IT Release specialist

Responsibilities

Develop and maintain a structured, repeatable release strategy aligned with business objectives.

Create and manage release calendars, windows, and timelines to ensure predictability and coordination.

Coordinate release activities across development, QA, operations, and business teams to reduce handoff issues.

Ensure releases comply with organizational governance, change control, and ITIL based risk management practices.

Conduct comprehensive release readiness checks, including environment validation, risk assessment, and rollback planning.

Ensure all release components are fully tested and validated to maintain system stability.

Define, document, and standardize release processes, roles, and responsibilities for consistent execution.

Implement and enhance automation using CI/CD pipelines and version control to accelerate and de risk releases.

Oversee deployment execution across environments to ensure smooth, controlled, and compliant releases.

Apply modern release techniques such as progressive rollouts and feature flags to reduce exposure and mitigate risk.

Track key release related metrics such as deployment frequency, change failure rate, and rollback frequency.

Requirements

Experience, Skills & Knowledge

Strong understanding of ITIL processes, DevOps practices, and CI/CD pipelines.

Experience with release management tools (e.g., ServiceNow, Jira, Azure DevOps).

Excellent communication, coordination, and problem-solving skills.

Ability to work under pressure and manage multiple releases simultaneously.

Experience in cloud environments (AWS, Azure).

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.