Release Manager

Release Manager

The Release Manager plays a critical role responsible for establishing and governing enterprise-wide release management across the organization's technology ecosystem, including Salesforce and multiple web platforms. This role will build and enforce standardized release processes, governance, and controls to ensure consistent, secure, and high-quality deployments. The Release Manager will oversee release planning and execution, manage cross-system dependencies, and ensure all releases meet defined quality, security, and readiness standards. Serving as the central point of coordination across application development, web development, QA, security, and business stakeholders, this role is instrumental in driving release discipline, reducing operational risk, and advancing overall delivery maturity. The ideal candidate is highly detail-oriented, organized, and experienced in managing complex, multi-system releases in fast-paced, Agile environments.

This is a full-time position reporting to the Assistant Vice President, Enterprise Applications & Web Development. The Release Manager will act as the central authority for release coordination and governance across enterprise systems and web platforms. This role partners closely with cross-functional teams to ensure alignment, minimize risk, and maintain consistency and control in deployment practices.

Job Scope & Expected Contributions

The Release Manager is responsible for establishing, operationalizing, and continuously improving a centralized release management function across enterprise applications and web platforms. This role spans multiple systems, teams, and technologies, including Salesforce and the organization's web ecosystem.

Scope of Responsibility

• Own the end-to-end release process across all environments (Development, QA, UAT, Staging, and Production) for Salesforce (Education Cloud, Marketing Cloud Next, and Data Cloud) and enterprise web applications.
• Manage Salesforce DevOps Center processes, including work items, deployment pipelines, environment strategy, and GitHub source control. Ensure releases follow established change management processes and support appropriate segregation of duties.
• Coordinate releases across multiple systems, including Salesforce, integrations, web applications, APIs, authentication services, and supporting platforms to ensure dependencies are identified and deployments remain aligned.
• Maintain the enterprise release calendar, coordinating release schedules, code freezes, blackout periods, and deployment activities across teams and business stakeholders.
• Ensure release readiness by verifying testing has been completed, approvals have been obtained, environments are healthy, and deployment and rollback plans are documented prior to production releases.
• Partner with Information Security to ensure releases meet security, compliance, and access management requirements, including audit readiness and adherence to least-privilege principles.
• Lead release execution, including facilitating go/no-go decisions, coordinating rollback activities when necessary, and driving post-release reviews and continuous improvement efforts.
• Develop and maintain release management documentation, including deployment runbooks, environment documentation, governance standards, approval matrices, and operational procedures.

Expected Contributions

• Build and Mature the Release Function: Establish a scalable, internal release management capability with clear governance and accountability
• Improve Release Quality and Predictability: Reduce production defects, failed deployments, and rollbacks through strong process discipline and readiness validation
• Enhance Cross-Team Coordination: Serve as the central point of alignment across development, QA, DevOps, security, and business stakeholders
• Reduce Operational Risk: Proactively identify and mitigate release risks across a complex, integrated environment
• Standardize and Scale Processes: Replace ad hoc or developer-driven deployment practices with consistent, repeatable release frameworks
• Drive Transparency and Visibility: Provide clear, timely reporting on release status, risks, and outcomes to technical and business stakeholders
• Support Continuous Improvement: Establish metrics and feedback loops to continuously refine release processes, tooling, and governance
• Agile Contributor: Serve as a key participant in Agile ceremonies, providing a release management lens to validate readiness, surface risks, and ensure alignment across development, QA, and deployment activities.
• Strengthen Security and Release Governance: Partner with Information Security to align release management practices with organizational security initiatives, including PIM/PAM, access controls, audit readiness, and deployment governance.

Impact of the Role

Success in this role will result in a more controlled, predictable, and scalable release process that supports the organization's ongoing Salesforce transformation and digital initiatives, while strengthening system stability, security, and stakeholder confidence.

Essential Qualifications & Competencies

• 5+ years of experience in Release Management, DevOps, or Application Delivery
• Proven experience managing complex, multi-system releases (beyond single-application deployments)
• Experience operating in Agile environments with frequent release cycles
• Strong understanding of environment management (sandbox strategy, staging parity, data seeding), dependencies, and deployment risk.
• Demonstrated ability to enforce process and governance across multiple teams
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and Git-based workflows; able to interpret build/test/deploy telemetry.
• Excellent communication skills for clear status and risk reporting to technical and business stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Salesforce environments and multi-platform ecosystems, including DevOps Center, Education Cloud, Marketing Cloud Next, and Data Cloud release patterns.
• Experience managing both enterprise application and web/digital releases (CMS/headless, front-end frameworks, CDNs/WAF, hosting platforms).
• Exposure to test automation, quality gates, and observability (logs, metrics, tracing) to inform release decisions.
• Familiarity with ITIL change enablement and CAB processes.
• Exposure to security and access control models in deployment processes, including PAM/PIM and auditability.
• Relevant certifications (e.g., Salesforce Administrator or Platform App Builder; Marketing Cloud Admin; Scrum Master or ITIL Foundation).

The College provides an award-winning culture and offers a competitive total compensation package that includes:

• Lucrative Time Off (25-40 Days PTO, Paid Family Medical Leave, 11 Paid Holidays)
• Retirement Savings Plan with Supplemental Contribution and Match
• Tuition Remission and Reimbursement
• Medical, Dental, Vision, and Wellness Benefits
• Company-paid Short-Term and Long-Term Disability
• Flexible, hybrid, and remote work schedules

The target hiring range is $94,100.00 to $105,000.00

***The compensation offered to the selected candidate will be based on a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, departmental budgets, qualifications, experience, education, licenses, specialized skills, and training. The hiring range represents The College's good faith and reasonable estimate of possible compensation at the time of posting. This role will be posted through Friday, October 30, 2026. In policy and practice, we encourage diversity and provide equal employment opportunities to all individuals based on job-related qualifications and ability to perform a job. We are committed to maintaining a welcoming and inclusive environment. The American College of Financial Services is an E-Verify Employer.