Release Train Engineers in Germany
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Meet FRATCH Release Train Engineers in Germany
Thomas Kostrewa
Last position:
Agile Coach / Release Train Engineer (SAFe) – Product & Cross-functional Delivery Focus at Autonomous Driving / Connectivity (OEM, confidential)
- Orchestrate cross-functional delivery across organisational units in the Connectivity domain, aligning teams around integrated end-to-end, customer-testable value rather than isolated component delivery.
- Drive a shift from local component optimisation towards shared outcomes and a common delivery goal, increasing focus and enabling significantly faster integrated delivery.
- Coordinate across 15 cross-functional organisations in a highly complex OEM environment; bring Product, Engineering, Programme Management and specialist functions together to resolve dependencies and improve decision-making.
- Coach Product Managers, Product Owners and stakeholders on product responsibility, prioritisation, outcome orientation and aligned backlogs.
- Use Claude through an AWS Bedrock integration to analyse Jira and Confluence content, identify patterns, dependencies and quality gaps, and support structured product and delivery decisions.
- Establish AI-native requirements excellence with LLM-supported quality gates for epics, features, stories, acceptance criteria, roadmaps and task breakdowns; scale adoption through templates and prompt playbooks.
Frank Cappel
Last position:
Agile and classic Change Transformation Manager at Freelance Interim Manager | Transformation, Change & Procurement Consultant
- Industries: Energy, Telecommunications, Manufacturing
- Transformation & Change: Supported complex IT and digital transformation programs as Scrum Master, Agile Coach, Change Manager and RTE Consultant at Siemens Energy (global SAFe rollout), E.ON (sales technology platform), Schneider Electric (S/4HANA transformation DACH) and Vodafone (Operational Excellence)
- Agile Roles: Scrum Master, Agile Coach, Product Owner, Business Analyst, RTE Consultant in cross-functional and scaled teams (SAFe, Scrum, Spotify Model)
- Procurement Excellence: Strategic purchasing consulting with a focus on cost optimization, supplier management, digitalization and organizational development, including building supplier scorecard models, AI-supported procurement approaches and process automation in purchasing
- Managed functional leadership of interdisciplinary project teams of up to 12 people in national and international settings
- Successful launch of several global ARTs at Siemens Energy with improved coordination across sites
- Increased change acceptance and established communication structures in the S/4HANA program at Schneider Electric
- Introduced agile methods, OKR frameworks and KPI dashboards at E.ON, increasing velocity and transparency
- Reduced purchasing costs through strategic sourcing and supplier optimization
- Implemented process innovations in close cooperation with IT and business teams
Doaa Abdelghafar
Last position:
Technical Program Manager/Agile Coach at Visa
- Drove two cross-functional engineering teams within the SAFe framework to deliver backend and integration solutions for Visa’s Terminal Management and Cybersource Onboarding platforms
- Served as Program Coach for ten teams within the Platform Services organization, advancing Agile maturity, delivery alignment, and a culture of continuous improvement
- Orchestrated Agile ceremonies including Product Manager syncs, metrics reviews, inspect-and-adapt sessions, system demos, and leadership workshops to strengthen transparency, collaboration, and delivery performance
- Championed the rollout of the Re-imagine Work@Visa scaled delivery framework within the Agile Transformation Team, improving collaboration and delivery predictability
- Increased release frequency 18× per quarter by synchronizing distributed teams and developing a comprehensive release guide
- Partnered with the Release Manager to standardize deployments across Visa Data Center, AWS, and Mobile platforms
- Led teams to close all security findings and embed remediation into BAU, achieving zero open issues by mid-2024
- Directed the Security Findings Program across the portfolio, ensuring visibility, accountability, and progress tracking
- Supported the roll out of the OKR framework and led quarterly reviews to align execution with business goals
- Strengthened communication across distributed teams, removed blockers, and advocated for continuous improvement and automation
- Delivered on demand workshops for teams with raising maturity and adoption of best practices
- Co-founded a Center of Excellence and Agile Community of Practice to promote continuous learning and alignment
- Partnered with SRE and InfoSec teams on multi-region rollout and security initiatives to enhance reliability and compliance
Janko Böhm
Last position:
RTE, Agile Coach at Haufe Group SE
Transformation of the program organization from six subprojects into a scaled agile setup as RTE to stabilize the go-live date
Organizational development by building virtual, agile, cross-functional teams and establishing metrics and performance indicators
Coaching agile development and rollout principles for an SAP migration
Training internal staff for new roles and toughening up effort estimates towards the steering board
Switching to agile governance and reporting structures with a focus on end-to-end business processes
Establishing the product owner role and promoting agile principles in the SAP development team
Reduced delivery times through domain-based scoping and smaller cycle times
More reliable delivery forecasts and increased delivery rates
Earlier and more frequent feedback from business units, increased trust, and cost savings by eliminating duplicate structures
André Ullmann
Last position:
RTE / Agile Coach / Full SAFe Consultant at Siemens Energy
- RTE/Agile Coach for the SAFe 6 (Scaled Agile Framework) rollout
- Building and establishing a LACE (Lean-Agile Center of Excellence) for several ARTs
- Using the tools: Azure DevOps with SCALE, Loop, MS Whiteboard
- Building the ART with 7 teams
- Training Product Owners, e.g. through SAFe POPM training and LearnSnacks
- Running the initial PI Planning as a Kickoff Planning Event
- Introducing a demand process
Benjamin Beck
Last position:
SAFe Release Train Engineer at Porsche Digital & Porsche AG
- Role as RTE for building the Agile Release Train (ART)
- Bringing together agile practices and system engineering
- Setup and facilitation of rituals: ART Sync, Refinement, Coach Sync, PI Planning, System Demo
- Structure and execution of the first PI Planning
- Optimization of program alignments and dependencies
- Set up JIRA & Confluence SAFe structure and workflows
Achim Holzmann
Last position:
Release Train Engineer (RTE) & SAFe SPC at Mercedes-Benz
- Introduced SAFe and set up an Agile Release Train with 11 teams
- Coached business owners, product managers, Scrum Masters, and teams
- Conducted value stream identifications and roadmap workshops
- Optimized agile collaboration through targeted training and coaching
Claas Helms
Last position:
Release Train Engineer (SAFe) at Volkswagen / CARIAD / dx.one
- Servant leader for an Agile Release Train (~60 people)
- Close collaboration with product management and system architecture
- Focus on remote management and cross-functional coordination
Eduardo Siegelwachs
Last position:
Agile Coach / Scrum Master / RTE at Toll-Collect GmbH
Agile Coach for the Mauterhebung domain, Release Train Engineer for the Portfolio & Governance division with 5 teams and 19 sub-teams
Implemented based on SAFe 6.0 and supported all other RTEs in an overarching role defining standards and processes for the entire company to support higher compliance
Marius Huianu
Last position:
Senior Project Manager / SAFe Solution & Release Train Engineer (Lead Scrum Master) at Telefonica O2
- Led the largest agile project at Telefonica O2 (€21+ million, 11 Scrum & system teams in Germany and India, 80+ developers, 3 vendors) using SAFe, Scrum and Kanban. A showcase project at Telefonica for agile scaling.
- Scaled agile processes to a large project using SAFe.
- Delivered the project at half the cost and time compared to similar projects.
- Test management / coordination of system testing.
- Coached teams (SAFe & Scrum).
- Rollout planning/management.
Thomas Kuhne
Last position:
Senior Scrum Master/Co-RTE at Siemens Smart Infrastructure (Energy & Infrastructure Management)
- Activity within a Large Solution
- Coordination of 2 development teams (backend) + System Team + DevOps
- Value Stream Workshops
- Leading the Community of Practice for Scrum Masters
- Onboarding and training of junior Scrum Masters
- Leading Inspect & Adapt workshops
- Assessing and improving ART agility
- Release management
- Teaching SAFe classes as a SAFe Program Consultant (SPC)
- Agile coaching for Leading SAFe, SAFe for Teams, SAFe Scrum Master, SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager, SAFe DevOps
- Vision & Purpose Workshops
- Handling OKRs, personal development & growth, Liberating Structures
- Certified SAFe 5 Release Train Engineer (RTE)
- Certified SAFe 5 Lean Portfolio Manager (LPM)
- Certified SAFe 5 Program Consultant Agile Coach (SPC)
- Certified SAFe 5 Agile Product Manager (APM)
- Certified SAFe 5 Product Owner/PM (POPM)
- Certified SAFe 5 Advanced Scrum Master (SASM)
- Certified SAFe 5 DevOps Practitioner (SDP)
- Certified SAFe 5 Practitioner (SP)
- Professional Scrum Master II (Scrum.org)
- Professional Agile Leadership I
- Scrum Master XU Group (training startup) (Scrum.org)
- Professional Scrum Product Owner I (Scrum.org)
- Project Management Professional (PMP at PMI)
- Team Kanban Practitioner (Kanban University)
Discover over 15,000 top freelancers
Release Train Engineers statistics
Aggregated from the professional profiles of matched freelancers.
Experience
17 years
Position duration
2.3 years
Positions per freelancer
9
Top business areas
Information Technology, Project Management, Product Development
Top industries
Automotive, Information Technology, Transportation
Certification focus areas
Project Management, Information Technology, Product Development
Bachelor's degree or higher
100%
Master's degree or higher
75%
Certifications per freelancer
11
Most common languages
German, English, Spanish
Speak two or more languages
100%
Based on our profile pool as of 27 Aug 2026.
Daily rate distribution
The chart shows how the daily rates of freelancers in this role in Germany are distributed, based on recent contracts on our platform. Each bar covers a rate range — its height shows how many freelancers charge within that range.
Average rates for Release Train Engineers in Germany
Rates are based on recent contracts and do not include FRATCH margin.
The average daily rate is the mean of all daily rates from recent contracts of comparable freelancers on our platform.
The median daily rate is the middle value of all daily rates — half of comparable freelancers charge less, half charge more. Unlike the average, it is barely affected by outliers.
Calculated based on our freelancers’ daily rates as of 27 Aug 2026. Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
About the role
Delivery focus
A Release Train Engineer keeps an Agile Release Train moving. They align teams, protect the planning cadence, and remove blockers that slow delivery. The role is about coordination, not command-and-control.
- Facilitate PI Planning and related ceremonies
- Manage dependencies across squads and functions
- Track risks, impediments, and action items
- Support delivery flow and continuous improvement
- Keep stakeholders informed with clear status updates
Core skills
Strong Release Train Engineers combine structure with calm facilitation. They can work with product, engineering, architecture, and business leads without losing the thread.
- SAFe and Agile Release Train knowledge
- Workshop facilitation and conflict handling
- Program-level planning and coordination
- Jira, Confluence, Miro, or similar delivery tools
- Clear communication in English and often German in Germany-based teams
Typical assignments
Companies bring in a freelance Release Train Engineer when a transformation needs immediate support, when an internal RTE is missing, or when a large initiative needs a steady hand. This is common in software, automotive, manufacturing, finance, and enterprise IT projects in Germany.
Freelancers are often asked to stabilize PI execution, prepare a new train, or improve the way teams work together across locations and time zones.
What good looks like
A strong RTE makes problems visible early and turns vague coordination into a clear plan. They do not hide delays. They surface them, drive decisions, and help teams commit to realistic outcomes.
- Keeps planning sessions focused and useful
- Turns dependency noise into decisions
- Balances delivery pressure with team realism
- Builds trust with delivery leads and product owners
- Improves the system, not just the meeting calendar
Tools and methods
Most Release Train Engineers work in scaled agile setups, especially SAFe, but the best ones adapt to the client’s way of working. They may combine PI Planning with Scrum-of-Scrums, dependency boards, RAID logs, and release readiness checks.
In Germany, clients often expect someone who can move between remote coordination and on-site workshops with ease. That matters when teams sit in different offices or when leadership wants hands-on facilitation during critical planning events.
When to hire
Bring in a freelance Release Train Engineer when delivery is spread across many teams, when a transformation needs a neutral facilitator, or when planning has become too heavy for product and engineering leads to manage alone. They are also a good fit when you need short-term coverage during change, ramp-up, or restructuring.
A good freelancer leaves behind better flow, clearer roles, and cleaner delivery routines. The work should feel more predictable after they step in, not just more attended.
Frequently asked questions
Key details about Release Train Engineers, drawn from the questions we get asked most.
A Release Train Engineer coordinates delivery across multiple agile teams that work on the same program or product increment. They facilitate PI Planning, track dependencies, remove delivery obstacles, and keep the train aligned with business goals. The job is about flow, clarity, and decision support.
A freelance RTE makes sense when you need support quickly, when a program is already in motion, or when you need neutral facilitation during a transformation. It is also a strong choice if the need is temporary, for example during setup, recovery, or a leadership gap. Companies often bring one in to stabilize coordination without adding a permanent layer too early.
No. A Release Train Engineer works at the program level, while a Scrum Master usually focuses on one team and an Agile Coach often focuses on mindset and improvement. In practice, the roles can overlap, but the RTE is responsible for cross-team delivery coordination and the cadence of the Agile Release Train.
Look for strong facilitation, structured thinking, and calm stakeholder management. A good Release Train Engineer understands SAFe, dependency management, and how to run difficult planning sessions without losing momentum. Experience with tools like Jira and Confluence helps, but the real signal is how they handle complexity and follow-through.
Typical outputs include PI Planning preparation, dependency boards, RAID tracking, program status updates, and action logs. A Release Train Engineer should also help define working agreements and keep follow-up work visible after workshops. The deliverables should make execution easier for teams and leadership.
A Release Train Engineer can do much of the work remotely, especially ongoing coordination and reporting. On-site time helps during PI Planning, leadership alignment, or team resets, particularly in larger German organizations with several locations. The right setup depends on how mature the train is and how much facilitation is needed.
A program manager usually owns broader delivery oversight, often with more budget and scope responsibility. A Release Train Engineer focuses on enabling agile program execution, making dependencies visible, and keeping the train on cadence. In some companies the titles overlap, but the RTE is typically more embedded in agile ceremonies and flow management.
Judge them by the quality of the decisions they create, not by how many meetings they run. A strong Release Train Engineer makes risks visible early, helps teams commit realistically, and leaves behind a better operating rhythm. If the program becomes clearer and less reactive, that is a good sign they are doing the right work.
The average hourly rate for Release Train Engineers in Germany is 111 €, which corresponds to a daily rate of about 889 € based on an 8-hour working day.
Of the freelancers working as Release Train Engineers in Germany, 100% hold at least a Bachelor's degree and 75% hold at least a Master's degree.
On average, freelancers working as Release Train Engineers in Germany have 17 years of professional experience, with a single engagement typically lasting around 2.3 years.
The most common languages among freelancers working as Release Train Engineers in Germany are German (100%), English (100%), and Spanish (18%).
The most common industries among freelancers working as Release Train Engineers in Germany are Automotive (73%), Information Technology (73%), and Transportation (55%).
The most common business areas among freelancers working as Release Train Engineers in Germany are Information Technology (100%), Project Management (100%), and Product Development (91%).
FRATCH Release Train Engineers main locations
Our freelancers and interim experts are at home across the DACH region — available on-site in the major business hubs or fully remote. Choose a location to discover matched specialists, local market insights and up-to-date availability.
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Philipp Thomaschewski
FRATCH CEO
