Senior Project Manager with deep SAFe Release Train Engineer (RTE) expertise with COTS - Only W2

Location: Gaithersburg, MD (Onsite from Day 1) | Job Type: W2 Contract

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced Senior Project Manager with deep SAFe Release Train Engineer (RTE) expertise to lead the delivery of a high-visibility COTS/SaaS Experiment Manager project. This role will orchestrate a complex, multi-team Agile Release Train (ART) spanning product, engineering, data, and vendor partners to enable compliant, high-quality experimentation capabilities for our Biopharmaceutical Development unit. The ideal candidate brings extensive IT delivery leadership in life sciences (specifically CMC or scientific workflows), proven COTS/SaaS vendor management experience, and a strong track record of scaling Agile practices.

Important: The client is specifically seeking candidates with Life Sciences domain experience and strong SAFe Release Train Engineer (RTE) expertise. Candidates must have relevant experience in the Life Sciences industry along with proven RTE experience in SAFe environments.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end delivery of the Experiment Manager project, aligning roadmaps, execution, and strategy across multiple agile teams and stakeholders.
• Drive ART ceremonies (PI Planning, Scrum of Scrums, System Demos, Inspect & Adapt), manage ART readiness, and champion relentless improvement.
• Lead vendor collaboration, contracts, integration planning, SLAs, and joint operating models to ensure quality, reliability, and value realization.
• Manage cross-team dependencies and risks; partner closely with architecture, security, QA, compliance, and business sponsors.
• Establish robust governance ensuring adherence to enterprise architecture, data, and cybersecurity standards.
• Manage program budgets, forecasts, vendor spend, capacity planning, and business case/benefits realization.
• Drive agile-at-scale best practices, DevOps/CI/CD integration, defect reduction, and comprehensive user adoption planning.

Requirements

• 20+ years of total IT delivery experience with a proven track record of complex project execution.
• 10+ years managing delivery across multiple IT teams (Project/Program Manager or equivalent).
• Demonstrated expertise in COTS/SaaS vendor management and ecosystem integration.
• SAFe Certified (e.g., RTE, SPC) with hands-on Agile Release Train (ART) leadership experience.
• Life Sciences industry experience, with familiarity in CMC domains or scientific laboratory/research workflows.
• Expertise in agile flow metrics (predictability, lead time, throughput) and tooling such as Jira or Azure DevOps (ADO).