Head of the Agile Release Train

First Horizon Bank · Memphis

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Summary of Position

The Head of an Agile Release is responsible for directing the multi-year roadmap for Product Management (Credit Card, Deposits, and Lending) lines of business, ensuring strategic alignment with enterprise banking priorities and regulatory requirements. This leader facilitates Program Increment (PI) and release planning, synchronizes multiple release trains, manages cross-product dependencies, and orchestrates seamless, continuous deployment across consumer and core banking channels. Leveraging predictive AI and analytics, they proactively govern delivery, identify risks, and accelerate the software development life cycle through the adoption of GenAI-powered tools. The role also leads the integration of intelligent automation—such as credit decisioning and real-time fraud mitigation—while enforcing rigorous stage-gate governance from ideation to post-launch. Partnering closely with Model Risk Governance, Fair Lending, Fraud, InfoSec, and Legal, the Head of the ART ensures compliance across all releases and AI models. Finally, they measure and optimize delivery metrics, including ART predictability, deployment frequency, straight-through processing rates, deposit growth efficiency, and defect density, to advance operational success.

Required Qualifications:

• Experience:  Minimum of 10-15+ years experience in agile Product or Value Stream management
• Education:  Bachelor’s degree in business, Data Science, or a related field (master’s preferred)
• Soft skills:  Strong understanding of customer needs, industry trends, and market dynamics
• Certifications: Project Management Professional (PMP), ICAgile - Product or SAFe - Product

Responsibilities:

• Roadmap & Strategic Alignment: Own and direct the multi-year product and technology roadmap across Credit Card, Deposits, and Auto lending lines of business, aligning cross-functional capabilities with enterprise banking priorities and regulatory mandates.

• Program Increment (PI) & Release Planning: Facilitate cadence-based PI planning, synchronize multi-tiered release trains, manage cross-product dependency boards, and orchestrate zero-downtime, continuous deployment pipelines across core banking and consumer-facing channels.

• Intelligent Program Governance & Dependency Mapping: Leverage predictive AI and natural language analytics across project management platforms (e.g., Jira, Azure DevOps) to proactively identify cross-train delivery bottlenecks, forecast sprint velocity, and surface release risks before PI execution.

• Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) Acceleration & Requirement Engineering: Champion the adoption of GenAI-powered tooling across the value stream to automate user story generation, acceptance criteria synthesis, test case creation, and API contract scaffolding, cutting delivery lead times.

• AI & Intelligent Automation Integration: Spearhead the discovery and deployment of predictive and generative AI capabilities—such as automated credit decisioning, dynamic risk-tiered pricing for auto loans, real-time fraud mitigation, and personalized deposit-growth recommendations.

• End-to-End Stage-Gate Governance: Enforce a structured delivery framework governing initiatives from initial ideation and business case development through Architecture Review, compliance/model risk validation, user testing, and post-launch verification.

• Cross-Functional Risk & Compliance Management: Partner with Model Risk Governance, Fair Lending, Fraud, InfoSec, and Legal to ensure all software releases and AI-driven models strictly satisfy regulatory expectations (FCRA, ECOA, GLBA).

• Delivery Metrics & Success Measurement: Track, optimize, and report on key performance indicators, including ART predictability, cycle time, deployment frequency, automated underwriting straight-through processing (STP) rates, deposit capture efficiency, and post-release defect density.

Related Qualities:

• Ability to influence a diverse group of stakeholders; strong leadership skills
• Sees the big picture in terms of strategic Product vision at Value Stream level
• Fosters a culture of collaboration and alignment across Value Stream Leaders
• Represent customer and user needs from a business and technical perspective
• Drive an experimental mindset to spark innovation
• Champion the Value Stream to secure stakeholder alignment, support, and investment
• Strong communication skills with ability to communicate complex messages and trade-offs to tell a compelling story and influence stakeholders

Important Skills:

• Technical Skills: JIRA, Confluence, Strategic Leadership, Product Vision Strategy & Development, Architectural Thinking, Cost/Benefit Analysis
• Inspire and guide teams by removing barriers rather than commanding work.
• Neutralize disputes across teams and stakeholders to reach a shared consensus.
• View the entire value stream and cross-team dependencies instead of isolated parts.
• Visualize bottlenecks using program Kanban boards and value stream mapping.

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