Cyber Resilience Operations Lead — Lifecycle & Release

DEFEND Limited; Christchurch; Hybrid; NZD 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

KiwiSaver 3.5%

Health Insurance

Mobile & Broadband Discounts

Hybrid work

Home office allowance

EAP services

Job summary

DEFEND Limited is seeking a hands-on Lifecycle & Release Manager to guide upgrades, migrations, and governance across government and enterprise customers in New Zealand. You will own release management, change governance, and coordinate stakeholders to keep platforms secure, compliant, and operationally effective through lifecycle activities.

You’ll lead lifecycle improvements, ensure testing and closeout, manage CAB processes, and collaborate with engineering, vendors, and customers to deliver

Qualifications

• Proven project or service delivery experience in security or similar environments.
• Strong governance and delivery discipline across multiple initiatives.
• Experience with release/change management and stakeholder engagement.
• Ability to translate technical concepts for diverse audiences.
• Experience with vendors, licensing, procurement and lifecycle management.

Responsibilities

• Lead security platform upgrades, migrations, deployments and lifecycle initiatives across multiple customer environments during and after business hours.
• Own release management and change governance, ensuring changes are planned, tested and delivered successfully through to closeout.
• Manage CAB approvals, customer testing, communications and execution activities across complex stakeholder groups.
• Drive lifecycle governance, including EOL/EOS planning, platform currency, CVE remediation and technical debt reduction.
• Lead compliance activities, including NZISM assessments, remediation planning and risk management.
• Manage vendor engagement, licensing, procurement and commercial activities supporting lifecycle delivery.
• Build trusted relationships with customers, vendors and engineering teams while leading lifecycle escalations.
• Support datacentre and field delivery activities including logistics, installations and deployments.

Skills

Delivery management

Governance

Release management

Stakeholder engagement

Communication

Vendor management

Job description

DEFEND Limited is seeking a hands-on Lifecycle & Release Manager to guide upgrades, migrations, and governance across government and enterprise customers in New Zealand. You will own release management, change governance, and coordinate stakeholders to keep platforms secure, compliant, and operationally effective through lifecycle activities.

You’ll lead lifecycle improvements, ensure testing and closeout, manage CAB processes, and collaborate with engineering, vendors, and customers to deliver