Senior Agile Program Manager

• Lead and facilitate SAFe ceremonies and cadences, including PI Planning, System Demos, Inspect & Adapt, and Scrum of Scrums
• Own end-to-end program delivery across multiple Agile teams, coordinating dependencies, risks, and cross-team commitments
• Proactively identify and escalate risks, blockers, and misalignments, and push for timely resolution rather than just tracking them
• Challenge scope, priorities, estimates, and assumptions constructively with product, business, and technology stakeholders
• Drive accountability for commitments, milestones, and outcomes across teams and leadership
• Coach teams, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and leaders on SAFe practices, Agile maturity, and continuous improvement
• Establish and monitor meaningful delivery metrics (predictability, flow, quality, value delivered)
• Partner with senior stakeholders to align the roadmap, backlog, and funding to business strategy
• Support change management and adoption of ways of working as modernizes its application landscape

The ideal candidate: * Speaks up and gives honest, direct feedback, even when it’s uncomfortable * Raises issues early instead of waiting for a status meeting * Takes ownership of outcomes instead of simply reporting on them About the Client is an NYSE listed financial institution organization is undertaking a significant transformation of its internal and customer-facing applications, and needs a strong program manager to lead delivery & provide leadership to keep multiple teams aligned, accountable, and moving at pace. Role Overview We are looking for an experienced, hands-on Agile delivery leader with deep practical experience in Agile Development methodologies including pref. Certification in SAFe framework. The scope is broader than a traditional Release Train Engineer (RTE). The right person will bring an RTE and coaching mindset where needed, but will also own delivery outcomes across the program, working with business and technology leaders to keep the transformation on track. This is not a status-reporting or coordination role. We need someone with a strong voice and presence who will speak up, constructively challenge assumptions, surface risks and issues early, and drive accountability across teams and stakeholders., * 10+ years of experience in Agile delivery, program management, or RTE-type roles, with substantial hands-on experience in a SAFe environment

• Proven track record of running PI Planning and managing Agile Release Trains or multi-team programs * Demonstrated ability to influence and push back with senior stakeholders, and to hold teams and leaders accountable
• Strong communication and facilitation skills, with real executive presence
• Experience coaching teams and leaders in Agile and SAFe practices
• Working knowledge of Agile tooling (e.g., Jira, Azure DevOps, Rally) Preferred Qualifications
• Banking industry (specially consumer finance or similar)

• SAFe certification (RTE, SPC, or equivalent). Nice to have, not mandatory

• Experience in banking, financial services, or another regulated industry
• Experience with digital, customer experience, or application modernization programs
• Familiarity with DevOps and CI/CD practices