Lead, Release Management

The Lead Release Manager is a senior individual contributor responsible for leading the planning, coordination, and execution of complex, cross‑domain enterprise releases for critical business applications and platforms. This role focuses on release orchestration, dependency management, and production readiness across multiple teams and systems, serving as a subject matter expert and escalation point for non‑Epic releases. The Lead Release Manager operates with significant autonomy, influencing delivery outcomes without direct people management responsibilities.

Please note this is a hybrid opportunity (3 days in office & 2 days WFH). The position can be based in one of the following locations: Schaumburg IL, Secaucus, NJ, Lenexa, KS, Dallas, TX, Tampa, FL.

Pay Range: $130,000 - $140,000 / year

Salary offers are based on a wide range of factors including relevant skills, training, experience, education, and, where applicable, certifications obtained. Market and organizational factors are also considered. Successful candidates may be eligible to receive annual performance bonus compensation.

Benefits Information:

We are proud to offer best-in-class benefits and programs to support employees and their families in living healthy, happy lives. Our pay and benefit plans have been designed to promote employee health in all respects – physical, financial, and developmental. Depending on whether it is a part-time or full-time position, some of the benefits offered may include:

• Day 1 Medical, supplemental health, dental & vision for FT employees who work 30+ hours
• Best-in-class well-being programs
• Annual, no-cost health assessment program Blueprint for Wellness®
• healthyMINDS mental health program
• Vacation and Health/Flex Time
• 6 Holidays plus 1 "MyDay" off
• FinFit financial coaching and services
• 401(k) pre-tax and/or Roth IRA with company match up to 5% after 12 months of service
• Employee stock purchase plan
• Life and disability insurance, plus buy-up option
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Annual incentive plans
• Matching gifts program
• Education assistance through MyQuest for Education
• Career advancement opportunities
• and so much more!

• Develop and manage release schedules ensuring alignment with business and technology strategies.
• Coordinate with cross-functional teams including Development, QA, QE, DevOps, IT Security, UAT, Support and Product Management to ensure successful releases.
• Enforce release governance and maintain documentation, ensuring adherence to best practices and SDLC production requirements.
• Maintain release progress and activities within required tools and document repositories.
• Identify and mitigate risks escalating as needed to clear blockers.
• Oversee cross team and cross product release dependencies.
• Develop production readiness reviews.
• Run release deployments and post-deploy hypercare.
• Communicate release plans, impacts to stakeholders and issues throughout the release life cycle. 
• Drive Continuous improvement and automation initiatives to enhance release efficiency, reduce deployment risks and optimize processes.
• Lead projects that extend beyond standard software releases.
• Lead and mentor release managers, ensuring best practices are followed across all releases.
• Serve as main point of contact for senior leadership regarding releases plans, risks and business impacts.

Education

• Bachelor’s Degree degree in Computer Science/Information Systems or commencement work experience required.

Experience Required:

• Extensive experience managing software releases across all phases of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), including planning, development, testing, deployment, and post-production support.

• Strong understanding of Agile, Scrum, Waterfall, and hybrid SDLC methodologies, with the ability to adapt release processes to varying project requirements.

• Proven leadership experience mentoring release managers, project teams, and stakeholders on SDLC and release management best practices.

• Demonstrated expertise in coordinating cross-functional teams to ensure successful delivery of software releases aligned with SDLC governance and quality standards.

• Experience defining and enforcing release management processes, controls, and best practices throughout the SDLC. 

• Proven ability to manage release schedules, dependencies, risks, and change activities across multiple concurrent development initiatives.

• Experience partnering with Development, QA, Product Management, Infrastructure, Security, and Operations teams to ensure SDLC compliance and release readiness.

• Ability to lead release planning, readiness reviews, go/no-go decision meetings, and post-implementation retrospectives. 

• Strong understanding of software quality assurance practices, defect management, configuration management, and change control within the SDLC.

• Experience establishing release metrics, KPIs, and reporting to drive continuous improvement across software delivery processes.

Preferred Work Experience:

• Formal training in project management (Agile, Waterfall, Scrum)
• 8+ years of progressive experience in Release Management, Program Management, or Software Delivery roles, including leadership responsibility for enterprise-scale SDLC initiatives and complex software deployments.

Technical Job  Specific Knowledge:

• Experience with Jira & ServiceNow