CI/CD & Release Automation Lead

Devopsroles; Reigate; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days annual leave

Private health care

Group income protection

Pension 10% matched

Hybrid working

Employee assistance programme

Volunteer day

Share scheme

Cycle-to-work

Dental and optical cover

Critical illness protection

Job summary

WTW Insurance Consulting and Technology is seeking a SaaS/DevOps Release Manager to lead modern release governance, automate delivery pipelines, and drive continuous improvement across multiple product teams. You will collaborate with product management, engineering, and security to establish scalable release practices.

The role emphasises hands-on CI/CD, GitOps, and progressive delivery while aligning with governance and compliance requirements.

Qualifications

• Minimum 3 years in release management for a SaaS organisation.
• Strong experience with Agile, SDLC and DevOps practices.
• Experience using release tooling such as ServiceNow and BMC.
• Hands-on with CI/CD pipelines (Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions) and release automation.
• Knowledge of infrastructure as code and environment management.

Responsibilities

• Establish and govern modern release practices with quality gates and automated checks.
• Coordinate release planning, scheduling, and stakeholder communications.
• DriveDevOps automation and CI/CD pipeline adoption across teams.
• Embed release processes into delivery workflows with GitOps and progressive delivery.
• Collaborate on standardising release patterns across SaaS products.
• Define and track DORA metrics and drive continuous improvement.
• Coach teams on DevOps practices and modern release approaches.

Skills

Release management

Agile & SDLC

DevOps practices

CI/CD pipelines

GitOps

Progressive delivery

Cross-functional collaboration

Observability

OpenTofu / IaC

Cloud-native SaaS

Tools

ServiceNow

BMC

Azure DevOps

GitHub Actions

OpenTofu

Job description

WTW Insurance Consulting and Technology are embracing Continuous Delivery as part of our Software Development Life Cycle.At the heart of this, we are looking for a talented and experienced SaaS / DevOps Release Manager to join us to help expand and manage our approach, capabilities, tools, and colleagues to deliver agile release management.

This role will be responsible for and lead key aspects of release management including planning, scheduling, communications, team coordination, deployment, and feature release. You will work closely with teams and stakeholders across the business including product management, engineering, and security to lead continuous release plans and establishing continuous improvement practices.

The Role

As a SaaS / DevOps Release Manager, you will:

Release Management & Governance

• Establish and manage modern release practices including quality gates, automated checks, and release readiness criteria
• Ensure alignment with governance, security, and compliance requirements while minimising manual intervention through automation
• Manage risks, dependencies, and release decisions across multiple product teams

DevOps & Automation Enablement

• Drive the adoption of CI/CD pipelines, release orchestration, and infrastructure automation across teams
• Work directly with engineering teams to embed release processes into delivery workflows (e.g. pipelines, GitOps, environment promotion models)
• Identify opportunities to replace manual release activities with automated, repeatable processes
• Support teams in implementing progressive delivery techniques (e.g. feature flags, canary releases, blue/green where applicable)

Tooling & Platform Integration

• Collaborate with platform and engineering teams to align on DevOps tooling, pipeline standards, and release frameworks
• Ensure release processes are integrated into developer tooling and platform capabilities, not operated separately
• Contribute to standardisation of release patterns across SaaS products

Continuous Improvement & Metrics

• Define and track DORA-style metrics (deployment frequency, lead time, change failure rate, recovery time)
• Drive continuous improvement through data-led insights
• Contribute to the evolution of ICT DevOps and SDLC practices

Coaching & Capability Building

• Coach teams on DevOps practices, automation, and modern release approaches
• Help teams transition from manual, process-heavy release management to automated, flow-based delivery

• Act as a bridge between engineering, architecture, and governance

What you’ll bring

The essential skills/experience for this position are:

• Demonstratable experience (at least 3 years) in release management for a SaaS organisation releasing new features and updates on a frequent (e.g., team sprint) basis to customers
• Great working experience of Agile, SDLC and DevOps practices to effectively fulfil the role
• Experience in modern release management tooling e.g. ServiceNow, BMC
• Managing multiple and varied internal stakeholders and customers and cross-functional teams
• Contributions into wider organisational practice improvement and evolution
• Knowledge and passion for new techniques to achieve release management goals and evidence to show continual improvement of release management approach
• Strong working knowledge of CI/CD pipelines (e.g. Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions) and release automation
• Experience implementing pipeline-based release controls, automated testing, and deployment strategies
• Understanding of infrastructure as code (e.g. OpenTofu) and environment management concepts
• Experience with cloud-native SaaS architectures (preferably Azure)
• Familiarity with observability, monitoring, and release health metrics
• Ability to work hands-on with engineering teams to diagnose and improve delivery pipelines
• Understanding of modern DevOps practices and principles (GitOps, trunk-based development, progressive delivery)
• Experience improving developer experience and reducing delivery friction through automation

What we offer

Enjoy a benefits package designed to help you thrive, both professionally and personally. You'll receive 25 days of annual leave plus an extra WTW day to relax and recharge. Our comprehensive health and wellbeing offering includes private healthcare, life insurance, group income protection, and regular health assessments, all giving you peace of mind. Secure your future with our defined contribution pension scheme, featuring matched contributions up to 10% from the company.

We support your growth and balance with hybrid working options, access to an employee assistance programme, and a fully paid volunteer day to make a difference in your community. On top of these, you can opt into a variety of additional perks including an electric vehicle car scheme, share scheme, cycle-to-work programme, dental and optical cover, critical illness protection, and much more. Start making the most of your career and wellbeing with a range of benefits tailored for you.

Equal Opportunity Employer

We’re committed to equal employment opportunity and provide application, interview and workplace adjustments and accommodations to all applicants. If you foresee any barriers, from the application process through to joining WTW, please [e-mail]

(ICT_TECH TD_2026_27R)