Release Manager

The Team: The OSTTRA Technology teamis composed of Capital Markets Technology professionals, who build,supportand protect the applications that operate our network. The technology landscapeincludeshigh-performance, high-volume applications as well as compute intensive applications,leveragingcontemporary microservices, cloud-based architectures.

Whats in it for you: This role is a pivotal senior role responsible for orchestrating the end-to-end release process for our software products and championing agile methodologies across development teams. This individual will drive strategic initiatives to optimize release predictability, quality, and efficiency, while also acting as a hands-on coach and mentor to multiple Scrum teams. The role requires a deep understanding of software development lifecycles, release best practices, and a fervent commitment to agile principles. This role will be instrumental in fostering a culture of continuous improvement, collaboration, and high performance within our engineering and product organizations.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Release Management (60%):

• Release Strategy & Planning: Define, implement, and continuously refine the organization's release strategy, roadmap, and policies, ensuring alignment with business objectives and product roadmaps.
• Release Governance: Establish and enforce robust release governance frameworks, including Go/No-Go criteria, risk management, and communication protocols for all major releases.
• Pipeline Optimization: Drive initiatives to optimize and automate the CI/CD pipeline, working closely with DevOps and engineering teams to reduce lead time, improve deployment frequency, and minimize deployment failures.
• Release Train Coordination: Lead and coordinate complex, synchronized releases involving multiple teams, products, and dependencies. Act as a central point of contact for release-related communications and escalations.
• Stakeholder Management: Proactively communicate release schedules, progress, risks, and post-release performance to senior leadership, product managers, engineering teams, and other key stakeholders.
• Tooling & Metrics: Select, implement, and manage release management tools. Define and track key release metrics (e.g., release frequency, lead time, mean time to recovery, defect escape rate) to identify areas for improvement.
• Incident & Rollback Management: Develop and refine rollback strategies and procedures for releases, ensuring swift and effective recovery from deployment issues. Participate in post-incident reviews to identify root causes and preventive measures.
• Compliance & Audit: Ensure all release activities adhere to internal policies, regulatory requirements, and industry best practices. Support audit processes as required.

Agile Leadership & Scrum Master Coaching (40%):

• Agile Transformation: Champion agile principles and practices across the organization. Lead and contribute to the evolution of our agile maturity model.
• Multi-Team Scrum Master: Act as a dedicated Scrum Master for 2-3 development teams, facilitating all Scrum ceremonies (Daily Scrum, Sprint Planning, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospective).
• Coaching & Mentoring: Coach and mentor product owners, development teams, and other stakeholders on agile values, principles, and practices (e.g., estimation, backlog refinement, user story writing).
• Impediment Removal: Proactively identify, track, and remove impediments that hinder team progress and flow, escalating as necessary to appropriate stakeholders.
• Team Performance & Health: Guide teams in self-organization and continuous improvement. Facilitate productive discussions and conflict resolution. Help teams achieve their sprint goals and deliver high-quality increments.
• Metrics & Reporting: Help teams track and visualize their progress using agile metrics (e.g., burn-down charts, velocity). Report on team health and effectiveness to leadership.
• Cross-Team Coordination: Facilitate communication and collaboration between Scrum teams, particularly on dependencies and integration points.
• Community of Practice: Lead or contribute to an internal Agile Community of Practice to share best practices, foster learning, and drive continuous improvement in agile adoption.

What Were Looking For:

Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, or a related field. Master's degree preferred.
Experience:

• 10+ years of progressive experience in software development, project management, or release management roles.
• 5+ years of experience in a dedicated Release Manager role, with a strong track record of managing complex software releases.
• 5+ years of experience as a Scrum Master, preferably with multiple teams simultaneously or in a scaled agile environment.
• Proven experience in a senior-level position, managing strategic initiatives.

Certifications (Strongly Preferred):

• Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Advanced Certified Scrum Master (A-CSM), or Certified Scrum Professional-Scrum Master (CSP-SM).
• Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) certification (SAFe Release Train Engineer (RTE) or SAFe Program Consultant (SPC)) is highly desirable.
• Project Management Professional (PMP) or ITIL certification is a plus.
• Technical Acumen:
• Deep understanding of the full software development lifecycle (SDLC) and various methodologies (Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Waterfall).
• Proficiency with CI/CD tools and concepts (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, Azure DevOps, Harness).
• Familiarity with version control systems (e.g., Git).
• Experience with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP) and containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes) is a significant advantage.
• Working knowledge of release orchestration tools and practices.
• Leadership & Soft Skills:
• Exceptional leadership, communication (written and verbal), and interpersonal skills.
• Strong ability to influence without direct authority and drive change at all levels of the organization.
• Excellent problem-solving, analytical, and critical thinking abilities.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities, work under pressure, and meet tight deadlines.
• A servant-leader mindset with a passion for continuous improvement and fostering high-performing teams.
• Ability to adapt to a fast-paced, dynamic, and evolving environment.