Release Program Manager

Release Manager – Modernization & Automation Lead

We are seeking a proactive and forward-thinking Release Manager, for a full-time role at our direct client, to own and evolve the release management process across the organization. This role is ideal for someone passionate about optimizing software delivery, enhancing cross-functional collaboration, and modernizing how IT solutions are delivered to production.

As Release Manager, you will not only oversee the planning and execution of releases across production and non-production environments—you'll also
l
ead the vision for improving speed, safety, and scalability of those releases. Working closely with Product, Engineering, DevOps, QA, and PMO teams, you will help establish a more automated, transparent, and efficient release process that aligns with business priorities and continuous delivery principles.

Key Responsibilities

• Modernize the release function by identifying gaps and proposing improvements to cadence, tooling, governance, and communication strategies.
• Create and maintain a centralized Release Calendar that enables alignment across Product, Dev, QA, and Infrastructure teams.
• Lead release readiness reviews, de-conflict sessions, and post-mortems to improve quality, reduce risk, and document lessons learned.
• Own the release pipeline strategy, advocating for automation, CI/CD practices, and reduced lead times.
• Partner with DevOps and QA to streamline environments, minimize manual handoffs, and introduce scalable deployment strategies like blue/green, canary, and feature flags.
• Act as the primary point of contact for all release-related activities, ensuring timely communication, coordination, and alignment across technical and non-technical teams.
• Drive visibility by communicating release status, risks, and mitigation plans clearly to all stakeholders.
• Champion Agile principles and encourage adoption of release trains, continuous integration, and continuous delivery where appropriate.
• Manage environment integrity: data/code synchronization, environment refreshes, and rollback planning.
• Collaborate on defining and tracking key release KPIs (e.g., lead time for change, change failure rate, deployment frequency).

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related discipline—or equivalent experience.
• 6 years of experience in Release Management, Software Delivery, or DevOps leadership roles.
• Proven experience driving or contributing to release process transformation or modernization efforts.
• Solid understanding of CI/CD principles, agile software development, and DevOps best practices.
• Hands-on experience with tools like Jira, ServiceNow, Git, Azure DevOps, Jenkins, or similar.
• Strong understanding of release strategies: release trains, feature flags, canary deployments, etc.
• Excellent communication, stakeholder engagement, and problem-solving skills.
• Self-starter with a high level of initiative, curiosity, and learning agility.
• Comfortable leading change in a matrixed, cross-functional environment.

Preferred

• Agile certification (e.g., SAFe, CSM)
• Experience in the retail or eCommerce industry
• Familiarity with security, compliance, and risk considerations in production deployments

This is a unique opportunity to step into a high-impact role where you'll shape the future of our clients release management function, help accelerate value delivery, and improve engineering efficiency. If you're energized by challenge, process innovation, and making delivery smoother and smarter, we want to meet you.

Salary : $100,000 - $150,000