Senior Product Release Manager

Role Definition

Own the Product Release Management function, team and governance to ensure predictable, high-quality and on-time releases aligned with product roadmap and customer commitments.

Role Purpose

The Senior Product Release Manager is responsible for managing the end-to-end Product Release Management function across products and releases. The role will lead the Release Management team, establish standardized processes and governance, coordinate cross-functional stakeholders, and ensure predictable, high-quality and on-time product releases. The role will work closely with Product Management, Engineering, QA, DevOps, Architecture, Operations and Delivery teams to manage release planning, dependencies, risks, readiness, deployment and post-release stabilization.

Key Responsibilities

• Release Strategy & Planning: Define release strategy, scope, timelines, milestones, dependencies and release calendar aligned with product roadmap and customer commitments.
• Release Governance: Own and institutionalize Release Management processes, standards, policies, templates and governance across products.
• End-to-End Release Management: Manage releases from planning through development, testing, and closure.
• Release Readiness: Establish and monitor readiness criteria covering functional, technical, testing, infrastructure, security and operational aspects.
• Stakeholder Management: Coordinate Product, Engineering, QA, DevOps, Operations, Architecture and other teams to ensure smooth release execution.
• Risk & Dependency Management: Identify risks, bottlenecks and cross-team dependencies and drive timely resolution.
• Customer & Roadmap Alignment: Ensure customer CRs, defects and business priorities are appropriately aligned with product releases and roadmap.
• Reporting & Metrics: Establish release dashboards and KPIs covering release predictability, quality, timelines, risks and deployment performance.
• Team Leadership: Lead, mentor and develop Release Managers/Coordinators and build a strong release management capability.
• Continuous Improvement: Drive process standardization, automation and adoption of modern release practices to improve release quality, speed and predictability.

Technical / Functional Competencies

• Strong understanding of SDLC, Agile, Release Management.
• Good understanding of branch management, feature, deployment and rollback processes.
• Experience with Jira, Confluence, Digit or similar tools.
• Strong knowledge of release dashboards, metrics and reporting.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving and data-driven decision-making skills.
• Good understanding of software delivery metrics would be an advantage.
• Exposure to AI-enabled automation and release management is desirable.

Behavioral / Leadership Competencies

• Strong ownership and accountability.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Ability to influence across teams without direct authority.
• Strong negotiation and conflict-resolution skills.
• Strategic and structured approach to problem solving.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a high-pressure environment.
• Strong team leadership, mentoring and coaching capability.
• Customer-focused and results-oriented.
• Strong focus on continuous improvement and operational excellence.

Experience & Qualification

• 12+ years of experience in Software Delivery, Product Management, Release Management, Program Management or related technology functions.
• 5+ years of experience in Release Management / Product Delivery.
• Proven experience managing multiple products/releases and cross-functional teams.
• Experience managing and mentoring Release Managers/Coordinators.
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, IT or equivalent.
• PMP, PRINCE2, ITIL, SAFe or Agile certification would be an advantage.