Summary
SAFe Release Train Engineer and Agile Delivery Lead with 20 years in software engineering and 9 completed PI Planning cycles across multi-ART environments. Launched SAFe from greenfield, coordinated across three simultaneous ARTs (8 teams, 60+ FTE), and maintained PI Predictability at 85%+ — consistently above the SAFe industry benchmark of 80%.
The engineering background is not incidental: where most RTE practitioners operate at the process and ceremony layer, a technical foundation enables reading the real signals — delivery metrics, DORA trends, individual contribution patterns, and cross-team release dependencies — before they become escalations. Specialises in the hardest part of Agile transformation: identifying and neutralising the organisational patterns that silently resist change, whether that is priority inflation by business stakeholders, scope creep masked by process compliance, or ceremony execution without delivery impact.
Methodology-agnostic delivery leader: applies SAFe where scale demands it, draws from LeSS, Spotify model, Kanban, Scrum of Scrums, and UnFix where context is better served by lighter approaches. Built and led the EPAM Spain Agile Unit — coaching Scrum Masters as a practice. Certified SAFe 6 Agilist.
Core Competencies
Multi-ART Coordination
- Simultaneous coordination across 3 ARTs (8 teams, 60+ FTE)
- Cross-ART dependency management & release train synchronisation
- Inter-ART risk forecasting and impediment resolution
- Solution Train awareness and practice without formal STe designation
PI Planning Facilitation
- 9 full PI cycles facilitated end-to-end
- Pre-PI preparation, Business Owner engagement & alignment
- Team breakout facilitation, dependency board management, risk ROAM, confidence vote
- ART sync, iteration execution oversight, mid-quarter check-ins, PI retrospective
SAFe Transformation
- Greenfield SAFe launch: ART design, team topology, role definition, coaching & onboarding
- Continuous transformation management: pacing adoption to team readiness
- Resisting ceremony-without-value through selective implementation
- Agile maturity assessment and improvement roadmap
Engineering Intelligence
- EBM metrics: Current Value, Unrealised Value, Time-to-Market, Ability-to-Innovate
- DORA metrics: Deployment Frequency, Lead Time, MTTR, Change Failure Rate
- Flow metrics: WIP, Flow Velocity, Flow Efficiency
- Team & individual contribution tracking, PI Predictability trend analysis across ARTs
Stakeholder Management
- Business Owner engagement across full PI cycle: pre-PI, event, mid-quarter reviews, risk forecasting
- C-level executive reporting and OKR alignment
- Organisational resistance management: priority inflation, resource contention, silent scope creep
Scrum Master Coaching
- Coach of coaches: SM capability development as Head of EPAM Spain Agile Unit
- SM archetype assessment (process-follower vs delivery-owner vs people-leader)
- Individual coaching plans, SM community of practice facilitation
Methodologies & Technical Fluency
- SAFe 6 (primary), LeSS, Spotify model, Scrum of Scrums, Kanban (team & ART level), Waterfall/hybrid
- QA architecture, CI/CD pipeline design, Azure DevOps
- Datadog / Splunk / Grafana (engineering dashboards), Jellyfish
- Jira / Confluence (admin + automation)
Distributed Delivery
- 6+ years managing fully remote, globally distributed ARTs across up to 5 timezones
- Async-first ceremony design, 24/7 on-call coverage
- Certified: CertiProf RWVCPC (Remote Work and Virtual Collaboration)
SAFe & Agile Delivery
RTE, ART launch, PI planning, transformation (click to expand)
Greenfield SAFe Launch & ART Design
Design and stand up a new Agile Release Train from scratch: team topology, role definition, ceremony cadence, initial PI Planning facilitation, and onboarding coaching for teams new to SAFe.
Interim Release Train Engineer (RTE)
Provide experienced RTE leadership for a fixed engagement — to launch a new ART, stabilise a struggling program, or bridge a critical leadership gap while a permanent hire is identified.
End-to-End PI Planning Facilitation
Design and facilitate the complete PI Planning event: pre-PI preparation and Business Owner alignment, team breakout sessions, dependency board management, risk ROAM, confidence vote, and post-PI execution oversight.
Multi-ART Dependency & Risk Management
Establish a governance model for managing complex dependencies and release risks across multiple ARTs — including dependency maps, inter-ART sync cadences, and risk register ownership.
Agile Maturity Assessment
Conduct a comprehensive audit of your current Agile practices, ceremony health, delivery metrics, and team engagement patterns — and provide a prioritised improvement roadmap grounded in evidence.
Delivery Process Turnaround
Diagnose and resolve critical delivery bottlenecks, organisational resistance patterns, and systemic impediments — including priority inflation, silent scope creep, and ceremony execution without delivery impact.
EBM & Engineering Intelligence Setup
Implement an Evidence-Based Management metrics framework alongside DORA and flow metrics, delivering C-level dashboards that connect engineering performance to business outcomes.
Custom Agile Framework Design
Design a tailored, context-appropriate delivery framework — selecting from SAFe, LeSS, Spotify model, Scrum of Scrums, Kanban, or hybrid models based on team maturity, scale, and organisational structure.
Scrum Master Coaching & People
SM capability, archetype assessment, CoP, hiring (click to expand)
Scrum Master Capability Development
Assess and develop your SM team beyond ceremony facilitation — building delivery ownership mindset, coaching skills, and stakeholder management capability through individual coaching plans and structured feedback.
SM Archetype Assessment
Evaluate each Scrum Master against three delivery archetypes (process-follower, delivery-owner, people-leader), identify development gaps, and design targeted coaching interventions.
SM Community of Practice Setup
Establish a functioning SM Community of Practice: cadence, facilitation rotation, knowledge-sharing formats, and a shared improvement backlog that drives real practice change across teams.
Business Owner Agile Coaching
Coach Business Owners and executive stakeholders on their role in SAFe: PI Planning participation, mid-quarter engagement, prioritisation discipline, and evidence-based decision-making.
Team Health Diagnostics
Identify team health signals through delivery metrics, ceremony engagement patterns, and contribution tracking — enabling early performance interventions before issues escalate.
Retrospective-Driven Improvement Cycles
Implement structured retrospective practices that treat process problems as bugs — visible, prioritised, and resolved with urgency through a reveal–plan–action–review cycle.
Distributed & Remote Delivery
Async ceremonies, timezone design, 24/7 models (click to expand)
Async-First Ceremony Design
Redesign your Agile ceremony structure for distributed teams — async pre-work, focused synchronous slots, recorded artefacts, and timezone-fair scheduling that preserves ceremony value without exhausting participants.
24/7 On-Call Coverage Design
Establish fair, sustainable 24/7 on-call coverage models for distributed engineering teams, including escalation protocols, handoff standards, and incident response integration with delivery cadence.
Remote-Native Onboarding
Build a structured onboarding program for fully remote engineering teams: runbooks, buddy systems, ceremony observation schedules, and knowledge base standards that accelerate time-to-contribution.
Cross-Timezone Dependency Management
Design dependency governance and communication protocols for ARTs operating across multiple timezones, minimising handoff friction and maintaining PI commitment visibility.
Certifications
SAFe & Agile Leadership
- Certified SAFe® 6 Agilist — Scaled Agile
- Professional Scrum Master™ I (PSM I) — Scrum.org
- Professional Scrum Product Owner™ I (PSPO I) — Scrum.org
- CertiProf Scrum Master Professional (SMPC)
AI & Model Context Protocol
- Introduction to Model Context Protocol — Anthropic
- Model Context Protocol: Advanced Topics — Anthropic
- AI Fluency Framework and Foundations — Anthropic
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
- Exploring the Release Train Engineer Role
- Facilitating Alignment Events for the ART
- Facilitating an Inspect and Adapt Event
- Accelerating ART Flow
- Accelerating Team Flow
- Establishing Team and ART Kanban Systems
- Measuring Team and ART Flow
- Prioritizing the ART Backlog
- Understanding and Improving Flow
- Writing Effective Features in SAFe
Languages & Community
Speaker at Agile / Engineering Management events (DataArt, EPAM)
Experience
SAFe Release Train Engineer | Delivery Lead
B2BROKER · FinTech / Crypto
Sep 2025 – Mar 2026
- Coordinated delivery across 3 simultaneous ARTs (8 teams, ~60 FTE) including a dedicated cross-functional team of 13 specialists — managing cross-ART dependencies, release synchronisation, and inter-ART impediment resolution
- Facilitated complete PI Planning cycles: pre-PI preparation, Business Owner alignment, team breakout sessions, dependency board, risk ROAM, confidence vote, and mid-quarter review checkpoints
- Maintained PI Predictability at 85%+ across all ARTs (SAFe benchmark: 80%) through structured planning, real-time impediment removal, and ART sync facilitation
- Introduced EBM metrics framework alongside DORA and flow metrics; delivered engineering health dashboards to C-level stakeholders with trend analysis and actionable insights
- Established centralised Agile knowledge base (Confluence): PI ceremony runbooks, DoR/DoD standards, escalation protocols, SM coaching materials
- Identified and resolved cross-team release-blocking dependencies before they impacted PI commitments; maintained dependency map and risk register across all ARTs
Senior Scrum Master | Agile Delivery Lead
Quintegro LLC · Enterprise SaaS / Travel
Jun 2024 – Aug 2025
- Led Agile delivery across 4 cross-functional teams (30+ FTE) as senior SM and de-facto Agile program lead — owning delivery health, team metrics, and executive reporting in the absence of a dedicated RTE function
- Increased delivery predictability by 25% through structured dependency management, DORA metrics implementation, and monthly C-level dashboards
- Applied retrospective-driven improvement cycle (reveal – plan – action – review) treating process problems as bugs: visible, prioritised, and resolved with urgency
- Enforced DoR/DoD as living team artefacts; reduced requirement ambiguity entering sprints and cut rework cycles by an estimated 15–20%
- Assessed and coached SM team on personal drivers and delivery ownership mindset rather than ceremony execution compliance
Release Train Engineer | Head of Spain Agile Unit | Scrum Master
EPAM Systems · FinTech, AI, E-commerce, Travel
Jun 2019 – May 2024
- Launched SAFe from greenfield across multiple client engagements: ART design, team topology definition, role coaching, and full PI cycle establishment — confirmed 20–30% delivery speed improvement and 15% velocity increase within 2 PIs
- Founded and led the EPAM Spain Agile Unit: built SM coaching practice, assessed SM archetypes (process-follower vs delivery-owner vs people-leader), designed individual coaching plans, and facilitated SM community of practice
- Engaged Business Owners continuously across PI lifecycle — not only at PI Planning events but through mid-quarter reviews, pre-PI preparation workshops, and risk forecast sessions
- Collected and analysed PI Predictability trends per team and ART; used sprint goal achievement rates and PI commitment data to surface systemic impediments and coach teams toward sustainable delivery cadence
- Identified and resolved organisational resistance patterns: business-side priority inflation, resource contention between ARTs, and silent scope creep masked by process compliance
- Applied DORA metrics, EBM indicators, and individual contribution tracking as engineering intelligence layer — enabling early intervention before delivery degradation
Senior QA / Test Automation / Business Analyst | Agile Delivery
DataArt Solutions · FinTech, E-commerce, Travel
Jul 2008 – May 2019
- Introduced and scaled Agile practices across multiple client delivery teams in an outsourcing context: Scrum, Kanban, and hybrid Waterfall-Agile models adapted to client maturity and contract structure
- Managed distributed international teams across 5 timezones, designing async-first ceremony structures and 24/7 on-call escalation protocols
- Embedded shift-left quality and testable acceptance criteria into Agile workflow — bridging engineering and business requirements as technical Scrum Master
- Built broad technical expertise across QA architecture, test automation, and BA disciplines — providing credible technical foundation for impediment resolution and engineering conversations
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.”
“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.”
Download CV
SAFe Release Train Engineer | Agile Delivery Lead
9 PI Planning cycles, 3 simultaneous ARTs, 8 teams, 60+ FTE. Covers greenfield SAFe launch, multi-ART coordination, EBM/DORA/flow metrics, SM coaching practice, and organisational resistance management across FinTech, iGaming, E-commerce, and Travel. Ideal for RTE, Agile Delivery Lead, and Agile Coach roles.
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