Lead Release Manager

• Experience & Technical Expertise:
• 15 -20 years of dedicated experience in Release Management, DevOps, or a related technical role with significant exposure to software releases.
• Strong understanding of software engineering fundamentals, including development lifecycles, branching strategies, and deployment methodologies.
• 12+ years of proven, hands-on experience with cloud-native engineering, utilizing Function-as-a-Service (FaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and microservices architectures on AWS.
• Deep expertise in modern software engineering practices and principles, including Agile methodologies and DevSecOps, with a focus on continuous delivery, automation (CI/CD), and managing the full release process from code check-in to production.
• Proficiency with enterprise-level project and release management tools (e.g., Jira, Azure DevOps, as well as Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint) and CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI, AWS CodePipeline).
• Familiarity with code quality tools and practices (e.g., SonarQube).
• Experience with AI/ML and Generative AI technologies is a plus.
• Leadership & Collaboration:
• Proven strategic thinker with the ability to develop and execute comprehensive release strategies that align with business objectives.
• Exceptional communication skills, capable of clearly articulating complex release plans, risks, and statuses to diverse stakeholders, including technical teams, product managers, and leadership.
• Strong interpersonal and organizational skills, with the ability to manage complex release schedules, interdependencies, and changing priorities with precision and adaptability.
• A dependable team player, fostering a collaborative environment to ensure seamless coordination across development, QA, and operations teams.
• Experience engaging and collaborating with cross-functional teams at all organizational levels, fostering co-creation and consensus towards successful product launches.
• Travel:
• Ability to travel 0-30% for meeting with clients and leadership meetings.

Expected Responsibilities:

• Hands-on Release Management & Automation:
• Actively engage in a hands-on capacity to orchestrate and drive the end-to-end software release lifecycle for cloud products on AWS.
• Develop, implement, and optimize automated CI/CD pipelines for continuous integration, delivery, and deployment.
• Manage and monitor all release activities, ensuring adherence to quality gates, security policies, and compliance requirements.
• Coordinate release readiness reviews, go/no-go decisions, and post-release retrospectives.
• Maintain detailed release documentation, including release notes, deployment plans, and rollback procedures.
• Coordination & Risk Mitigation:
• Drive coordination and communication across development, QA, operations, and product teams to ensure all parties are aligned on release schedules and dependencies.
• Proactively identify, assess, and mitigate release risks and issues, developing contingency plans to ensure successful deployments.
• Facilitate effective communication channels to provide clear, timely updates on release progress, status, and any potential blockers.
• Oversee project delivery by third-party partners as it pertains to release readiness and deployment.
• Process Improvement & Strategic Input:
• Continuously evaluate and improve release processes, tools, and methodologies to enhance efficiency, speed, and reliability.
• Contribute to the strategic planning of future release cycles, advocating for best practices in continuous delivery and DevSecOps.
• Analyze release metrics and data to identify trends, performance, and areas for ongoing optimization.