Release Lead

Acldigital; India; On-site; INR 2,500,000 - 4,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Acldigital seeks a Release Lead responsible for designing and governing SAP release strategies, including ChaRM and Cloud ALM to ensure compliant and scalable delivery. Key responsibilities include establishing release standards, leading risk assessments, and engaging stakeholders across business and IT.

The ideal candidate possesses 8-12+ years in SAP roles, strong leadership and decision-making capabilities, and a solid understanding of SAP environments.

Qualifications

• 8-12+ years in SAP delivery, ALM, or Release Management roles.
• Experience in large-scale SAP programs strongly preferred.
• Proven experience owning release governance and decision-making.

Responsibilities

• Establish enterprise release standards and governance frameworks.
• Design end-to-end ALM workflows integrating tests and deployments.
• Define rules for transport sequencing and risk management.

Skills

SAP ChaRM expertise

SAP Cloud ALM knowledge

Risk-based decision making

Stakeholder management

Tools

SAP S/4HANA

Job description

Release Lead – SAP ALM & Release Governance (ChaRM & Cloud ALM)

Key Responsibilities - Release Architecture & CoE Transformation

Establish enterprise release standards, policies, and governance frameworks.

Transition Release Management from execution-focused to risk-based decision leadership.

Own the release strategy across sprint releases, global releases, hotfixes, upgrades, and rollouts.

Subject-Matter Expertise

• SAP ChaRM (change workflows, approvals, transport tracking, auditability).
• SAP Cloud ALM (CALM) (release planning, testing linkage, defect traceability, dashboards).

Design ALM Workflows

Design end-to-end ALM workflows integrating requirements, transports, tests, and deployments.

Transport Governance & Risk Management

Define rules for transport sequencing, bundling, dependency handling, and post-processing.

Lead impact analysis of individual transports across: Configuration, Extensibility, Roles & authorizations, Integrations & Run.

Serve as the final decision authority for release exceptions and deviations.

Own Go/No-Go decisions and release risk sign-off.

Stakeholder & Executive Engagement

Partner with Business, IT, Architecture, SAP, and System Integrators.

Influence CAB, Release SteerCo, and Go-Live readiness forums.

Translate technical release risk into business-impact language for leadership.

Act as escalation point during high-risk releases and incidents.

Metrics, Compliance & Continuous Improvement

Define and track release KPIs (change success rate, defect leakage, MTTR, emergency changes).

Ensure audit readiness and compliance across all releases.

Drive continuous improvement via retrospectives and data-driven insights.

Mentor and upskill Release Management team members.

Required Skills & Experience

SAP & ALM Expertise

• Deep hands-on experience with SAP ChaRM and SAP Cloud ALM.
• Strong knowledge of SAP S/4HANA Public and/or Private Cloud landscapes.
• Expert understanding of transport mechanisms and limitations across SAP environments.
• Experience supporting complex, high-frequency enterprise releases.

Technical & Functional Awareness

• Strong understanding of SAP configuration and extensibility models.
• Authorization and business role transport behavior.
• Integration dependencies (SAP and non-SAP).
• Data and master data impacts on releases.

Ability to assess cross-domain transport risk holistically.

Leadership & Decision-Making

• Proven experience owning release governance and Go/No-Go decisions.
• Comfortable making risk-based decisions under time pressure.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Ability to influence without direct authority.

Experience Profile

• 8-12+ years in SAP delivery, ALM, or Release Management roles.
• Experience in large-scale SAP programs (multi-country, multi-ERP).
• Prior involvement in RM CoE setup or transformation strongly preferred.
• Experience working directly with SAP product teams or support is a plus.

Preferred Certifications

• SAP S/4HANA (Public or Private Cloud)

One-Line Role Summary

An enterprise Release Architect responsible for designing and governing SAP release and ALM strategy, leveraging ChaRM and Cloud ALM to enable predictable, compliant, and scalable delivery through a Release Management Center of Excellence.

Ideal Candidate Mindset

• Thinks in risk, impact, and business continuity, not just tools.
• Sees releases as a strategic capability, not an operational task.
• Comfortable challenging teams when quality or stability is at risk.