Release Manager

Key Accountabilities: 

• Create the processes that provide an end-to-end overview of the release processes and associated metrics. 
• Facilitation of Release related meetings such as:
• Planning sessions working with the development teams to understand what is intended to be delivered to Production.
• Change Management: understand when changes are needed for a scheduled release, that the appropriate documentation and associated authorizations are captured and documented.
• Go- No-Go sessions; working with the Stakeholders team leads to ensure that everything is ready" for the release and authorization is received from Management to proceed with the Release Systems Release; coordination of the activities articulated in the planning sessions including the post-production verification steps.
• Oversight of regular scheduled releases and as well as ad-hoc / hotfix system releases conducted by other team members. Ensuring anyone overseeing releases is trained and understands the importance of the process and the key steps. 
• Release artifacts are completed with high quality and conform to audit related needs. This is for planned and unplanned releases.
• Tracks any issues and ensures their timely resolution by working with the development teams and maintain post release metrics.
• Communicate with stakeholders ensuring transparency of activities on the progress toward a Release. 
• Ensure the 'Release tickets" are updated appropriately and Release manifest / checklist are maintained. The Release activities also conform to the regulatory standards.
• Off Hours availability will be required but can be accumulated by flexibility with the work schedule.
• Managing risks and resolving challenges that impact release scope, quality, and schedules 
• Planning release windows and cycles across portfolios
• Managing relationships working on interrelated processes
• Communicating crucial release plans and changes 
• Coordinating processes between different teams 
• Communicating necessary release details to business teams
• Managing, planning, and negotiating release activities
• Initiating and overseeing progressive release processes
• Maintaining deployment, implementation, and run books plans
• Conducting release readiness and milestone reviews
• Maintaining release schedules for every core service and ensuring releases aligns with major vendors and other stakeholders
• Leading and coordinating checklist and deployment plan execution 
• Developing automation and release management best practices and standards 
• Researching best methods and techniques for managing configurations regarding a business’s existing needs
• Ensuring that releases operate as per expectations 
• Ensuring that process requirements are clear across dependent teams
• Managing the development of deliverables into production environments
• Reviewing and Sharing release notes
• Deployment management of deliverables to the test environment

Desired Skills and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree. A relevant combination of education and experience may be considered in lieu of degree.
• PMP certification highly preferred. 
• Four years of Release Management experience in a software development environment working with application development, product and agile delivery teams.
• Experience in Cloud Technology of a SaaS environment is a plus
• Prior experience as software analyst, developer or tester preferred. 
• Demonstrable knowledge in working with Agile.
• Understanding of the fundamentals of iterative and incremental development.
• Team Management. Negotiation and Communication skills.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and mentoring skills.
• Demonstrable conflict resolution skills.
• Demonstrable risk management and mitigation skills.
• Knowledge of tools used to assist with scrum team planning like Jira, confluence.
• Use of Jira for the management of team backlog and sprint tracking preferred.
• Proven ability to multi-task in a fast-paced environment while remaining focused on service to the customer.
• Ability to understand business needs and conceptualize and implement information systems that support those business strategies.
• Ability to effectively exchange information clearly and concisely, and present ideas, reports facts and other information, and respond to questions as appropriate. 
• Ability to interact with others to build consensus and get decisions implemented.
• Ability to establish workflows, manage multiple projects, and meet necessary deadlines.