Associate Director – Enterprise Agile Delivery & Governance

Job Title: Associate Director – Enterprise Agile Delivery & Governance

Location: Mumbai / Hybrid

Reports To: Director – Technology Strategy & PMO

Business Unit: Enterprise Technology – Agile Governance

Role Summary:

We are seeking a strategic and execution-focused leader to oversee the enterprise-wide Agile delivery governance framework across 40+ Scrum teams and 6 business units at CRISIL. This role will be a central point of coordination for Agile process oversight, ensuring alignment with SAFe practices, driving process maturity, and improving transparency, consistency, and efficiency across delivery teams.

You will support and monitor the effectiveness of 4 Release Train Engineers (RTEs) and approx 10+ Scrum Masters, with dotted or direct reporting from 2 RTEs, and will drive enterprise Agile implementation, automation, compliance audits, and metrics-driven governance. This role will also support executive presentations and transformation initiatives led by the CTO, PMO, and Strategy function.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Agile Delivery Oversight & Governance
2. Monitor Agile delivery across multiple ARTs (Agile Release Trains) and Scrum Teams.
3. Track adherence to SAFe and Essential SAFe events (PI Planning, Inspect & Adapt, ART Sync).
4. Review and audit team practices to ensure they follow the defined governance model.
5. Support risk management and escalation processes related to Agile delivery.
6. Process Excellence & Agile Maturity
7. Define and refine Agile governance framework, roles, KPIs, and reporting standards.
8. Drive process standardization, automation, and reuse across teams.
9. Facilitate Agile maturity assessments and recommend improvement plans.
10. People & Practice Leadership
11. Mentor and guide RTEs and Scrum Masters on enterprise practices and delivery expectations.
12. Establish communities of practice (CoPs) to promote knowledge sharing and consistency.
13. Influence without authority across business units to enforce Agile best practices.
14. Reporting & Executive Communication
15. Generate and present dashboards for delivery performance, governance compliance, and PI outcomes.
16. Collaborate with the Director and CTO office to prepare content for client presentations and leadership reviews.

Tooling & Automation

1. Identify and drive automation opportunities in Agile tooling (e.g., Jira, Confluence, PI planning tools).
2. Ensure consistent usage of Agile lifecycle tools across business units.

Qualifications & Experience:

1. 10–15 years of IT / Agile delivery experience with at least 3–5 years in a governance, RTE, or agile leadership role.
2. Proven experience in SAFe implementation across large enterprises.
3. Strong understanding of Agile frameworks (Scrum, SAFe, Kanban) and Agile performance metrics.
4. Experience working with cross-functional teams, RTEs, and technical/product leadership.
5. Proficient in Agile tooling such as ADO, Jira, Confluence or equivalent.
6. Prior exposure to internal audits, delivery compliance, or PMO functions is preferred.
7. Excellent communication and executive presentation skills.

Preferred Certifications:

1. SAFe Program Consultant (SPC) – preferred
2. SAFe RTE or SAFe Agilist – mandatory
3. PMP / PMI-ACP / Lean Six Sigma – added advantage

Success Indicators:

1. Improved Agile maturity scores across ARTs
2. Consistent execution of PI cadence and ceremonies
3. Automated delivery metrics and reduced manual reporting
4. Fewer audit non-conformities related to Agile processes
5. Strong stakeholder trust in delivery governance mechanisms