Director, Release Train Engineer, Digital Products

Job Description

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Role Overview

As a member of the web and mobile leadership teams, the Director, Release Train Engineer (RTE) serves as a servant leader and coach for one or more Agile Release Trains (ARTs) building secure web and mobile applications and features.

This role is accountable for optimizing the flow of value, facilitating ART events and execution, and enabling alignment across Product Management, Architecture, Engineering, and Business Owners to deliver high-quality digital products at scale.

The Director, RTE fosters relentless improvement, enables decentralized decision-making, and helps the organization apply Lean-Agile principles to achieve predictable delivery and meaningful business outcomes.

What you will do:

Core responsibilities of this role include, but are not limited to:

• Serve as a servant leader and coach for the ART, enabling teams to self-manage while maintaining alignment to shared PI Objectives.
• Optimize end-to-end flow of value across the ART using SAFe flow metrics (Flow Velocity, Flow Time, Flow Load, Flow Distribution).
• Partner with Product Management and System Architecture to ensure alignment between vision, roadmap, capacity, and architectural runway.
• Facilitate and continuously improve planning ceremonies, ensuring readiness, dependency alignment, and commitment to outcomes.
• Lead ART Syncs (Scrum of Scrums and PO Sync) to manage dependencies, risks, and progress.
• Facilitate System Demos to promote transparency and stakeholder feedback.
• Lead Inspect & Adapt events, including problem-solving workshops, blocker clustering and backlog refinement.
• Implement communication standards across all programs, including executive, key partner, and vendor communications.
• Proactively identify, visualize, and manage cross-team dependencies and risks, escalating impediments that cannot be resolved within the ART.
• Foster a culture of early risk identification.
• Own the tracking and reporting of Objectives and Key Results including measurements of delivery.
• Partner with System Architects, Engineering Leads, and Enterprise Architecture to ensure architectural alignment and enable fast, sustainable flow of value—without directly owning solution design decisions.

What you need to succeed:

Agile experience

• Proven track record delivering in scaled Agile environments (e.g., SAFe, LeSS, SoS), with over 5 years of hands-on experience.
• Experience in coaching Agile ways of working to teams in a scaled model.
• Experience leading or shaping large transformational efforts.
• Strong coaching skill set with considerable experience in coaching large teams with various levels of maturity.
• Demonstrated experience facilitating ART ceremonies.

Domain expertise

• Experience in writing, evolving, and reporting on Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)
• Experience in senior engineering and technology roles working with product development teams to deliver and build digital products – while remaining hands-on.
• An expert digital product delivery.
• Experience in DevSecOps, CI/CD and Agile release management.
• A wide experience and understanding of digital architecture in terms of solution, data, and integration.

Mindset and behaviors

• Critical thinker passionate about challenging the status quo and driving innovative ideas.
• Believes in a non-hierarchical culture of collaboration, transparency, and trust.
• Experimental mindset to drive innovation and continuous improvement.
• Calm under pressure with an ownership mindset and track record of getting things done.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to convey complex messages at all levels of the organization.
• Excellent problem-solving abilities and the capacity to lead teams to innovative solutions.
• Ability to inspire and empower people and teams, building momentum around a vision.

Preferred Qualifications

• Certified Scrum Practitioner (CSP), Certified Scrum Coach (CSC), Scrum Alliance Scrum Master, or Kanban Management Professional (KMP)
• Certified Agile Leadership (CAL-e)
• SAFe Release Train Engineer (RTE) certification
• SAFe Agilist (SA) or SAFe Practice Consultant (SPC) experience (preferred)
• Participation in Agile/Kanban communities of practice

What’s in it for you?

• Great Place to Work® Certified for Most Trusted Executive Team in Canada – 2025, 2024 and 2023
• Great Place to Work® Certified for Best Workplaces in Canada - 2025
• Canada Order of Excellence for Mental Health at Work® certification from Excellence Canada. Sun Life is one of only four companies in Canada to ever receive this certification – 2024
• Top Work Places® for Remote Work – Monster Canada - 2024
• Great Place to Work® Certified for Best Workplaces in Canada – 2024 and 2022
• Great Place to Work® Certified for Best Workplaces for Women in Canada - 2024
• Flexible hybrid work model.