DevOps Release Manager

SOFT's client located in Richmond, VA is looking for a DevOps Release Manager for a long term contract assignment.

Qualifications:
Release Manager

Experienced and proactive Release Manager who can hit the ground running in a fast-paced environment. This individual will play a critical role in managing hands-on cross-functional release cycles across multiple Agile teams, ensuring smooth delivery in alignment with the SAFe framework using GitLab, Jira and ServiceNow tools.

Qualifications:
Bachelor's degree or higher.
7+ years of relevant experience.
Release Management related Certifications is a plus, DevOps, ITIL, Cloud, etc.
Demonstrated knowledge in Release Management Life Cycle Required including various software branching methodologies Experience in GitFlow branching methodology is desired.
Demonstrated written and verbal communication skills; ability to articulate technical concepts to all audiences.
Ability to ask probing questions, identify unstated assumptions, and resolve conflicts.
Broad knowledge and expertise of Agile product Management methodologies and industry best practices is desired.
Ability to work evenings and weekends (25%) to support production shakeout testing, application planned/unplanned deployments, and failover testing.
ServiceNow, GitLab, Terraform and JIRA work experience to include utilizing reporting to capture metrics.
Familiarity with AWS GovCloud services, Infrastructure as Code, angular, micro-service architecture, Oracle, SQL Server, Postgres, Aurora database platforms.

Responsibilities:
Participates in an Agile development environment by attending daily standups and release/sprint planning activities
Participates in and lead groups related to processes, standards and best practices.
Acts as an internal consultant by providing technical guidance on infrastructure and release management best practices, defined process and procedures, controls observed to alleviate compliance findings.
Adhering to the Federal Reserve s Enterprise Change Management policies and procedures, owns the planning, scheduling, and controlling of software builds throughout each stage of development and across various environments leading up to the release of a system or system updates in production.
Leads overall execution of build and deploy activities for all environments for the suite by working very closely with DevSecOps Engineers, Cloud Enablement Teams, DBAs, and other environment owners.
Defines, documents and executes continuous integration/continuous deployment best practices and manage/maintain the release and configurations plans to include working with App Dev and National IT.
Chairs and facilitates the production deployment events; triage and escalate issues, as needed
Optimizes continuous deployment practices currently in place and brings new automation technologies to improve the quality of engineering and deployment.
Coordinates with IT Senior Mgt, App Dev, National IT, Customer Support, Product Team, and other resources perform environment shakeout and testing.
Coordinates with NIT team to plan and schedule environmental upgrades and updates from DEV all the way to production/contingency environments
Collaborate with ARC and development teams to develop technology currency roadmap; shepherd and execute the roadmap; escalate issues and delays to Leadership Team
Managing risks and resolving challenges that impact release scope, quality, and schedules
Participate in CAB (Change Advisory Board) meetings to discuss release scope and/or roadblocks
Maintains a release repository and manages key information such as build and release procedures, dependencies, and notification lists
Continually work towards making improvements in the release process
Communicating crucial release plans and changes
Managing, planning, and negotiating release activities
Strong acumen on change process enforcements and attention to details

As a Release Manager, you will provide technical guidance and direction for project strategies and plan implementations to support the delivery of software releases, system upgrades, and associated activities for critical end user applications, as well as other technology-based projects. You will use your knowledge of Cloud and Agile to directly influence activities for business-critical projects throughout the development lifecycle; be contact for and work with all areas affected by projects; and use industry-standard best practices to assure delivery of project goals, milestones, and deliverables and compliance with all release management processes.
Comments/Special Instructions

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***INDEPENDENT CONSULTANTS ONLY! NO THIRD PARTIES/NO SUB CONTRACTORS***