Release Manager

Competitive Compensation & Benefits Package * 401(k) with Profit Sharing * Flexible Time Off * Office Dog!! By combining our unparalleled domain expertise with leading-edge technology, Ad Astra is helping higher education in its mission to advance timely student completions. We are building a cloud-based software platform that will provide the foundation for our next generation of industry-leading solutions and analytics. Simply put, we're helping students graduate faster. OUR CORE VALUES We recognize talent. We recognize and appreciate the unique God-given talents that our people bring to Ad Astra. Aligning these individual gifts with our work sets team members up to succeed. We’re unpretentious. There’s no room for ego. We admit our imperfections and have the humility to know what we don’t know. We’re passionate. We aren’t satisfied with the status quo. We’re on a mission together to protect the value of degree completion and to transform the higher education industry. We’re pioneering. We’re pioneering and aren’t afraid of failing—in fact, we celebrate it. We love it when our people boldly experiment with innovative solutions. We love fun. The health of our relationships is strengthened by working with people who stretch our thinking—and by enjoying the lighter side of life together. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we do take fun seriously. We have grit. Beyond talent and intelligence, our people have stick-to-itiveness. We push through challenges to make goals a reality. POSITION SUMMARY The Release Manager is a highly organized and resourceful delivery leader responsible for planning, coordinating, and enabling the frequent, safe, and successful release of Ad Astra’s products and platform enhancements. Working closely with Product, Engineering, Quality Engineering, Client Success, and other stakeholders, the Release Manager ensures that product releases are delivered on time, with high quality, minimal disruption to clients, and measurable value to clients and the business. The Release Manager reports to the head of product and serves as the central point of coordination for release activities, facilitating communication across teams, identifying and mitigating risks, and driving continuous improvement of release processes. Through strong operational leadership and collaboration, they enable Ad Astra to efficiently deliver valuable product enhancements that support our mission of Graduating More Students, Faster. ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS/CORE RESPONSIBILITIES Own and manage the enterprise release management operating model and serve as the accountable leader for cross-functional release/launch readiness, governance, risk visibility and mitigation, and execution, in strong coordination with Product, Engineering, Quality Engineering, Delivery, Marketing, and Client Success teams. Coordinate the planning, execution, and communication of software releases, feature launches, updates, and maintenance activities. Partner with product teams (Product Managers, Product Designers, and Tech Leads) and Engineering leaders to assess release readiness, dependencies, risks, and deployment timelines. Facilitate release planning meetings, readiness reviews, and post-release retrospectives to ensure successful go-to-market coordination and execution, and continuous improvement. Work with the product team to ensure planning happens on cadence, product operating model practices are followed, and decisions on prioritization and changes to upcoming sprints are made, documented, and communicated. Facilitate Go/No-Go reviews by providing readiness assessments, risk evaluations, and deployment recommendations to Product and executive stakeholders. Monitor release progress and proactively identify, communicate, and mitigate risks that may impact timelines, quality, or client experience. Partner with Engineering to decouple deployment (launch) from release using feature flags, staged or progressive rollouts, beta programs, and rapid rollback capabilities. Ensure new capabilities are instrumented before launch so product teams can measure adoption, usage, and impact on client and business outcomes after release. Ensure Delivery Operations teams have what they need to deploy each release effectively, including business rules, configuration requirements, data dependencies, and technical documentation, well in advance of release. Partner with migration Delivery teams to align release plans with client migration schedules to Ad Astra’s new platform, ensuring the capabilities, configurations, and migration tooling clients need are available when they migrate. Work with Delivery teams to identify, document, and prioritize current product gaps impacting migration delivery and client utilization, and partner with product teams to ensure those gaps are addressed in roadmap and release planning. Support migration readiness by coordinating data migration validation, configuration mapping, and cutover planning with Delivery Operations, Engineering, and Client Success teams. Establish and maintain release management processes, standards, documentation, and best practices to support scalable delivery. Establish a repeatable handoff from product teams to Delivery for each release, including configuration guides, default settings, business rule changes, and known limitations, so deployments are completed consistently across client environments. Own the coordination and execution of release communications, ensuring stakeholders receive timely and accurate information regarding release timing, impacts, dependencies, and readiness. Coordinate release-related activities, including testing validation, deployment approvals, configuration and environment changes, deployment runbooks, release notes, and change management requirements. Collaborate with Product Marketing, Client Success, Delivery, and Support to ensure client-facing teams and customers are prepared for launches through timely enablement, documentation, and training. Track and report on release metrics, deployment outcomes (e.g., deployment frequency, lead time for changes, change failure rate, and time to restore service), operational performance, and process improvements. Support incident response and issue resolution activities related to production releases as needed, including rollback and hotfix coordination and post-incident retrospectives. Drive continuous improvement initiatives that enhance release predictability, operational efficiency, stakeholder communication, and release governance by leading post-release outcome reviews that assess technical stability, client impact, adoption, support volumes, and realized value. Other duties as assigned POSITION REQUIREMENTS Bachelor's degree in Information Systems, Computer Science, Business, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience). 7+ years' experience managing software releases, technical projects, or delivery operations within a SaaS or technology environment. Demonstrated ability to coordinate cross-functional teams and manage multiple priorities simultaneously. Strong organizational and project management skills with exceptional attention to detail. Ability to identify risks, resolve dependencies, and navigate ambiguity in fast-paced environments. Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to collaborate across technical and non-technical teams. Experience working within Agile product development environments, ideally alongside empowered, cross-functional product teams. Familiarity with the dynamic nature of continuously deployed SaaS products. Understanding of modern product operating model principles, including continuous discovery and delivery, empowered product teams, and outcome-based measures of success. ESSENTIAL COMPETENCIES Project and Program Management Organizational Agility Problem Solving Risk Assessment and Mitigation Process Improvement Attention to Detail Strategic Execution Client and Outcome Focus Systems Thinking ADDITIONAL PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS Experience with Agile, Scrum, or Kanban methodologies. Familiarity with Jira and related project management tools. Experience with release management, deployment, or DevOps practices, including CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and feature flag management. Knowledge of software development lifecycle (SDLC) processes. Experience working with cloud-based SaaS applications. Experience supporting client platform migrations, data migrations, or large-scale implementations in a SaaS environment. Familiarity with change management and incident management processes. Familiarity with the Silicon Valley Product Group (SVPG) product operating model and related works (e.g., Inspired, Empowered, Transformed). Experience with product analytics or experimentation tools used to measure feature adoption and outcomes. Familiarity with DORA software delivery performance metrics. HOW PERFORMANCE IS MEASURED FOR THIS ROLE Successful delivery of releases according to established timelines and quality standards. Peer and Manager Feedback. Release predictability and adherence to release schedules. Stakeholder satisfaction related to release coordination and communication. Continuous improvement of release processes, efficiency, and operational outcomes. Reduction of release-related risks, incidents, and production issues. Improvement in software delivery performance metrics (deployment frequency, lead time for changes, change failure rate, and time to restore service). Product team feedback on how effectively release processes enable, rather than slow, delivery. Client and client-facing team readiness for releases, reflected in adoption of released capabilities. Successful client migrations to the new platform, with fewer delays and utilization issues caused by product gaps or release timing. This full time, in-office position is located in Overland Park, Kansas. Ad Astra does not pay for relocation expenses. Ad Astra is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to fostering an inclusive workplace where all individuals are treated with respect and fairness—regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, religion, age, political affiliation, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. All applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States. Please note that Ad Astra is unable to provide work visa sponsorship for this position. #J-18808-Ljbffr Adastra