Release Manager

About the Role:We are seeking a highly skilled and detail-oriented Release Manager to own and orchestrate our end-to-end software release lifecycle. You will serve as the central coordination hub between engineering, QA, DevOps, product, and business stakeholders — ensuring that software is delivered reliably, on schedule, and with minimal risk to production environments. This role demands both deep technical fluency and exceptional organizational leadership.Key Responsibilities:Release Planning & CoordinationDefine, own, and continuously refine the release calendar across multiple product lines and environmentsLead release planning sessions, coordinating dependencies across engineering squads, QA, infrastructure, and product teamsEstablish and enforce release governance processes, branching strategies, and code freeze policiesFacilitate Go/No-Go decisions by aggregating readiness signals from all stakeholdersDeployment & Pipeline OversightOversee CI/CD pipeline health, ensuring automated build, test, and deployment stages are performant and reliablePartner with DevOps/Platform engineers to design and improve deployment automation (blue/green, canary, rolling releases)Manage environment promotion flows (Dev → Staging → Production), enforcing quality gates at each stageDrive adoption of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) practices to standardize environment configurationRisk Management & Incident ResponseIdentify, document, and mitigate release risks before they reach productionOwn rollback and hotfix procedures; lead rapid response during release-related incidentsConduct post-release reviews and blameless post-mortems, driving actionable improvementsMaintain and test disaster recovery runbooks related to deployment failuresStakeholder CommunicationProduce clear, timely release notes, deployment summaries, and status reports for both technical and executive audiencesAct as the single point of contact for release status visibility across the organizationProactively communicate delays, risks, and scope changes with full context and mitigation plansProcess Improvement & ToolingContinuously evaluate and improve release processes, reducing lead time, deployment frequency, and change failure rate (DORA metrics)Evaluate and implement release management tooling (e.g., Jira, Confluence, LaunchDarkly, Spinnaker, ArgoCD)Champion a DevOps culture of shared ownership, automation-first thinking, and continuous deliveryCompliance & Audit ReadinessEnsure releases adhere to regulatory and compliance requirements (ISO 27001, GDPR, where applicable)Maintain complete audit trails of all changes, approvals, and deploymentsEnforce change management policies aligned with ITIL or equivalent frameworksRequirementsRequired Qualifications5+ years of experience in release management, DevOps engineering, or a closely related technical roleProven track record managing complex, multi-team software releases in fast-paced Agile/SAFe environmentsDeep understanding of CI/CD principles and hands-on experience with pipelines (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, CircleCI, or equivalent)Strong familiarity with version control systems (Git), branching strategies (GitFlow, trunk-based development), and merge managementExperience with cloud platforms (AWS, or Azure) and container orchestration (Docker)Proficiency with project and issue tracking tools (Jira, Confluence)Solid understanding of QA processes, test automation integration, and quality gate designExcellent communication and facilitation skills — able to align technical and non-technical stakeholders under pressurePreferred QualificationsExperience with feature flag management Familiarity with GitOps tooling IaC (Terraform)Knowledge of ITIL change management processes and DORA metricsRelevant certifications: AWS DevOps Professional, , ITIL Foundation, SAFe Release Train Engineer (RTE), or PMPExperience in regulated industries (Entertainment, Aggregation, Marketplace)Scripting proficiency in Python, Bash, or similar for release automation