Open to opportunities

Ashish David Dayal

@ashishdaviddayal

Message

I drive SAFe Agile release trains, DevOps automation, and AI/ML transformation.

India

Message

What I'm looking for

I’m looking to lead SAFe release trains and DevOps automation, partnering with cross-functional teams to ship secure releases with measurable flow, quality, and audit-ready governance. I thrive in servant-leadership environments where outcomes and KPIs guide delivery.

I’m a seasoned Release Manager and Release Train Engineer (RTE) with 12+ years driving enterprise-scale Agile Release Trains (ARTs) at Fortune 100 tech giants. I’m recognized as an industry Authority and Thought Leader in SAFe® 6.0, DevOps automation, and Lean-Agile transformation—always aligning OKRs and macro KPIs to accelerate time-to-market. I specialize in orchestrating cross-functional delivery, optimizing flow metrics, and serving as a servant leader who builds intelligent, measurable release systems.

In my recent work, I advised on PayPal’s Internal Developer Platform (IDP) and migrated orchestration pipelines to Harness CI/CD with release governance, telemetry, and non-disruptive adoption at scale. I also led ProdSecOps security gate uplift (SAST/SCA/container scanning/PII), designed automated quality gates aligned to QMF Level 3, and strengthened Release Checklist (RC) policy/waiver governance to ensure auditable go/no-go decisions. Beyond delivery operations, I architected PayPal’s AI/ML/agentic “Financial OS” initiative, improving efficiency by 40% and elevating eNPS by 25 points while delivering measurable outcomes like +57% AOV and faster agent response latency.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

DevOps Release Manager

Stratacent

Jan 2026 - May 2026 (4 months)

Advised PayPal on migrating to Harness CI/CD and governing production releases with manifest-based deployment models, security gates, and automated change-ticket workflows. Architected PayPal’s agentic commerce Financial OS, delivering +194% conversion uplift, +57% higher AOV, and ~49% lower commerce agent latency.

Internal Developer Platform (IDP)Kubernetes ProdSecOps (SAST SCA SBOM)Release Checklist Policy Gates

Release Train Engineer (RTE)

Atos

Sep 2022 - Apr 2025 (2 years 7 months)

Coordinated SAFe® Agile Release Trains (ARTs) as a Release Train Engineer, managing PI planning, dependencies, and program risks to support predictable, safe delivery across value streams.

SAFe Release Train Engineering Agile Release Train PI Planning Dependency Program Cadence Release Management Risk Management Stakeholder Management Jira Based Planning

Release Train Engineer

Conduent Business Services India LLP

May 2019 - Sep 2022 (3 years 4 months)

Served as a Release Train Engineer, supporting SAFe program execution by aligning team commitments with train-level objectives and strengthening delivery coordination across value streams.

SAFe ART Execution PI Planning Facilitation Dependency Management Risk Impediment Tracking

SAFe Release Train Engineer

Conduent Business Services India LLP

May 2019 - Sep 2022 (3 years 4 months)

Drove SAFe transformation for a 4-ART migration from legacy monoliths to AWS microservices, cutting time-to-market by 40% and delivering 98% release success across 24 releases. Reduced post-release defects by 20% through AI governance and improved PI execution with 12 PI planning events and <=10% cumulative flow WIP variance.

Microservices AI Governance For Releases PI Planning Time to Market Optimization

Release Train Engineer

Enormous IT Services Private Limited

May 2018 - May 2019 (1 year)

Worked as a Release Train Engineer, helping coordinate Agile delivery activities to keep releases aligned with program priorities and cross-team dependencies.

Risk Mitigation Stakeholder Management Delivery Metrics Conflict Resolution

Release Train Engineer

Net Connect Private Limited

Nov 2014 - Sep 2017 (2 years 10 months)

Served as a Release Train Engineer, supporting SAFe-style program delivery by coordinating cadence, managing risks/impediments, and improving transparency into release readiness.

SAFe RTE Practices Dependency Cadence Impediment Management Continuous Improvement

Associate RTE

Growel Softech

Jul 2014 - Oct 2014 (3 months)

Supported RTE activities for Agile program delivery, assisting with coordination of release timelines, dependencies, and program-level planning processes.

RTE Release Coordination Delivery Metrics