Summary
The IT Release Specialist is responsible for developing, managing, and maintaining a structured release strategy that aligns with business objectives, ensuring smooth deployments, adherence to governance standards, and enhanced communication across teams.
Main Responsibilities
- Develop and maintain a structured, repeatable release strategy aligned with business objectives.
- Create and manage release calendars, timelines, and windows for predictability and coordination.
- Coordinate release activities across development, QA, operations, and business teams.
- Ensure compliance with governance, change control, and ITIL risk management practices.
- Conduct release readiness checks, including validation and risk assessment.
- Ensure all release components are fully tested and validated for system stability.
- Define, document, and standardize release processes, roles, and responsibilities.
- Implement and enhance automation with CI/CD pipelines and version control.
- Oversee deployment execution across environments for compliant releases.
- Apply progressive rollouts and feature flags to mitigate risks.
- Track key release metrics such as deployment frequency and failure rates.
- Monitor real-time release performance and address issues impacting user experience.
- Communicate release scope, risks, and post-deployment outcomes to stakeholders.
- Manage expectations on release prioritization, capacity, and commitments.
- Lead post-release reviews to capture lessons learned and implement process improvements.
- Maintain feedback loops to enhance reliability and improve release predictability.
Key Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field.
- ITIL Certification (Foundation or higher).
- Strong understanding of ITIL processes, DevOps practices, and CI/CD pipelines.
- Experience with release management tools (ServiceNow, Jira, Azure DevOps).
- Excellent communication, coordination, and problem-solving skills.
- Experience in cloud environments (AWS, Azure).
Nice to Have
- Knowledge of Agile and Waterfall methodologies.
- Attention to detail and strong organizational skills.
- Ability to influence and collaborate across teams.
- Proactive approach to risk identification and mitigation.
Other Details
Team Structure: Liaison between development, QA, operations, and business stakeholders. Context: Handling multiple releases and ensuring adherence to governance.
