Release Manager

Avance Consulting; Burgess Hill; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Avance Consulting is seeking an experienced Release Engineer to own end-to-end release lifecycles for native mobile apps (iOS and Android) and supporting backend services. You will coordinate with Product, Engineering and QA to deliver high-quality releases and manage submissions to App Store and Google Play.

The role requires hands-on experience with mobile CI/CD pipelines, release automation, feature flags, and production deployments, with clear communication of progress and risks to

Qualifications

• Experience with mobile release lifecycles for iOS and Android.
• Proven ability to manage CI/CD pipelines and release automation.
• Strong communication with product, engineering and QA teams.

Responsibilities

• Own and manage the release calendar across iOS, Android and backend.
• Coordinate app submissions to App Store and Google Play.
• Ensure versioning, tagging and branching strategies are followed.
• Support production incidents and feature flags during releases.
• Document release activity and communicate progress to stakeholders.

Skills

Mobile release lifecycle

Release planning

Stakeholder communication

CI/CD

Release automation

Tools

Git

GitHub Actions

CircleCI

App Store submission

Google Play submission

Kubernetes basics

Job description

Job Title: Release Engineer (Mobile - iOS, Android & Backend)

Mandatory Skills

• Excellent verbal and written communication with proactive stakeholder management.
• Mobile application release lifecycle expertise (iOS & Android).
• Experience with mobile CI/CD and release automation.
• Git, GitHub, GitHub Actions and/or CircleCI.
• Cross-functional release coordination across Product, Engineering and QA.

Overview

We are seeking an experienced and highly organised Release Engineer to oversee the end-to-end release lifecycle of our native mobile applications (iOS and Android) and supporting backend services. This role bridges Product and Engineering, driving high-quality, reliable, and clearly communicated releases. The ideal candidate is technically proficient, highly organised, and an exceptional communicator who can confidently coordinate complex release activities across engineering, product, and operations teams. They should have hands-on experience with mobile CI/CD pipelines, release automation, feature flag management, and production deployments, while proactively communicating release progress and risks to stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

Release Planning & Coordination

• Own and manage the release calendar across iOS, Android, and backend platforms.
• Coordinate release scope with Product Managers, Engineering Leads, QA, and Ops.
• Ensure alignment on priorities, timelines, and dependencies across teams.
• Facilitate release readiness reviews and go/no-go decisions.

Execution & Delivery

• Oversee end-to-end release execution, including build, testing, and deployment phases.
• Coordinate mobile app submissions (App Store & Google Play).
• Manage backend release deployments, ensuring compatibility with mobile versions.
• Ensure versioning, tagging, and branching strategies are followed consistently.

Operational Responsibilities

• Execute and coordinate production releases for mobile applications and supporting backend services.
• Manage release schedules and deployment activities across multiple disabling, validating, and monitoring feature flags throughout the release lifecycle.
• Support production incidents related to deployments, feature flags, and release activities, coordinating with engineering teams to restore service where required.
• Monitor release health and coordinate issue resolution with engineering teams.
• Ensure deployment checklists and release runbooks are followed.
• Support production rollbacks when required.

Stakeholder Communication

• Act as the central point of communication for all release-related activities.
• Proactively communicate release progress, risks, blockers, deployment status, and production issues to engineering, product, and business stakeholders.
• Ensure all release activities are clearly documented and communicated before, during, and after deployments.
• Translate technical updates into concise, business-friendly communication where appropriate.
• Maintain release documentation, release notes, deployment records, and post-release summaries.
• Identify, track, and mitigate release risks and dependencies.
• Coordinate resolution of blocking issues and incidents during release cycles.
• Lead rollback planning and execution where required.

Quality & Process Improvement

• Drive continuous improvement of release management processes and tooling.
• Implement and maintain best practices for CI/CD pipelines and automation.
• Partner with QA to ensure robust testing and release quality gates.
• Analyse release KPIs such as deployment frequency, lead time, release success rate, and rollback incidents to drive continuous improvement.
• Identify opportunities to automate repetitive release tasks and improve deployment.

Key Skills & Experience

Technical Competence

• Strong understanding of mobile application release lifecycles (iOS & Android).
• Hands-on experience with mobile CI/CD and release automation.
• Experience with Git and GitHub workflows.
• Experience with CI/CD platforms such as GitHub Actions and/or CircleCI.
• Basic understanding of Kubernetes, containerised applications, and deployment concepts.
• Familiarity with backend deployment pipelines and APIs.
• Understanding of Git branching, tagging, versioning, and release strategies.
• Knowledge of Apple App Store and Google Play release processes.
• Experience troubleshooting release pipeline failures and deployment issues.