Run cross-scrum release planning, sprint planning alignment, backlog refinement readiness and sprint review/demo.
Own one integrated roadmap and release calendar across all ESM teams, replacing separate team calendars.
Plan capacity across US and India teams and flag over-commitment early.
Hold the line on release scope: baseline it at planning and manage late additions through an explicit decision, not by default.
2. Dependency and flow management
Own the cross-scrum dependency process: log, assign, track and escalate.
Run the weekly scrum of scrums; track WIP, cycle time and throughput; remove bottlenecks.
Keep the demand-to-delivery path visible from SPM intake through development, testing and release.
3. Release and SDLC governance
Facilitate the Release-Readiness forum and enforce release entry and exit gates, from demand approval and ready-for-dev through QA, release candidate, production readiness and post-release validation.
Maintain the release checklist and tracker (SIT to hypercare), production-readiness checklist, rollback planning and go/no-go record.
Coordinate with J&J change management so every release is tied to the right change type and window.
Manage the hotfix and sync-back process and the upgrade, clone and code-migration runbook cadence, including the twice-yearly ServiceNow upgrades.
Drive deployment discipline with the release manager: deployment order, update-set preview and collision review, and reduced manual steps through release automation.
4. Quality and testing alignment
Work with SQA and the test lead to confirm testing-evidence standards, SIT and UAT sign-offs and defect triage before every release.
Push for ServiceNow-native test management and ATF use, with test metrics available to leadership on request.
5. Governance, reporting and stakeholder alignment
Run the governance cadence; route escalations and exceptions to the right forum (architecture and technical review, platform owner review, steering) and record outcomes.
Own the bi-weekly status report and RAID log; keep J&J sponsors and scrum teams aligned on progress, risks and decisions required.
Report release health through the operational scorecards: throughput, cycle time, release success and platform health.
6. Ways of working, coaching and transition
Coach scrum masters and teams; run story-point calibration workshops and retrospectives; keep an improvement backlog and make sure actions close.
Make the ESM ways-of-working practised, not just documented (sprint checklist, ceremonies, scrum of scrums).
Build J&J capability and hand cadences and forums to a J&J-led owner as the engagement matures.
Required Qualifications:
8+ years in software delivery, release or program management, with 3+ years as a Release Train Engineer, release lead or equivalent for multi-team programs.
Hands-on experience running Agile-Scrum at scale (SAFe RTE certification strongly preferred; CSM/PSM or equivalent).
Working knowledge of ServiceNow delivery: update sets and environment promotion, ATF, ITSM change and release management, and upgrades.
Proven ability to run release gates, go/no-go decisions and cross-team dependency management in a regulated enterprise (SOX, GxP-adjacent controls or similar).
Comfortable with Jira, Confluence and ServiceNow SPM; strong reporting and metrics skills (cycle time, throughput, release success).
Executive-level communication; able to hold a firm line on scope and quality with senior business and IT stakeholders.
Preferred:
ServiceNow SPM or Agile Development experience; ServiceNow certifications (CSA, CIS-ITSM or CAD).
Experience in life sciences or healthcare, and with US/India distributed teams.
Experience introducing release automation and AI-assisted release readiness.