A Release Manager is needed for a remote contract opportunity involving 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.

EST hours are preferred.

Responsibilities:

• Working with engineering and Agile teams, you will optimize CI/CD pipelines and oversee resiliency testing.
• You are tasked with driving process improvements through retrospectives, proactively resolving blockers to streamline release timelines, and providing timely updates to senior leadership while maintaining quality and compliance.
• If you bring your curiosity, we'll help you grow in a collaborative environment where everyone shares a passion for success. Even if you are not currently looking for a change, we encourage you to apply now and speak to the hiring manager to learn about the opportunity.

What will you be doing?

• Release Planning, Coordination, and Execution:
  • 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 the 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.
  • Accountable for ensuring observability practices are carried out effectively by the relevant teams (ex. proactively monitor logs, monitoring tools, APM agents, Alerts and work with the teams to analyze, troubleshoot).
• Release Communication:
  • Communicate release plans, progress, and updates to stakeholders and senior leadership in a timely and clear manner.
• Quality and Sign-Offs:
  • 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.
• Collaboration and Cross-Functional Support:
  • 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.
• Resiliency Testing Oversight:
  • Plan and manage resiliency testing, coordinate team participation, document outcomes, and track follow-up actions or bug reports.
• Continuous Improvement and Proactive Participation:
  • 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.

Must Have for this role:

• Looking for a strong Release Manager who has 7+ years of experience.
• Candidate should have extensive experience in planning, coordinating, and executing software releases, managing schedules, ensuring timely issue resolution, and adhering to change management policies.
• Looking for some one who comes with good experience in confluence, Jira, Slack Integration.
• Candidate must have experience in working with cross functional teams SRE, DevOps, Agile teams.
• Someone with good communication and documentation experience and monitoring and working proactively.
• Candidate who has experience in monitoring tools like Data Dog, New Relic is needed.
• Terraform experience is must have skill.
• Ed tech industry is preferred.
• Minimum 4+ years in release management experience is mandatory.

What are the required technical skills?:

• 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.

What you'll need to be successful?

• 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 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.

Reference: 1037159

Worried that you don’t meet every single requirement listed in the job ad? Studies have shown that individuals from marginalized groups are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. Hive + Co. is dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and representative workplace, so if you’re excited about this role, but worried that you don’t meet every requirement, we encourage you to apply anyways. We’d love to get to know you.