Assistant Manager - IT Change and Release control

Qiddiya | القدية; Riyadh; On-site; SAR 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Qiddiya | القدية is seeking an experienced Change and Release Manager to govern IT change and release processes across DEV, SIT, UAT and PROD environments. You will lead CAB and ECAB meetings, maintain the Change & Release Calendar, and ensure readiness with risk assessments, security approvals, and rollback plans.

Collaborate with IT operations, development, cybersecurity, QA, and vendors to drive end-to-end change activities.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Information Systems or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience in IT Change Management, IT Change & Release Management, or IT Service Management roles.
• ITIL Foundation certification.

Responsibilities

• Review, assess, and validate change and release requests to identify risks, conflicts, dependencies, and business impact.
• Coordinate CAB and ECAB meetings with clear accountability and outcomes.
• Own and maintain the Change & Release Calendar aligning planned changes with blackout periods and events.
• Plan and govern software/infrastructure releases across DEV, SIT, UAT, PROD, ensuring readiness and approvals.
• Ensure changes/releases meet readiness criteria including testing evidence, rollback plans, risk assessments, and security approvals.
• Maintain auditable change/release documentation: requests, approvals, release notes, steps, rollback, post-release outcomes.
• Monitor Change & Release Management KPIs and identify trends and improvement opportunities.
• Conduct PIRs for changes/releases and address systemic issues.
• Support audits by providing evidence and process compliance to IT Change/Release Management.
• Collaborate with IT operations, development, cybersecurity, QA, business units, and vendors end-to-end.
• Communicate change/release status, risks, dependencies, and impact to stakeholders.
• Enforce adherence to Change & Release Management policies, standards, and ITIL-aligned governance.

Skills

Communication skills

Negotiation

Presentation skills

Organizational skills

Cloud environments

IT governance

Agile/DevOps

Education

Bachelor's degree in IT/CS/Info Systems

Job description

• Review, assess, and validate change and release requests to identify potential risks, conflicts, dependencies, and overall business impact
• Facilitate and govern Change Advisory Board (CAB) and Emergency Change Advisory Board (ECAB) meetings, ensuring informed decision-making for both changes and releases, with clear accountability and approval outcomes
• Own and maintain the Change & Release Calendar, ensuring alignment between planned changes, release windows, blackout periods, and business-critical events to minimize service disruption
• Plan, coordinate, and govern software and infrastructure releases across environments (DEV, SIT, UAT, PROD), ensuring readiness, approvals, and adherence to agreed release windows
• Ensure all Changes and releases meet Change and release readiness criteria, including testing evidence, rollback plans, risk assessments, security approvals, and business sign-off prior to production deployment
• Maintain accurate and auditable change and release documentation, including requests, approvals, release notes, implementation steps, rollback procedures, and post-release outcomes
• Monitor and analyze Change & Release Management KPIs (e.g., change success rate, emergency changes, release failure rate, rollback frequency), identifying trends, risks, and opportunities for continuous improvement
• Conduct and govern Post-Implementation Reviews (PIRs) for changes and releases, ensuring lessons learned are captured, corrective actions are tracked, and systemic issues are addressed
• Support internal and external audits related to IT Change and Release Management by providing evidence, process compliance, and improvement actions
• Work closely with IT operations, development teams, business units, cybersecurity, QA, and third-party vendors to coordinate change and release activities end-to-end
• Provide clear, timely communication on change and release status, risks, dependencies, and impact assessments to all relevant stakeholders, including management and business owners
• Enforce adherence to Change & Release Management policies, standards, and governance frameworks, ensuring alignment with ITIL best practices and organizational controls

Key Responsibilities

Change and Release Control

• Review, assess, and validate change and release requests to identify potential risks, conflicts, dependencies, and overall business impact
• Facilitate and govern Change Advisory Board (CAB) and Emergency Change Advisory Board (ECAB) meetings, ensuring informed decision-making for both changes and releases, with clear accountability and approval outcomes
• Own and maintain the Change & Release Calendar, ensuring alignment between planned changes, release windows, blackout periods, and business-critical events to minimize service disruption
• Plan, coordinate, and govern software and infrastructure releases across environments (DEV, SIT, UAT, PROD), ensuring readiness, approvals, and adherence to agreed release windows
• Ensure all Changes and releases meet Change and release readiness criteria, including testing evidence, rollback plans, risk assessments, security approvals, and business sign-off prior to production deployment
• Maintain accurate and auditable change and release documentation, including requests, approvals, release notes, implementation steps, rollback procedures, and post-release outcomes
• Monitor and analyze Change & Release Management KPIs (e.g., change success rate, emergency changes, release failure rate, rollback frequency), identifying trends, risks, and opportunities for continuous improvement
• Conduct and govern Post-Implementation Reviews (PIRs) for changes and releases, ensuring lessons learned are captured, corrective actions are tracked, and systemic issues are addressed
• Support internal and external audits related to IT Change and Release Management by providing evidence, process compliance, and improvement actions
• Work closely with IT operations, development teams, business units, cybersecurity, QA, and third-party vendors to coordinate change and release activities end-to-end
• Provide clear, timely communication on change and release status, risks, dependencies, and impact assessments to all relevant stakeholders, including management and business owners
• Enforce adherence to Change & Release Management policies, standards, and governance frameworks, ensuring alignment with ITIL best practices and organizational controls

IT Demand Management

• overseeing and coordinating the demand management process
• works with business relationship managers, service portfolio managers, service level managers, and other stakeholders to understand the current and future demand for IT services,
• plan and implement appropriate strategies to manage and influence the demand
• identifies and resolves any issues or risks that may affect the service delivery
• Aligning IT strategy with business strategy and goals for long term planning Delegating authority to teams
• communicating and updating the process owning and configuring the tools or templates to support the process
• 7-ensuring that the process runs smoothly
• 9- facilitate the demand management meetings and events
• 9-work with the requestors to prepare the deliverables needed
• 10-capture the dispositions of the demand items and ensure they move into their next phase based on those outcomes

Requirements

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Information System or a related field

Experience

• Between 5+ years of experience in in IT Change Management, IT Change & Release Management, or IT Service Management roles

Certifications

• ITIL Foundation certification

Technical Skills

• Excellent communication, negotiation, and presentation skills
• Highly organized with excellent time management skills
• Strong understanding of IT infrastructure, enterprise applications, and cloud environments
• Practical knowledge of Agile, DevOps, and CI/CD pipelines, and how governance integrates with them
• Ability to assess technical risks without being execution-level technical