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.