Release Communications Manager

Release Communications Manager | Digital

Candidates need to be U.S. Citizens living in the United States. 

The Release Communications Manager will build and lead FedEx Digital's release communications function from the ground up, creating the strategy, processes, and operating model that connect product innovation with the market. This leader will translate complex product releases, enhancements, roadmap updates, and critical incidents into clear, commercially relevant communications that enable customers, sales, product marketing and other internal teams to understand what changed and why it matters.

Working in close partnership with Product, Product Marketing, Engineering, this role will establish scalable release communications practices, drive cross-functional alignment, and serve as the central conduit between Product and the broader Marketing organization—ensuring every launch is supported with timely, accurate, and impactful messaging.

A best-in-class Release Communications leader does far more than write release notes—they become the operating system that connects product development to commercialization. Their job is to ensure every product change is understood, actionable, and creates value for customers and the business.

Here are the capabilities I'd expect from someone building this function:

Strategic Leadership

• Own the end-to-end release communications strategy across the digital portfolio.
• Build the release communications function, governance model, and operating rhythm from scratch.
• Define release tiers (major launches, enhancements, maintenance updates, incidents) and the communications required for each.
• Create scalable processes that can support hundreds of releases annually.

Product Translation

• Attend product planning, PI planning, sprint reviews, and launch readiness meetings.
• Translate technical product work into customer and commercial value.
• Distill engineering language into messaging that sales, customers, partners, and executives understand.
• Determine what matters to each audience—not every feature deserves the same attention.

Cross-Functional Orchestration

• Serve as the communication bridge between Product, Engineering, Product Marketing, Commercial, Customer Success, Support, Legal, Brand and Corporate Communications.
• Ensure stakeholders receive the right information at the right time.
• Drive launch readiness and communication timelines.
• Eliminate surprises across the organization.

Customer Communications

• Produce release notes customers actually want to read.
• Write customer emails.
• Develop knowledge base updates and FAQs.
• Ensure communications are segmented appropriately by customer type and product adoption.

Incident & Crisis Communications

• Own communication during product outages and service disruptions.
• Partner with engineering and operations to provide accurate, timely updates.
• Create communication templates before incidents occur.
• Balance transparency with speed and clarity.

Metrics They Own

Rather than measuring volume, they focus on outcomes such as:

• On-time release communications
• Stakeholder satisfaction
• Customer engagement with release content
• Reduction in support tickets caused by communication gaps
• Internal awareness of releases

What separates "good" from "best in class"

A good release communications manager asks:
"What shipped?"

A great one asks:
"Who needs to know, what do they need to do differently, how does this create value, and what's the best way to tell that story?"

For FedEx Digital specifically, I'd expect this person to become the central nervous system between Product and Product Marketing. They shouldn't simply publish release notes, they should ensure every meaningful product change flows into sales enablement, customer marketing, demand generation, web content, training, support documentation, executive updates, and customer communications in a coordinated way. They make product launches feel intentional, synchronized, and commercially impactful rather than a collection of disconnected announcements.