditional command-and-control behaviors.
• Support Inspect & Adapt activities by helping teams reflect on what is working, what is not, and what practical improvements can be made in the next increment.
• Collaborate with leadership and enabling functions to identify training, tooling, and resourcing needs required to successfully launch and sustain the ART.

Requirements

• 5–7 years of experience working in Agile environments (Scrum, Kanban, and/or early scaled delivery models), supporting multiple teams or complex initiatives
• High School Diploma or equivalent required
• Bachelor’s Degree or additional equivalent work or military experience preferred
• 4–6 years of experience as a Product Owner or Product Manager on Agile teams, with direct responsibility for backlog management, prioritization, and stakeholder collaboration.
• 2 or more years of experience in a people leadership or performance leadership role, including coaching, feedback, and development of team members.
• Experience operating in evolving or hybrid Agile environments, with the ability to adapt roles and responsibilities as organizational maturity grows.
• SAFe 5.0 Release Train Engineer (RTE certification) 90 Days required
• SAFe 5.0 SAFe Program Consultant (SPC certification) preferred

Benefits

• Generous benefits package available on day one to include: 401K matching
• bonding leave for new parents (12 weeks, 100% paid)
• tuition assistance
• training
• GM employee auto discount
• community service pay
• nine company holidays