Senior Manager, Program Management - Release Management

Position Summary...

What you'll do...

Senior Manager, Release Management – Data Ventures

We are seeking a seasoned Senior Manager, Release Management to drive high-quality release management, and cultivate collaborative interactions among cross-functional teams to ensure successful product releases and continuous improvement.  As a Senior Release Manager, you will oversee the end-to-end release process for our global products, ensuring timely, high-quality delivery of new features and updates. This role is pivotal in coordinating across product, engineering, QA, and customer-facing teams to ensure releases are smooth, predictable, and aligned with business goals. You will champion best practices in release management, identify risks, and continuously improve the process to support organizational growth.

About Data Ventures
Data Ventures exists to unlock the full value of Walmart’s data by developing and productizing B2B data initiatives that empower merchants and suppliers to make better, faster decisions for the business.  As part of this transformation, we’re seeking entrepreneurial individuals to help drive data productization from concept to deployment.

What you'll do:

• Manage release planning & execution through owning monthly milestones in the annual release calendar from planning to deployment, aligning cross-functional teams on timelines, deliverables, and milestones across multiple products and multiple markets (US and International).
• Leading stakeholder coordination through collaboration with program and product managers, engineers, data, QA, customer success, client facing teams and marketing teams to ensure seamless communication and alignment on release goals.
• Leading quality assurance through partnering with QA to ensure all updates meet rigorous quality standards prior to deployment, minimizing risks and ensuring customer satisfaction.
• Identify, communicate, and mitigate risks throughout the release lifecycle. Create contingency plans to handle potential delays or challenges.
• Maintain clear, up-to-date documentation of release processes, schedules, comprehensive release notes, and post-release analyses. 
• Drive continuous improvement and change management through implementing industry best practices for release management, continuously iterating on processes to improve efficiency, predictability, and quality. 
• Deliver metrics and tracking through reporting on release KPIs, including release cadence and on-time delivery.  Partner with Product Support team to report on post-release incident metrics, using data to inform decisions and improvements.

What you'll bring:

• Technical Proficiency: Familiarity with product development lifecycles (PDLC), software development lifecycles (SDLC), Agile/Scrum methodologies, and tools like JIRA and Confluence.
• Leadership Skills: Strong ability to coordinate across teams, influence without direct authority, and drive accountability.
• Problem-Solving: Exceptional organizational, analytical, and problem-solving skills, with a detail-oriented approach to managing risks and dependencies.
• Adaptability: Ability to manage changing priorities and adapt to evolving release requirements.
• Communication: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, capable of engaging technical and non-technical stakeholders effectively. 
• Continuous Improvement: Proven ability to implement process improvements that drive efficiency and quality in software delivery.
• Customer Focus: Deep understanding of the importance of quality and reliability in software releases, with a customer-first mindset.

Benefits & Perks: 
Beyond our great compensation package, you can