Release Manager

Release Manager

Release Managers are responsible for developing, managing and organizing releases. They collaborate and coordinate the implementation activities; focus on dependencies and relationship management; delivering products by bringing software and/or infrastructure as an integrated release package or solution. TRMs ensure integrity of pre-production and production environments. They create and own release processes; are central knowledge point of products’ environment. TRMs identify efficiencies in the release processes, propose automation solutions or improvements and implement them. They develop and manage release schedules by ensuring planned milestones are met in a timely manner. TRMs emphasize on customer experience, efficiencies, cross-functional dependencies, compatibility and implement the releases accordingly.

At least 7+ years software/SaaS experience with 5 in Release/project/program management. Strong knowledge of software development business processes and practices. Experience with project management and software development tools. 2+ years of experience with Change Management and in using ServiceNow as service management tool. Experience in creating large scale implementation plans, managing and coordinating them with multiple system integrations and dependencies. Release and/or project management experience on a large IT program supporting government customers.

Accountable for creating, managing and maintaining the specifics of Release Processes and Schedules. Collaborate with leadership and customers to understand their perspectives of balancing speed and risk. Identifies and analyzes risks, conflicts and impacts within and across multiple releases and work with project teams to mitigate issues. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to maintain high-quality deployment artifacts as they move through the entire release lifecycle. Maintaining release schedules for various type of release. Managing, Planning, and negotiating release activities. Responsible of all release activities within the implementation of a given project. Prepare implementation plans, review with project teams and stakeholders including contact lists, communications, back outs, and production verifications. Gather application, component (infrastructure) data and dependencies required for releases. Execute production deployments and implementation plans during the production readiness phase. Communicate implementation plans, release statuses, issues and resolutions to stakeholders and leadership in a timely manner. Lead RCA and post implementation review meetings, gather and coordinate implementation issues’ resolutions and communications. Conduct Release Readiness reviews, Milestone Reviews, and Business Go/No-Go reviews. Plan and give weekly updates on the release activities. Participate in CAB meetings to discuss release scope and/or roadblocks. Maintain documentation related to procedures on build and release, various notifications lists, and dependencies. Make improvements in the methodologies used for configuration management and development of software that helps to find ways to use in configuration management. Perform a release management assessment, identify process improvement opportunities and ensure implementation and adherence to the release management strategy. Accountable for developing process improvements and training of release processes to stakeholders. Develop and present executive-level reports, presentations, and analyses of initiatives and programs, including roadmap and release execution. Responsible to handle the pre-prod deploy window and work closely with environment team for process improvements.

Ability to manage critical situations across teams to ensure the overall success of the release with the flexibility to accommodate evolving business needs. Proven organizational, presentation and communication skills, both written and verbal, with technical and non-technical staff and for all levels of management.