Head of Release Management: AI-Driven, Hybrid

IFS; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work opportunities

Job summary

IFS is seeking a strategic and transformation-focused Head of Release Management to modernize the release ecosystem across Product and Technology. This role will lead the shift to a data-driven, platform-enabled model with automated readiness checks and risk-based controls embedded into engineering workflows.

The successful candidate will shape long-term release strategy, define guardrails, and drive adoption of automated compliance, telemetry, and progressive deployment practices across

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in software delivery, release management, DevOps, SRE, or related leadership roles.
• Proven track record modernizing release, deployment, or governance models across complex product or platform environments.
• Strong knowledge of CI/CD, progressive delivery, feature flags, deployment automation, policy-as-code, automated compliance, observability, and modern engineering practices.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute the release ecosystem strategy across Product and Technology.
• Embed release controls into developer workflows and deployment pipelines.
• Establish automated, auditable, risk-based controls including policy-as-code and automated compliance checks.
• Lead environments strategy, release intelligence, and engineering enablement across teams.
• Build and coach a transformation-focused release management function with investment cases and roadmaps.

Skills

CI/CD

Progressive delivery

Release automation

Policy-as-code

Observability

SRE principles

Stakeholder leadership

Engineering enablement

Data-driven decision making

AI-aware

Job description

IFS is seeking a strategic and transformation-focused Head of Release Management to modernize the release ecosystem across Product and Technology. This role will lead the shift to a data-driven, platform-enabled model with automated readiness checks and risk-based controls embedded into engineering workflows.

The successful candidate will shape long-term release strategy, define guardrails, and drive adoption of automated compliance, telemetry, and progressive deployment practices across