Network Release Manager, Load Balancing

Title: Network Release Manager, Load Balancing 
Location: Richmond, VA/Charlotte, NC/Plano, TX - Hybrid

Position Summary

The Network Release Manager is responsible for coordinating the planning, readiness, execution, and stabilization of complex network implementations supporting enterprise Load Balancing services, with a primary focus on F5 BIG-IP and VMware Avi Load Balancer technologies.
This role partners across Network Engineering, Operations, Architecture, Product Management, Project Management, application teams, Change Management, and third-party providers to ensure releases are well planned, dependencies are understood, risks are proactively managed, and implementations comply with enterprise change-management standards.
The Release Manager is accountable for readiness, coordination, execution oversight, and stakeholder communication.

Key Responsibilities
Coordinate end-to-end implementation activities supporting F5 BIG-IP, VMware Avi Load Balancer, and related application-delivery services.
Develop and manage change implementation schedules, milestones, resource requirements, risks, and dependencies.
Coordinate application migrations, infrastructure refreshes, software upgrades, vulnerability remediation, maintenance, and service decommissioning.
Partner with engineering and operations teams to validate implementation, testing, validation, backout, support, and escalation plans.
Identify and manage cross-functional dependencies involving routing, firewall, DNS, certificates, security controls, monitoring, applications, and infrastructure.
Coordinate preparation and review of Change Requests (CRQs) and supporting implementation documentation.
Facilitate implementation-readiness reviews, implementation checkpoints, change windows, Production Day-One support, and post-implementation reviews.
Monitor implementation execution and proactively resolve or escalate schedule conflicts, resource constraints, technical dependencies, and delivery risks.
Coordinate engineering, operations, vendors, and project resources across multiple concurrent releases without direct reporting authority.
Provide clear and timely release status, risk, issue, and escalation communications to delivery teams and senior stakeholders.
Ensure releases comply with enterprise Change Management policies, controls, and documentation requirements.
Identify opportunities to improve release processes, reporting, automation, and overall delivery effectiveness.

Required Qualifications
5+ years of experience coordinating technical delivery, infrastructure projects, production releases, or enterprise changes.
Experience supporting network infrastructure and enterprise Change/Release Management processes.
Working technical knowledge of Load Balancing and application-delivery concepts, including virtual IPs, pools, nodes, health monitors, SSL/TLS certificates, DNS, routing, firewall dependencies, and traffic management.
Demonstrated experience coordinating complex implementations across engineering, operations, application, security, vendor, and project teams.
Experience with CRQs, Change Approval Board (CAB) processes, implementation and backout plans, release-readiness reviews, risk management, and post-implementation activities.
Ability to manage multiple concurrent efforts, competing priorities, technical dependencies, and critical delivery dates.
Strong written, verbal, presentation, and stakeholder-management skills, including the ability to communicate and influence across technical teams and senior leadership.
Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, ownership, and ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced environment.
Ability to participate in planned evening and weekend implementation windows when required.

Preferred Qualifications
Direct experience supporting F5 BIG-IP and/or VMware Avi Load Balancer environments.
Familiarity with F5 technologies such as LTM, DNS/GTM, Advanced WAF/ASM, and APM.
Experience coordinating load-balancing migrations, platform refreshes, software upgrades, vulnerability remediation, or application onboarding.
Experience with Jira and Confluence and hybrid waterfall/Agile delivery methodologies.
Experience within banking, financial services, or another highly regulated environment.
Bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science, information technology, business, or a related discipline, or equivalent professional experience.
PMP, ITIL, SAFe, CCNA, F5, VMware Avi, or related certifications are a plus.

What Success Looks Like
Success in this role means delivering predictable, well-coordinated, and compliant network change with risks identified early, dependencies actively managed, stakeholders informed, and production services protected throughout the change lifecycle.