Senior Release Manager (Agile / DevOps / Financial Services)
Summary
Oversees end-to-end technology releases for a financial services firm, coordinating Agile teams, managing risks, and ensuring compliance with DevOps/CI/CD best practices in complex enterprise environments.
Senior Release Manager (Agile / DevOps / Financial Services)
Location: London (Hybrid - 8 days onsite per month)
Contract: 12 Months (Inside IR35)
Working Pattern: Hybrid
The Opportunity
We are looking for an experienced Senior Release Manager to join a major financial services organisation responsible for managing complex enterprise-wide technology releases across multiple Agile squads and Tribes.
Responsibilities
- Manage the complete Release Lifecycle from initiation through to closure.
- Produce and maintain Release Plans and governance documentation.
- Manage key release milestones including: Scope Freeze, Code Freeze, PPE Launch, Go / No Go, Production Release, Release Closure.
- Produce Release Level Test Strategy documentation in collaboration with Testing teams.
- Identify, assess and manage risks, issues, dependencies and delivery timelines.
- Provide regular release reporting to senior stakeholders.
- Take accountability for release quality and successful delivery.
- Coordinate activities across multiple Agile Squads and Tribes.
- Develop contingency and rollback plans.
- Improve release predictability and delivery quality.
- Ensure governance and IT controls are followed throughout the release lifecycle.
- Champion Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery and DevOps best practices.
- Contribute to Release Engineering Community of Practice initiatives and continuous improvement.
Required Experience
- Extensive Release Management experience within complex enterprise environments.
- Strong understanding of the full Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC).
- Excellent Project Management experience.
- Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
- Experience delivering releases within Agile environments.
- Working knowledge of: Azure DevOps (ADS), ServiceNow, CI/CD, Agile certification, Project Management certification, Financial Services or Banking experience.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Experience improving release frequency while maintaining high quality standards.
Desirable Experience
- Change Management.
- DevOps Automation.
- CREST knowledge.
- ServiceNow Incident & Change Management.
- Power BI.
- Power Apps.
Rates
Rates depend on experience and client requirements.