Change & Release Coordinator
Location: Chicago, IL/Dallas, TX (Hybrid)
Duration: 12 months
Focus: Release Engineering, Automation & Environment Management (Prod & Non-Prod)
Position Summary:
We are seeking an experienced Change & Release Coordinator to manage, oversee, and optimize end-to-end change and release deployment processes across both production and non-production environments. You will bridge the gap between Development, DevOps, QA, and IT Operations to drive reliable, repeatable releases using automated deployment pipelines and strict governance framework protocols.
Key Responsibilities:
Release Orchestration & Coordination
- Own the Release Management Lifecycle for scheduled software releases, continuous integration builds, and hotfixes across multi-environment landscapes (Dev, Test, Staging, Prod).
- Lead Release Readiness reviews, Go/No-Go checkpoints, Deployment Planning meetings, and post-implementation reviews (PIRs).
- Coordinate deployment cutovers and dry runs across engineering, infrastructure, database, and security teams.
Change Governance & Compliance
- Evaluate Change Requests (CRs) for risk, impact, environment dependencies, and technical readiness prior to CAB (Change Advisory Board) reviews.
- Enforce compliance with organizational change policies, audit requirements, and ITIL standards across all changes.
- Track change success/failure metrics, maintaining accurate release schedules and release documentation.
Automation & Environment Management
- Collaborate with DevOps and Release Engineers to standardize automated deployment scripts, CI/CD pipelines, and environment configuration controls.
- Drive transition strategies from manual deployment steps to fully automated pipeline deployments.
- Manage environment access, code branch cutoffs, configuration drift monitoring, and synchronization between non-production and production environments.
Incident & Risk Mitigation
- Establish standardized rollback protocols and contingency plans for high-risk changes.
- Serve as the escalation point for deployment failures, environment contention issues, or pipeline blockages during release windows.
Qualifications & Key Skills:
- Experience: 10+ years of dedicated experience in IT Change, Release, or Environment Management within cloud or hybrid enterprise landscapes.
- Release Engineering & Automation: Knowledge and experience in working with team DevOps and automation work
- ITSM & Governance: Deep working knowledge of ITSM frameworks and tools (ServiceNow, Jira, Confluence, BMC Helix).
- Environment Knowledge: Familiarity with managing code deployments across microservices, containers (Docker, Kubernetes), databases, and legacy platforms.
- Methodologies: Strong understanding of Agile, DevSecOps, Continuous Delivery, and ITIL methodologies (ITIL Foundation certification preferred).
- Communication: Excellent coordination, stakeholder management, and crisis control skills during critical deployment cutover windows.
