Release Manager

Compensation Range:

Position Summary

The Release Manager coordinates the technical execution of changes to all production systems, including release scheduling, cross-team communication, and validation of deployment and rollback activities. This role ensures changes are documented, reviewed, and approved through the Change Advisory Board (CAB) in alignment with the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). They are responsible for communicating deployment and rollback statuses, risks, and outcomes to stakeholders. The Release Manager creates and maintains a central deployment calendar that is visible to all University internal stakeholders.

Essential Functions:

• Coordinates and manages the end-to-end execution of production system releases, including scheduling, sequencing, and dependency management across multiple IT and business teams.
• Plans, documents, and oversees all changes to production systems in accordance with the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) and established Change Management process. 
• Facilitates Change Advisor Board (CAB) activities by collecting required documentation, summarizing risks and impacts, and ensuring timely review and approval of proposed changes.
• Validates deployment and rollback plans to ensure technical readiness, business continuity, and risk mitigation prior to production release.
• Communicates release schedules, deployment status, rollback status, risks, and outcomes to technical teams, business stakeholders, Project Management, and University Leadership.
• Creates, maintains, and governs a centralized enterprise release and deployment calendar that provides visibility to all internal University stakeholders.
• Ensures release activities are fully documented, auditable, and compliant with university policies, IT governance standards, and change management requirements.
• Coordinates cross-functional teams during release execution to resolve conflicts, manage issues, and ensure successful deployment outcomes.
• Monitors post-release outcomes, validates successful implementation, and ensures lessons learned and follow up actions are captured and communicated as needed.
• Drives continuous improvement of release and change management practices, tools, and workflows through close collaboration with IT Leadership to improve reliability, transparency, and stakeholder experience.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Supervisory Responsibilities: N/A

Requirements:

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related technical or business discipline required.
• Five (5) or more years of progressively responsible experience in IT operations, release management, change management, or software delivery within a complex, multi‑system environment.
• Formal training or hands‑on experience with the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), including release planning, scheduling, validation, and rollback.
• Ability to apply disciplined release coordination and governance practices to CI/CD-driven changes, ensuring production deployments are timed appropriately, risks are managed, and business priorities are supported.
• Experience supporting release and change management governance, including Change Advisory Board (CAB) documentation, risk assessment, and approval coordination.
• Proven ability to coordinate cross‑functional teams (development, infrastructure, security, QA, and business stakeholders) through release activities.
• Experience developing and maintaining release and change management processes, standards, and documentation.
• Ability to communicate release status, risks, and outcomes clearly to both technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Experience working in higher education, regulated environments, or large enterprise IT organizations preferred.

Competencies/Technical/Functional Skills:

• Strong written communication skills, including the ability to produce clear, concise and accurate documentation for release planning, deployment schedules, risks, impacts, and outcomes.
• Ability to prepare clear and meaningful summaries for Change Advisory Board (CAB) review, including risk assessments, dependencies, and approval recommendations.
• Familiarity with ITSM and change management tools (e.g., ServiceNow, Jira, Azure DevOps).
• Experience translating complex technical release details into plain‑language communications for business stakeholders and leadership.
• Ability to coordinate and synthesize inputs from developers, infrastructure teams, project managers, and business partners into cohesive release documentation.
• Strong organizational skills, including maintaining centralized release documentation and enterprise‑wide deployment calendars.
• Attention to detail to ensure accuracy, completeness, and auditability of release and change records.
• Demonstrated judgment in assessing release readiness, identifying risks, and ensuring appropriate review and approvals prior to deployment.
• Strong project management skills, including planning, resourcing, coordination, meeting facilitation, and documentation from inception through completion.
• Proven problem‑solving and analytical skills, with the ability to identify issues, assess options, and recommend solutions.
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision, taking initiative to manage priorities and complete work within broad parameters.
• Strong interpersonal and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively across departments, functions, cultures, and time zones.
• Ability to apply established SDLC, release, and change management practices while supporting continuous improvement of those processes.
• Proactively identifies opportunities to improve release and change management practices, tools, and workflows in partnership with IT leadership.

Location: Remote, USA

Travel: up to 10% travel

#LI-Remote

Candidate receiving offers will be offered a salary/pay rate commensurate with experience that vary based on a candidate’s qualifications, skills, and competencies.  Absent exceptional circumstances, candidates will be offered a salary within this range for this position. The minimum salary will be offered based on the minimum exemption threshold based on state of residency. Base pay is one component of National University’s total rewards package, as we are dedicated to supporting the needs of the “whole you” with our holistic approach to employee benefits by offering comprehensive well-being benefits for you and your family.  For full details about our benefit plan offerings, please visit benefits.nu.edu. For Part-time benefits, please click here.

National University is committed to maintaining a high-quality workforce representative of the populations we serve. National University employs more than 4,500 faculty and staff and serves over 45,000 students. We are united in our mission to meet the global education demands of the 21st Century and are dedicated to creating a supportive academic and work environment that allows students, faculty and staff to develop their interests and talents while experiencing a sense of community. With programs available both online and at our many campus locations, National University is a leader in creating innovative solutions to education and meeting the needs of our student population, including adult learners and working professionals.

National University (NU) is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against any employee or applicant per applicable federal, state and local laws. At NU, a mix of highly talented, innovative and creative people come together to make the impact of a lifetime for each of our student learners. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment, education, and admission at National University.