Release Train Engineer

Release Planning & Timeline Ownership
• Own and enforce the release calendar across all three teams, including PI/sprint-aligned release dates, code freeze dates, and code cutoff deadlines.
• Establish and defend a strict, published timeline that gives QA/quality engineering sufficient lead time to test before each release — no exceptions without a clear escalation and risk sign-off.
• Build and maintain a repeatable, documented release process (runbook) that the train can rely on sprint over sprint.

Dependency & Risk Management
• Review Jira stories/epics across all three teams as they''re created to identify and document technical dependencies — including implicit dependencies where multiple teams are touching the same code paths, services, files.
• Partner with Product Owners and Tech Leads to make sure dependency mapping happens before sprint commitment, not after.
• Maintain a cross-team dependency board/tracker and drive resolution of blocking dependencies in a timely manner.
• Flag and escalate merge conflict risk, shared-component risk, and sequencing risk early.

Sprint Planning Governance
• Attend sprint planning sessions across all three teams.
• Identify cross-team impacts before commitment.
• Challenge sprint commitments that introduce release risk or unresolved dependencies.
• Ensure dependency work is planned in the same sprint where needed.

Codebase Coordination
• Act as the coordination point for the shared codebase across teams — tracking who owns what, what''s in flight, and where collision risk exists.
• Work with Tech Leads/Architects to define branching strategy, merge windows, and integration checkpoints that reduce conflict and rework.

Break/Fix & Urgent Work Management
• Own the intake and triage process for urgent/breakthrough work (production bugs, hotfixes, expedite requests) without derailing planned releases.
• Coordinate emergency releases/hotfixes, ensuring proper testing, approvals, and communication even under time pressure.
• Balance planned scope vs. unplanned urgent work and make the tradeoffs visible to leadership.

Tooling & Process
• Partner with DevOps and Architecture teams to identify release process improvements and tooling opportunities.
• Continuously improve Jira workflows, release checklists, and automation to reduce manual coordination effort.

Communication & Facilitation
• Serve as single source of truth for "what''s going into this release" across Product, Engineering, QA, and Architecture.
• Facilitate release readiness reviews, go/no-go decisions, and cross-team sync meetings.
• Provide clear, proactive status updates and risk callouts to stakeholders — surfacing problems early rather than at the deadline.
• Coordinate RCAs on failed releases, and incorporation of lessons learned into process improvement.

(Maintain) Release Readiness Metrics
Not an exhaustive list, but manage/track/communicate and help improve processes around Release metrics, like:
• Stories completed after code cutoff
• Reopened defects
• Cross-team dependency count
• Failed releases