Release Manager

Title: Release Manager
Job Type: Contract
Contract Length: 6 months
Target Start Date: ASAP
Work Location/Structure: Remote (EST)

About the Opportunity:

Our client, an education innovation company, is looking for a skilled Release Manager to join their team for a 6-month engagement. This project involves planning, coordinating, and executing software releases, managing schedules, ensuring timely issue resolution, and adhering to change management policies. You will oversee deployments, uphold quality practices, secure Agile team sign-offs, and ensure Business Acceptance Testing (BAT) is completed without issues. This is a high-impact role that requires a self-motivated professional who can hit the ground running and deliver results quickly.

Key Responsibilities & Deliverables:

This role is focused on the successful completion of specific tasks and deliverables. Your responsibilities will include:

• Plan, schedule, and coordinate software releases across development teams, defining clear release scopes.
• Manage the release calendar and ensure timely resolution of tickets by the System Testing deadline.
• Oversee deployment execution, ensuring successful delivery with no critical issues before production.
• Maintain/Improve release processes, manage release communication to leadership, and ensure compliance with change management policies.
• Conduct release readiness reviews, post-release evaluations, and proactively mitigate risks using monitoring tools to troubleshoot issues.
• Ensure observability practices are carried out effectively by relevant teams (e.g., proactively monitor logs, monitoring tools, APM agents, alerts, and work with teams to analyze, troubleshoot).
• Communicate release plans, progress, and updates to stakeholders and senior leadership in a timely and clear manner.
• Ensure quality practices are followed, secure timely sign-offs from Agile teams and User Acceptance Testing (UAT), and confirm Business Acceptance Testing (BAT) is completed with no open items.
• Collaborate with Service Reliability Engineers (SRE), engineering, and cross-functional teams to streamline CI/CD pipelines and secure full support for releases.
• Work with Agile teams to ensure smooth execution of automation runs during release cycles.
• Plan and manage resiliency testing, coordinate team participation, document outcomes, and track follow-up actions or bug reports.
• Lead release retrospectives, document action items, and implement process improvements to enhance release processes and automation strategies.
• Actively identify blockers during release calls and recommend improvements to reduce release timelines while maintaining quality.

Required Skills & Experience:

We are looking for someone with a proven track record of successful contract engagements. The ideal candidate will have:

• 7+ years of experience in release management, software development, or a related role within an Agile environment.
• Proven track record of planning, coordinating, and executing software releases across cross-functional teams.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions preferred), deployment processes, and automation tools.
• Demonstrated ability to manage resiliency testing and document outcomes.
• Prior experience collaborating with SREs, engineering, and Agile teams to ensure smooth release cycles.
• Terraform experience is a must-have skill.
• Strong project management and organizational skills to manage release calendars, scopes, and timelines.
• Excellent communication skills for clear and timely updates to stakeholders and senior leadership.
• Ability to ensure quality practices, secure timely Agile team and UAT sign-offs, and confirm Business Acceptance Testing (BAT) completion without issues.
• Proficiency in monitoring tools, logs, and APM agents (e.g., Data Dog, New Relic) for proactive troubleshooting and risk mitigation.
• Problem-solving skills to identify and resolve blockers, ensuring no critical issues reach production.
• Expertise in driving continuous improvement through release retrospectives and process enhancements.
• Knowledge of change management policies and compliance requirements.
• Ability to foster cross-functional collaboration and secure team support for releases.
• Experience with Confluence, Jira, and Slack Integration.
• Minimum 4+ years in Release management experience is mandatory.