Job Title: IT Release Manager
Requisition ID: #119032-1
Duration: 12 Months
Location: Irving, TX
Work Arrangement: 100% Onsite
Interview Process: 1 Round - Virtual Panel via MS Teams
Focus: Local Irving/DFW candidates with 5-7 years of IT Release Management experience, at least one listed certification, and hands-on exposure to CI/CD pipelines, SDLC, Git, release governance, deployment coordination, and risk management. 100% onsite is mandatory; relocation candidates are not eligible.
Job Description
Our client is seeking an experienced IT Release Manager to plan, coordinate, and manage software releases across multiple development teams and environments.
The Release Manager will oversee the end-to-end release process, ensuring smooth coordination between development, QA, cybersecurity, infrastructure, operations, and business stakeholders. This role focuses on release scheduling, deployment readiness, risk management, governance, and successful production deployments.
Key Responsibilities
- Plan and coordinate release schedules across multiple development teams and product lines.
- Manage release calendars, deployment schedules, milestones, and cross-team dependencies.
- Coordinate release activities across development, QA, cybersecurity, infrastructure, operations, and business teams.
- Monitor release readiness, ensuring testing, security, change management, and approval requirements are completed.
- Facilitate Change Advisory Board (CAB) reviews and other governance activities.
- Identify release risks, blockers, and dependencies; drive resolution and ensure accountability.
- Coordinate deployment plans, rollback procedures, contingency plans, and stakeholder communications.
- Monitor deployment progress and escalate issues that may impact release timelines.
- Coordinate decisions to delay, stop, or roll back releases when necessary.
- Ensure appropriate technical teams are engaged during deployment issues and incidents.
- Provide regular release status updates, highlighting risks, decisions, and schedule impacts.
- Maintain release documentation, runbooks, checklists, and deployment records.
- Conduct post-release reviews and track lessons learned.
- Identify recurring release issues and drive continuous process improvements.
- Ensure compliance with organizational policies, security standards, and release governance requirements.
Required Qualifications
- 5-7 years of experience in IT Release Management, Project Management, or a similar capacity.
- No degree required; Bachelor's degree is a plus.
- Must possess at least one of the following certifications: ITIL 4 Foundation; ITIL 4 Practitioner - Release Management; PMP; CAPM; CSM (Certified ScrumMaster).
Top 3 Required Skills
- Communication: Ability to coordinate technical and business teams, communicate release schedules, risks, dependencies, and deployment impacts.
- Project Management: Experience managing release calendars, deployment schedules, dependencies, runbooks, and cross-functional activities.
- Risk Management: Ability to identify blockers, assess deployment risks, manage issues, and coordinate rollback and contingency plans.
Additional Technical Skills
- CI/CD & Automation: Experience with automated build, testing, and deployment pipelines.
- SDLC & Version Control: Strong understanding of software development lifecycles, testing processes, Git, and release/version management.
- Cloud & Infrastructure as Code: Familiarity with cloud platforms and Infrastructure-as-Code tools to support consistent deployment environments.
- Release Governance: Understanding of change management, release approvals, quality gates, and deployment readiness.
Required Soft Skills
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
- Strong attention to detail.
- Ability to hold teams and stakeholders accountable.
- Strong organizational and coordination skills.
- Ability to manage multiple priorities and cross-functional dependencies.
- Proactive problem-solving and stakeholder management.
Team Structure & Work Environment
- Works closely with Technical Leads, Product Owners, Scrum Masters, and multiple engineering teams.
- Coordinates activities across development, cybersecurity, QA, infrastructure, operations, and business stakeholders.
- Acts as the central point of coordination for release schedules, readiness, risks, and deployment execution.
- 100% onsite at the Irving, TX office.
Disqualifiers / Red Flags
- Frequent job changes or inconsistent employment history.
- Significant unexplained employment gaps.
- Candidates without the required certification.
- Candidates without relevant IT Release Management or deployment coordination experience.
- Only local candidates will be considered.
