Senior Release Manager

Company Description

Zayo provides mission-critical bandwidth to the world’s most impactful companies, fueling the innovations that are transforming our society. Zayo’s 141,000-mile network in North America and Europe includes extensive metro connectivity to thousands of buildings and data centers. Zayo’s communications infrastructure solutions include dark fiber, private data networks, wavelengths, Ethernet, and dedicated Internet access. Zayo serves wireless and wireline carriers, media, tech, content, finance, healthcare and other large enterprises.

Zayo is seeking an experienced Senior Release Manager to orchestrate technology deployments and lead the Agile Release Train (ART) in collaboration with value stream representatives and Scrum teams. The Senior Release Manager will be responsible for implementing and maintaining release management processes that align with both Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) principles and ITIL practices, ensuring consistent and reliable software delivery while maximizing business value.

Responsibilities:

• Lead and coordinate the end-to-end release management process across multiple Agile teams and value streams.

• Orchestrate Program Increments (PIs) and manage dependencies between teams within the Agile Release Train.

• Create and maintain release schedules, coordinating with Product Management, Development teams, and Operations.

• Plan and execute release strategies that align with business objectives and minimize risk.

• Facilitate release planning meetings and ceremonies within the SAFe framework.

• Manage the release calendar and coordinate release windows across different value streams.

• Ensure compliance with change management processes and release governance.

• Monitor and report on release metrics and KPIs.

• Coordinate with Change Management for proper release approval and documentation.

• Lead release readiness reviews and go/no-go decisions.

• Conduct post-release reviews and facilitate continuous improvement.

• Maintain release management documentation and processes.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or related field.

• Minimum of seven (7) years of experience in IT Service Management or Software Development.

• Minimum of five (5) years of experience in Release Management.

• SAFe certification (minimum SAFe 5 Agilist).

• ITIL v4 Foundation certification.

• Experience with CI/CD tools and practices.

• Strong understanding of Agile and DevOps principles.

• Advanced knowledge of release management tools and practices.

• Experience with automated deployment tools and techniques.

• Strong understanding of software development lifecycle.

• Excellent coordination and planning capabilities.

• Outstanding stakeholder management skills.

• Proven ability to manage complex, multi-team releases.

• Strong risk assessment and mitigation abilities.

• CI/CD Pipeline Management.

• Release Automation Tools.

• Version Control Systems.

• Deployment Management Tools.

• ITSM Platforms.

• Agile Project Management Tools.

• Testing and Quality Assurance Tools.

• Release success rate.

• Time-to-market improvement.

• Release predictability.

• Reduction in release-related incidents.

• Team velocity and predictability.

• Stakeholder satisfaction.

• Process maturity improvement.

• May require flexible hours to support releases.

• Hybrid work environment with some on-site presence required.

• May require occasional travel to other office locations.

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Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's degree in related field.

• Advanced SAFe certifications (RTE, Release Train Engineer).

• Advanced ITIL certifications.