Release Management Manager

This role is responsible for developing, implementing and managing the release management process for Digital Applications. This position will support internal and external teams to develop release strategies and the coordination of release plans in conjunction with maturing ITIL processes for the deployment of changes to and/or addition of applications and critical infrastructure into the integrated testing and production environments. The successful candidate will focus on managing the release plans and a centralized release calendar for all internally developed and externally provided solutions including the release of integration components. The position will be responsible for planning the weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly release of critical application and infrastructure upgrades and enhanced capabilities where Consumer Digital Platform are critical business applications. This key role will help coordinating releases with Product Owners, IT Solution Owners (ITSOs), Portfolio Management and Infrastructure Management to through multiple environments.

Responsibilities:

• Maintain a forward-looking plan defining the release windows and cycles across a portfolio of Digital Channel Applications.
• Manage risks and resolves issues that affect release scope, schedule and quality
• Measure and monitor progress to ensure application releases are delivered on time and according to the defined plan, and that they meet or exceed expectations
• Coordinate release content and effort based on the service request backlog, pending service requests, third party applications, or operating system updates
• Communicate all release plans, commitments, and changes including requirements, QA plans, schedule, and scope changes
• Manage relationships and coordinate work between different teams at different locations
• Conduct Release Readiness reviews, Milestone Reviews, and Business Go/No-Go reviews in conjunction with Project Management and other stakeholders.
• Produce Deployment, Run Books and Implementation Plans include ramp down, cutover and slow start procedures
• Publish Periodic Release Reporting
• Communicate release details and schedules to the Business as required
• Negotiate, plan and manage all release calendars and activities
• Work with ITSOs to understand impacts of branches and code merges
• Maintains the release schedule for all core services and ensure alignment across key partners and vendors.
• Continually work towards making improvements in the release process
• Lead and co-ordinate, in conjunction with Project Management teams, the Go-Live activities including the execution of the deployment Plans and checklists.
• Participate in CAB meetings to discuss release scope and/or roadblocks
• Maintains a release repository and manages key information such as build and release procedures, dependencies, and notification lists
• Seeks opportunities to continuously improve the release management process and tools to create consistency in communication, execution, and success of releases
• Seeks opportunities to automate the execution of a release
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

• 8+ years of experience developing release plans and calendars within Banking Domains.
• Experience working on Digital Banking Release Coordination in a minimally customized environment.
• Good exposure on SDLC, CI/CD techniques and methodologies.
• Have strong knowledge on the Scrum and Agile methodologies.
• Strong Knowledge on the ITIL framework and practices.
• Understanding of Middleware, Java concepts, Network and UNIX/Window Platforms
• Proven experience on adopting the new technologies, methodologies and practices.
• Strong Documentation and communication skills
• Ability to work effectively with remote staff distributed globally.
• Experience with integrating various IT Service Management tools such as BMC Remdy, Service Now, JIRA, Sharepoint etc

Competencies:

• Self-motivation/Drive
• Leadership
• Organization/Coordination