Summary

Engineering and Delivery Manager with 20 years in software engineering and a deliberate career progression from Senior QA Architect to team and delivery leadership. The engineering background is not incidental — it shapes how problems are diagnosed, how technical trade-offs are evaluated, and how engineering culture is built: quality as a foundation, not a layer added at the end.

Managed engineering teams of up to 10 FTE direct and 30+ matrix across the full people management lifecycle — from hiring (technical and cultural fit interviews with go/no go authority) through onboarding, 1-1s, performance reviews, PDPs, PIPs, and offboarding. Sustained team leadership over 12+ month engagements with measurable growth in team capability and delivery performance. Maintains hands-on technical practice — PoC development, engineering tooling evaluation, and AI-augmented development — to stay credible with engineers and make grounded technical decisions.

Identifies team health through engineering intelligence signals — delivery metrics in Jira, engagement patterns in ceremonies, code review quality — enabling early intervention before escalation. Builds team culture around five concrete principles: shift-left quality, blameless post-mortems, continuous improvement as a habit, DoR/DoD as a living artifact, and transparency by design. 6+ years managing fully distributed teams across up to 5 timezones.

Key Competencies

People Management

  • Full lifecycle: hiring (technical + cultural fit, go/no go authority), onboarding, structured 1-1s
  • Performance reviews, PDPs, PIPs, and offboarding
  • Direct reports up to 10 FTE; matrix coordination up to 30+ specialists
  • Exit interviews as a systematic improvement input, not a formality

Engineering Culture

  • Shift-left quality & quality-first engineering
  • Blameless post-mortems as a team habit
  • DoR/DoD as a living team artefact
  • Continuous improvement & transparency by design

Delivery & Process

  • Multi-team delivery coordination (up to 4 teams)
  • Dependency management, release planning & governance
  • Risk register & mitigation tracking, milestone control
  • Scrum, Kanban, Scrum of Scrums, SAFe (RTE / ART level), Waterfall

Technical Leadership

  • Engineering tooling selection & evaluation
  • QA automation architecture, CI/CD pipeline quality & observability design
  • Tech stack evaluation for QA and reporting domains
  • Hands-on PoC capability; AI-assisted engineering (GitHub Copilot, Claude Code), AWS

Team Health & Performance

  • Engineering intelligence through delivery metrics (DORA, velocity, defect trends)
  • Ceremony engagement signals & code review quality patterns
  • Performance improvement cycles including remediation plans
  • Conflict navigation — technical and interpersonal

Distributed Team Management

  • 6+ years managing fully remote, globally distributed teams across up to 5 timezones
  • Async-first collaboration design
  • 24/7 on-call coverage models, remote-native onboarding

Stakeholder & Financial

  • C-level reporting: executive dashboards, RAG status, OKR/KPI tracking
  • Cross-functional alignment with Product, DevOps, Security, Legal, and Compliance
  • Operational budget management up to $100k/month, grade-to-cost analysis
  • Engineering outcomes translated into business language

Agile Delivery

SAFe, RTE, assessments, coaching, PI planning (click to expand)

Agile Transformation & SAFe Implementation

Lead enterprise-wide agile transformations, including the setup of new Agile Release Trains (ARTs) and the implementation of SAFe from the ground up.

Interim Release Train Engineer (RTE)

Provide experienced RTE leadership for a fixed period to launch a new ART, stabilize a struggling program, or cover a critical gap in the delivery leadership team.

Agile Maturity Assessments

Conduct a comprehensive audit of your current Agile practices, team health, and delivery metrics to provide a clear roadmap for improvement.

Executive Agile Coaching

Coach leadership and C-level stakeholders on Lean-Agile principles, empowering them to become better servant leaders and make evidence-based strategic decisions.

Delivery Process Turnaround

Diagnose and resolve critical delivery bottlenecks, dependencies, and systemic impediments that are slowing down time-to-market and frustrating teams.

PI Planning Facilitation

Plan, design, and facilitate high-stakes, multi-team Program Increment (PI) Planning events to ensure strategic alignment and predictable value delivery.

Vendor Delivery Integration

Integrate external vendor teams into your internal Agile processes, establishing clear communication, dependency management, and reporting frameworks.

Custom Agile Framework Design

Design a tailored, hybrid Agile framework that fits your unique organizational context, moving beyond “one-size-fits-all” methodologies.

Delivery Process Management

SDLC design, metrics, risk, recovery (click to expand)

End-to-End SDLC Process Design

Design and implement a robust, scalable SDLC governance model that defines clear quality gates, roles, and responsibilities from ideation to deployment.

Metrics & OKR Implementation

Establish a data-driven decision-making culture by defining, implementing, and visualizing key delivery metrics (flow, predictability, quality) and aligning them with strategic OKRs.

Bottleneck Analysis & Throughput Optimization

Use Value Stream Mapping and flow analytics to identify systemic bottlenecks in your delivery process and implement targeted solutions to increase throughput.

Risk Management Framework Setup

Build and implement a proactive risk and issue management framework for complex programs, including dependency mapping and mitigation planning.

Blameless Post-Mortem Facilitation

Facilitate psychologically safe post-mortems for incidents or failed projects to uncover root causes and drive systemic improvements, not blame.

Cross-Functional Dependency Management

Map and establish a governance model for managing complex dependencies across multiple teams, departments, and external vendors.

Tool Consolidation & Migration Strategy

Develop a strategy to consolidate or migrate between project management tools (e.g., Jira to Azure DevOps), ensuring data integrity and minimal team disruption.

Project Recovery Service

Step in to assess a failing or “red” project, negotiate scope, stabilize the team, and create a realistic recovery plan to bring it back on track.

People Management

Hiring, onboarding, development, reviews (click to expand)

Hiring & Technical Interviews

Design structured interview processes for delivery, Agile, and technical roles. Conduct competency-based interviews, technical assessments, and calibration sessions. 70+ interviews conducted across QA, BA, and Agile roles.

Onboarding & Offboarding

Build standardized onboarding programs that accelerate time-to-productivity for new hires, including 30/60/90-day plans, buddy systems, and knowledge transfer checklists. Design smooth offboarding processes to ensure continuity and knowledge retention.

Personal Development Plans (PDPs)

Create individualized growth plans aligned with both team needs and personal career aspirations. Define skill matrices, learning paths, and milestone checkpoints to track progression from junior to senior roles.

1-on-1 Campaigns & Coaching

Establish regular 1-on-1 cadences with structured agendas covering career growth, blockers, feedback, and well-being. Use coaching techniques to develop autonomy, accountability, and servant leadership within the team.

Performance Reviews & Calibration

Implement transparent performance review cycles with clear criteria, self-assessments, peer feedback, and manager evaluations. Facilitate calibration sessions to ensure fair and consistent assessment across teams.

Engagement Models

Flexible engagement options tailored to your needs and timeline:

Certifications

Agile & Leadership

  • Certified SAFe® 6 Agilist — Scaled Agile
  • Professional Scrum Master™ I (PSM I) — Scrum.org
  • CertiProf Scrum Master Professional (SMPC)

AI & Agents

  • Claude Code 101 — Anthropic
  • Claude Code in Action — Anthropic
  • Introduction to Model Context Protocol — Anthropic
  • Model Context Protocol: Advanced Topics — Anthropic
  • AI Fluency Framework and Foundations — Anthropic
  • AI Product Management Certificate — Latitude
  • AI Agents Evaluation — Latitude

Quality & Process

  • ISTQB® Advanced Level Test Manager (CTAL-TM)
  • ISTQB® Foundation Level (CTFL)
  • Six Sigma Yellow Belt (SSYB) — 6sigmastudy
  • Negotiation Associate (NCN-A) — NGstudy / VMEdu
  • Project Management: The Basics for Success — UC Irvine / Coursera

SAFe AI Skill Badges (2025–2026)

  • Empowering RTEs with AI
  • AI Skills for SAFe Practice Consultants
  • AI Skills for Scrum Masters / Team Coaches
  • Empowering Portfolio Leadership with AI
  • Empowering Product Management with AI
  • Exploring the Release Train Engineer Role
  • Facilitating Alignment Events for the ART
  • Facilitating an Inspect and Adapt Event
  • Accelerating ART Flow
  • Accelerating Team Flow
  • Creating Effective Roadmaps
  • Design Thinking Fundamentals
  • Developing Product Vision and Strategy
  • Establishing Team and ART Kanban Systems
  • Measuring Team and ART Flow
  • Prioritizing the ART Backlog
  • Understanding and Improving Flow
  • Writing Effective Features in SAFe
Verify at Credly →

Languages & Community

English (C1) Russian (Native) Spanish (B1) Polish (A2)

Speaker at Agile / Engineering Management / QA events (DataArt, EPAM)

SAFe 6 Agilist
Professional Scrum Master I
Scrum Master Professional Certificate
ISTQB CTAL-TM
ISTQB CTFL
Claude Code 101
Claude Code in Action
Introduction to Model Context Protocol
Model Context Protocol: Advanced Topics
AI Fluency Framework and Foundations
AI Product Management Certificate
AI Agents Evaluation
Six Sigma Yellow Belt
Negotiation Associate
Project Management: The Basics for Success

Experience

Engineering & Delivery Lead | SAFe Release Train Engineer

B2BROKER · FinTech / Crypto

Sep 2025 – Mar 2026

  • Led delivery governance across 8 Agile teams (~60 FTE): dependency resolution, PI Planning facilitation, risk register ownership, and milestone tracking at ART level
  • Achieved PI Predictability 85%+ (above SAFe industry benchmark of 80%) through structured planning, team coaching, and systemic impediment resolution
  • Established engineering health visibility: EBM metrics dashboard covering PI predictability, velocity, defect density, and automation ROI across all teams — reported to C-level
  • Built centralised delivery and quality knowledge base (Confluence): team onboarding runbooks, process standards, escalation protocols — reducing onboarding time by ~20%
  • Embedded shift-left practices: DoR checklists with testable acceptance criteria, automation coverage review in pre-PI planning, eliminating late-stage defect injection

Engineering Manager | Senior Scrum Master

Quintegro LLC · Enterprise SaaS / Travel

Jun 2024 – Aug 2025

  • Operated as de-facto Engineering Manager across 4 teams (30+ FTE) — owning people performance, delivery health, and operational budget oversight alongside resource utilisation and grade-to-cost analysis
  • Increased delivery predictability by 25% through engineering metrics implementation, structured dependency management, and monthly executive dashboards for C-suite
  • Introduced team health monitoring through Jira delivery signals, ceremony engagement patterns, and code review quality — enabling early performance interventions
  • Ran structured exit interviews as input to team improvement planning; fed insights directly into retrospective-driven Project Improvement Plans
  • Reduced sprint overhead by 10% and time waste by 15–20% through Jira/Confluence workflow automation; enforced DoR/DoD as living team artefacts across all squads

QA Lead & Scrum Master | Head of Spain Agile Unit

EPAM Systems · FinTech, AI, E-commerce, Travel

Jun 2019 – May 2024

  • Founded and led the Spain Agile Unit: hired, onboarded, and managed a local engineering chapter with full people management authority including performance reviews, PDPs, and offboarding decisions
  • Conducted 50+ technical (live-coding, tech stack evaluation) and cultural fit interviews with go/no go hiring authority across QA, SDET, and BA disciplines
  • Managed 40+ promotion cycles; designed individual career tracks and growth plans aligned to both engineer goals and project delivery requirements
  • Sustained team leadership over 12+ month engagements with measurable improvement in team capability, test automation coverage, and defect containment rates
  • Embedded blameless post-mortem culture and shift-left practices across 4 concurrent projects, achieving 40%+ production defect reduction and Defect Containment Efficiency >90%
  • Introduced Splunk and Datadog as engineering health signals — connecting delivery metrics to business-readable dashboards for product and engineering leadership
  • Led SAFe Agile transformation as RTE for 4 teams; confirmed 20–30% delivery speed improvement and 15% velocity increase within 2 PIs

Senior QA / Senior Test Automation | Business Analyst

DataArt Solutions · FinTech, EdTech, E-commerce

Jul 2008 – May 2019

  • Built and mentored QA and SDET teams from scratch across multiple client engagements (up to 10 direct reports); managed full engineering talent lifecycle including hiring, performance management, and professional development
  • Managed client relationships and project delivery under fixed-scope, fixed-budget, and T&M contract models — including scope change management, risk escalation, and client C-level reporting
  • Conducted onsite client discoveries across Europe and USA; owned requirement lifecycle from pre-sales through UAT and upsell, interfacing with business stakeholders at all levels
  • Coordinated subcontractor and vendor delivery: selection, SLA definition and monitoring, performance review, and escalation management across multiple concurrent accounts
  • Architected test automation frameworks across the full testing pyramid (UI, API, Performance) — achieving 90% regression cycle reduction and 20x acceleration on key client engagements

What Others Say

“I strongly recommend Evgenii for any Release Train Engineer or Agile leadership role. From day one, he impressed me with how methodical and structured his approach was, from preparing PI Planning to running ART Syncs and Inspect & Adapt workshops in a predictable, transparent way. He is genuinely result-focused: he keeps conversations anchored in business outcomes, helps teams remove impediments rather than just report them, and continuously nudges the train toward measurable improvements in delivery and quality.”

Ted Zubkov Head of Agile Delivery Office / PMO Verify on LinkedIn →

“Evgenii is an RTE with a very high level of professional expertise and strong leadership skills. He has a solid academic foundation and extensive practical experience in designing and optimizing processes for teams of various types and scales. He communicates the essence of changes clearly and in a structured way, helping teams smoothly adapt to new approaches. I highly recommend Evgenii as a strong RTE and a reliable partner in transformation and process improvement initiatives.”

Oksana Bulatkina Project Manager / Scrum Master / RTE Verify on LinkedIn →

Download CV

Engineering & Delivery Manager | Quality-First Engineering Leader

Full people management lifecycle, engineering culture building, SAFe RTE, and quality-first delivery across FinTech, iGaming, E-commerce, and Travel. Ideal for Engineering Manager, Delivery Manager, and SAFe RTE roles.

Download CV