Release Train Manager

Company Profile

At Sand Cherry Associates, we excel in the design and delivery of strategic customer-centric initiatives through digitally native, data-empowered solutions. Our client’s confidence in us is centered on exceptionally skilled, high-energy talent working with the full support of Sand Cherry.

Overview

Sand Cherry is looking for a Release Train Manager to support a Telecommunications Engineering PMO and their Application and Development team release planning. This role requires a blend of experience in release management, project management, and scrum master capabilities. This role is responsible for bringing best practices and proven methodologies into the environment. The role will work closely with Development teams, Program/Project Managers, and Business Analysts in Network Engineering and other Engineering functions. Examples of development projects might include application updates, operating system patches, security improvements, and hardware upgrades. This is a remote position requiring candidates to reside in the United States and be authorized to work without visa sponsorship or visa transfers. Please note that we do not work C2C.

Responsibilities

• Negotiate, plan, and manage all release activities
• Coordinate release content and efforts based on the service request backlog, pending service requests, third party applications, or operating system updates
• Conduct Release Readiness reviews, Milestone Reviews, and Business Go/No-Go reviews
• Produce Deployment, Run Books, and Implementation Plans
• Weekly Release Reporting and communication of release details and schedules
• Develop scripts and automation tools used to build, integrate, and deploy software releases to various platforms
• Provide tools and services to help product management and project teams manage and deploy releases into production
• Attends daily stand-ups with Development Teams
• Act as pseudo–Scrum Master, running and managing daily standups and sprint planning
• Act as point of contact for ticket blockers, and de-conflicts release timing
• Monitor and report out on status and prioritization of development tickets
• Follow up with Development teams on Status if not being applied in a timely fashion to Jira tickets
• Handles all escalations from Development teams to ensure development impacts do not delay or impact larger program timelines
• Communicate all key project plans, commitments, and changes including requirements, QA plans, schedule, and scope changes
• Manage relationships and coordinate work between different teams at different locations
• Communicate development status on a regular basis to program and project managers
• Defect remediation during testing – coordinating calls and driving for solution
• Prepare roadmap and forward plan the release windows and cycles across a portfolio
• Manage risks and resolve issues that affect release scope, schedule and quality
• Measure and monitor release progress to ensure application releases are delivered on time and within budget, and that they meet or exceed expectations
• Strong cross functional abilities between Development and Business teams
• Implement and manage release processes for code through development, test, and production environments.
• Collaborate with all participants in software development projects and support developers and testers as they set up their build dev/test environments
• Improve the software engineering processes and practices associated with continuously building, deploying, and updating software and environments
• Build the release calendar in working closely with the Release Managers from different portfolios and centralizing view of all releases. Leads the effort of defining the strategic direction for release management tools to ensure the process requirements of release management are built in

Requirements

• Minimum 5-7 years of previous release and project management experience, with solid understanding of formal project management principles preferred

• Minimum 3 years of previous Scrum Master exposure
• Scrum Master Certification is required
• Experience in telecommunications industry is desired
• Advanced knowledge of software development lifecycle and requirements writing
• Demonstrated ability to lead and coordinate cross-functional work teams
• Demonstrated effective leadership and analytical skills
• Advanced written and verbal communication skills are necessary
• Experience with Advanced Excel, PPT, JIRA, Clarity, and Smartsheet is necessary
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems or related field
  

Benefits

Our team is unique — we are passionate about what we do. At Sand Cherry, our Consultants know they are impacting and shaping our clients’ industries. We recognize our employees for their contributions. Our culture is one of the most friendly and communicative in the consulting industry. Sand Cherry is not a top-heavy organization. We offer the opportunity to be part of a digital workforce. Discover the experience that only comes with self-responsibility in the workplace. Our team members manage their own workloads and are expected to deliver exceptional work for our clients. Professional career growth is one of our main priorities, as we affirm that investing in our Consultants and empowering our people will also deliver the best results and value for our clients.