Release Train Manager

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Are you actively looking for a new opportunity? Or just checking the market? Well… you might just be in the right place!

We’re looking for a Release Train Manager to join our CI/CD DevOps team in NoAM. You will be responsible for scheduling, planning, and controlling the software deployment and delivery process. This person can work remotely from anywhere in the United States within EST hours. 

Overall, the DevOps Release Manager is a Transformational Leader concerned with planning, testing, tracking, release, deployment, communication, and risk management.  You will be accountable for defining and documenting a clear vision, communicating the vision and executing on the plan to move the organization’s Software Delivery capabilities from a Waterfall release cycle to an Agile CI/CD model through a transformation program executed in stages over time.

This role manages both IT operations and developer personnel and processes through a combination of matrixed and direct line reports within the Product and Engineering Team.  This person will assure teammates are trained and performing so as to continually ship value to the marketplace with automation and quality as core delivery success metrics.

The DevOps Release Manager is responsible for the Release Management lifecycle that involves the stages such as scheduling the release, coordinating between teams, and deployment of release as per the schedule and within budget. 

As a DevOps Release Manager, this role will work closely with the DevOps Infrastructure, Testing, Technical Operations and the Application Development Teams to release application changes to Production after completing the development, testing and deployment stages. 

What you’ll be doing:

• Create and communicate an overall vision for CI/CD within the company, setting goals and recommending changes and improvements to achieve these goals.
• Integrate key release components such as SAST, DAST, available smoke testing to staged releases
• Implement release patterns e.g. blue-green/canary to cautiously implement new releases to environments
• Communicate key constructs of the company's DevOps program to customers.
• Create an environment conducive to continuous capability improvement and implement systems to nurture delivery excellence.
• Promote consensus on software delivery objectives throughout the company.
• Execute on the DevOps Department vision for people, processes and technology
• Lead technology teams in day-to-day DevOps Process development and operations, provide key expertise, supervise staff and set performance goals for a global team.
• Build and maintain world class Engineering teams.
• Contribute to the senior management team, guiding strategic decisions and resource allocation.
• Support feature delivery, product roadmap execution and service delivery to achieve targets for service levels and project delivery
• Continually stays up to date with relevant technology, including whether or not the company should adopt this technology. 
• Plan the release of project deliverables and release life cycle while transforming the software delivery organization to a continuous delivery model
• Communicate the project-related tasks such as plans, timelines, requirements, etc. between different teams.
• Coordinate the release schedule and resources required depending upon the third-party applications, defect backlogs, planned releases, and infrastructure updates. 
• Identify the risks that can delay the release and manage them, such that the scope scheduled, and quality of the release is not affected.
• Track the progress and find issues, if any. Always work to improve the process of release.
• Schedule the release readiness reviews before deployment and milestone reviews after each release.
• Create plans for the implementation and deployment as per the release schedule.
• Plan and give weekly updates on the release activities
• Lead the Go-Live activities to deploy the software successfully.
• Team up with relevant development teams responsible for building the automation tools used to develop and deploy the software.
• Maintain documentation related to procedures on build and release, various notifications lists, and dependencies.
• Make improvements in the methodologies used for configuration management and development of software that helps to find ways to use in configuration management.

What you need to bring:

The role of a Release Manager is quite competent, so you need to master or at least be an expert in some of the key technical skills. In addition to that, some soft skills are also required to make the strategic transformational aspects required of this role feasible.

• Minimum of a bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent degree
• Project management experience
• Excellent communication skills, able to synthesize and present complex technical analysis as Executive Summary material
• Knowledge of Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CD/CI) pipelines
• Experience in working with DevOps and Agile methodologies
• Working knowledge of Software Development Lifecycle
• Experience in the use of Application Release Automation tools 
• Well-respected technology leader with 10+ years of progressive engineering management of Software Delivery functions within high growth software companies (SaaS)
• Well-versed in Agile software development methodologies, including a strong partnership with product management
• Knowledge of traditional agile methodologies, including Scrum, Waterfall, or Kanban
• Good understanding of application infrastructure, system architecture, and operating system
• Strong management skills with a track record of on-time delivery and consistently meeting project deadlines
• Experience working cross functionally with Software Engineering, Product, Sales, and Customer Success organizations
• Well informed on requirements of the industry for IT Security and compliance
• Innovative, passionate people leader able to assess, recruit, develop talent and manage high performance teams
• Experience leading diverse teams including the use of 3rd party resources
• Knowledgeable in scalable, multi-tenant SaaS application testing architectures
• Experience working within GCP/Azure/AWS or similar cloud environments
• Effective at internal and external relationship building, with good communication skills
• Strong business and financial acumen; able to quickly grasp key business drivers in the industry and recommend how the Company should respond

Nice to Have:

• Scaled Agile Framework Transformation Experience