
AI-augmented Agile delivery for regulated enterprises.
Hi, I'm Ricardo Alarcón, Enterprise Agile Coach & Senior Scrum Master with 12+ years across automotive, banking, healthcare and energy. Currently at Mercedes-Benz, coaching SAFe teams in the SAP Finance area and using AI tools like Claude and Copilot as part of everyday delivery.
- Available for new engagements
- 100% remote across Germany, DACH & the EU
- Start within 15 days
- EU (Spanish) national, no work permit needed
- B2B invoicing from Spain
Trusted by teams at
- Mercedes-Benz
- Roche
- BBVA
- Santander
- NatWest
- Schneider Electric
- Hotelbeds
About me
I started out writing code in 2012 and switched to the delivery side two years later, transforming a games studio's production department and helping it earn ISO 9001 certification. Since then the projects have kept growing: Hotelbeds' global payment platform, BBVA and Santander in banking, NatWest in London, Roche in healthcare, Schneider Electric in energy, and today Mercedes-Benz's SAP Finance area. That adds up to 12+ years of Agile delivery in regulated industries where governance and speed have to coexist.
Being a former developer is still my edge: engineering teams and business stakeholders keep me around because I speak both languages. I've worked as an independent consultant since 2021, scaling SAFe, Scrum and Kanban across multi-team programmes for banks, pharma and industry, and lately bringing AI tools like Claude and Copilot into everyday delivery.
If your programme needs someone who can land, earn the room's trust and make delivery measurably better, I'm available: 100% remote across DACH and Europe, able to start within 15 days. Let's talk.
AI in delivery
AI is changing how enterprise software gets built, but in regulated environments, ungoverned adoption is a liability, not an accelerator. I help delivery organisations capture the speed without losing the audit trail.
At Mercedes-Benz I'm doing this today: embedding AI tooling into testing cycles, development workflows and production version upgrades inside a SAFe, SAP S/4HANA compliance context.
- Claude Code, Microsoft Copilot & Cursor in team workflows
- Delivery automation with n8n
- AI-assisted testing cycles and release upgrades
- Governed adoption: from experiments to repeatable practice
- Coaching teams and leadership through the cultural shift
Experience
Nov 2025 - Present
Mercedes-Benzvia Capitole ConsultingMadrid, SpainfreelanceSenior Agile Consultant · Mercedes-Benz · Nov 2025 - Present
AI-powered Agile transformation in the SAP Finance area of Germany's flagship automotive group.
Current engagement: driving AI-augmented Agile delivery in Mercedes-Benz’s SAP S/4HANA Finance programme, where regulated, compliance-driven delivery meets the first wave of production AI tooling.
- Embedding Claude Code, Microsoft Copilot and n8n into the delivery lifecycle (testing cycles, development workflows and production version upgrades), turning AI experiments into governed, repeatable practice.
- Partnering with Train Management to scale SAFe across multiple ARTs in the Record-to-Report value stream.
- Coaching teams and senior stakeholders through the cultural shift AI-augmented Agile demands.
- SAFe 6
- SAP S/4HANA (Record-to-Report)
- Claude Code
- Microsoft Copilot
- n8n
Jun 2025 - Nov 2025
Schneider ElectricBarcelona, SpainfreelanceSenior Scrum Master · Schneider Electric · Jun 2025 - Nov 2025
Orchestrating global data delivery with precision, agility and strategic foresight.
Global Technology Services engagement aligning data operations across two continents, balancing governance compliance with deployment velocity.
- Spearheaded end-to-end Agile delivery for Global Technology Services, aligning North American and European data operations.
- Orchestrated technical coordination across complex data platforms with 100% governance compliance while sustaining high deployment velocity.
Oct 2023 - May 2025
Roche DiagnosticsSwitzerland (remote)freelanceSenior Scrum Master · Roche Diagnostics · Oct 2023 - May 2025
Agile transformation of the E-commerce division in a regulated HealthTech environment.
A 19-month fully remote engagement with Roche’s e-commerce organisation in Basel, coordinating two interdependent teams through a major digital transformation in Diabetes Care.
- Led the Agile transformation of the E-commerce division, managing two high-dependency, interconnected teams.
- Implemented a hybrid Scrum/Kanban framework that accelerated delivery of critical HealthTech products.
- Mentored leadership on mindset shifts and lean portfolio management.
Dec 2022 - May 2023
INVOKEAtlanta, USA (remote)freelanceSenior Scrum Master · INVOKE · Dec 2022 - May 2023
Accelerating Robotic Process Automation delivery from backlog to production.
Remote engagement with a US automation consultancy, jointly leading the development team with the Product Owner and owning the release management process end to end.
- Optimised RPA delivery by streamlining the path from backlog to production; owned release management, reducing production incidents through improved refinement practices.
- Facilitated knowledge-transfer protocols that increased team cross-functionality by 30%.
Jun 2022 - Nov 2022
SantanderMadrid, SpainfreelanceScrum Master · Santander · Jun 2022 - Nov 2022
Stabilising Agile delivery in Global Transactional Banking during a critical scaling phase.
Engagement inside Santander’s Global Transactional Banking programme during a critical scaling phase, reporting delivery health directly to the Steering Committee.
- Informed Steering Committee decisions with data-driven insights on team maturity and delivery health.
- Transformed the relationship between Product Owners and teams, increasing backlog readiness and sprint predictability by 20%.
Oct 2021 - May 2022
NatWestLondon, UK (remote)freelanceScrum Master · NatWest · Oct 2021 - May 2022
Professional Scrum standards for a high-compliance ePrivacy programme.
First engagement as an independent consultant: a high-compliance ePrivacy programme at one of the UK’s largest banks, delivered fully remote.
- Introduced Definition of Done and Definition of Ready frameworks, cutting ticket carry-over by 40%.
- Provided three months of intensive coaching to internal staff, successfully transitioning the team to self-management.
May 2019 - Sep 2021
HotelbedsPalma de Mallorca, SpainpermanentScrum Master · Hotelbeds · May 2019 - Sep 2021
UNICOL: a high-scale global payment solution cutting transaction response times by 75%.
Permanent role at the world’s leading bedbank, leading the team behind UNICOL, the unified payment collection platform processing payments at global scale.
- Led development of UNICOL, a high-scale global payment solution, cutting payment transaction response times by 75% by replacing legacy architecture with high-performance software.
- Scaled Agile practices using the Nexus framework and implemented OKRs to align departmental goals with corporate strategy.
Apr 2018 - Apr 2019
AxesInMotionSeville, SpainpermanentAgile Coach · AxesInMotion · Apr 2018 - Apr 2019
A 100% waterfall-to-Agile transition for a leading mobile gaming studio.
Agile Coach for the studio behind some of the most-downloaded driving games on mobile, taking the organisation from pure waterfall to iterative delivery.
- Engineered a full waterfall-to-Agile transition, shipping the company's first game built entirely under Scrum.
- Migrated the flagship title "Extreme Car Driving Simulator" from Unity 3 to Unity 2019 through iterative Scrum cycles.
May 2017 - Apr 2018
BBVA Next TechnologiesMadrid, SpainpermanentScrum Master · BBVA Next Technologies · May 2017 - Apr 2018
Scaling "BBVA One View" with SAFe, a real-time multi-bank aggregator now core to BBVA's enterprise offering.
First banking engagement, inside BBVA’s technology subsidiary, scaling delivery of an aggregator product that became core to BBVA’s enterprise offering.
- Scaled the BBVA One View project using SAFe, partnering with Product Owners on a real-time multi-bank aggregator.
- Resolved deep-seated team conflicts, boosting morale by 50% as measured by team health checks.
Jul 2012 - Apr 2017
Kitmaker EntertainmentPalma de Mallorca, SpainpermanentScrum Master · PHP Developer · Kitmaker Entertainment · Jul 2012 - Apr 2017
From PHP developer to Scrum Master: transforming a 30+ project portfolio to Agile and securing ISO 9001.
Where the developer-turned-coach path began: five years at a mobile games studio, moving from building APIs to transforming how the whole production department delivered.
- As Scrum Master (2014-2017), transformed the entire production department from traditional project management to Agile across a portfolio of 30+ projects and secured ISO 9001 certification by standardising Agile processes.
- As PHP Developer (2012-2014), built API integrations (MySQL, CodeIgniter), the technical DNA behind effective communication with engineering teams and a solid grasp of architectural bottlenecks.
- PHP
- MySQL
- CodeIgniter
Feb 2012 - Apr 2012
JuniperPalma de Mallorca, SpainpermanentJunior VB.NET Developer · Juniper · Feb 2012 - Apr 2012
Early full-stack work on the corporate intranet.
First industry role, and the start of the engineering background that still anchors the coaching work today.
- Engineered features and handled incident management for the corporate intranet (VB.NET, SQL Server), improving internal project tracking.
- Early full-stack work integrating HTML5 and JavaScript.
- VB.NET
- SQL Server
- HTML5
- JavaScript
Skills & Tools
Agile at scale: the frameworks I run day to day, from single teams to multi-ART value streams.
- SAFe 6
- Scrum & Kanban
- Nexus
- OKRs
- Lean Portfolio Management
- Management 3.0
Enterprise context and coaching: where those frameworks actually have to survive compliance, audits and executives.
- SAP S/4HANA Finance (Record-to-Report)
- Regulated environments & ISO 9001
- Executive advisory & team facilitation
- Conflict resolution
- Delivery metrics & release management
- Jira, Confluence & Miro
Credentials
- Professional Scrum Master II (PSM II)Scrum.org
- Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I)Scrum.org
- Certified SAFe 6 AgilistScaled Agile, Inc.
- Team Kanban Practitioner (TKP)Kanban University
- Management 3.0