Change & Release Management Manager

EMKAN | ?; Saudi Arabia; On-site; SAR 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in Saudi Arabia is seeking a Change and Release Management Manager to oversee the planning and coordination of changes across IT systems. The role requires a strong background in change management, risk assessment, and compliance with SAMA regulations, along with ITIL certification. The successful candidate will lead a team to ensure efficient handling of changes and releases, minimizing risk and disruptions.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 6-8 years of management experience.
• Bachelor's degree in IT or related field required.
• ITIL v4 certification is mandatory.

Responsibilities

• Lead the end-to-end change management process.
• Chair the Change Advisory Board and coordinate with stakeholders.
• Ensure compliance with internal controls and SAMA regulations.

Skills

Change Management

Risk Assessment

Stakeholder Coordination

Process Improvement

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Information Technology

Master's degree (preferred)

ITIL v4 Certification

Certifications in project management (PMP, PRINCE2)

Tools

ServiceNow

BMC Remedy

JIRA

Job description

JOB PURPOSE:

The Change and Release Management Manager is responsible for overseeing the planning, coordination, and control of changes and releases across Emkan's IT systems and digital platforms. This role ensures that standardized methods and procedures are used for efficient and secure handling of changes and releases, minimizing risk and service disruptions, while aligning with SAMA compliance and ITIL best practices.

Functional Accountabilities:

• Lead the end-to-end change management process, ensuring changes are logged, assessed, approved, implemented, and reviewed.
• Chair the Change Advisory Board (CAB) and coordinate with stakeholders to review, prioritize, and authorize changes.
• Analyse change requests to assess risk, impact, and readiness, including rollback plans and business continuity impacts.
• Ensure all changes are compliant with internal controls and SAMA regulations.
• Manage the planning, scheduling, and deployment of releases across testing, staging, and production environments.
• Coordinate with development, QA, infrastructure, and operations teams to ensure smooth and successful deployments.
• Define and enforce release schedules, versioning, and change freeze windows.
• Act as the communication bridge between business units, IT teams, and external vendors during change/release activities.
• Provide timely communication regarding change windows, release schedules, and potential impacts.
• Coordinate post-implementation reviews and collect feedback for continuous improvement.
• Continuously improve the change and release management processes by identifying inefficiencies and implementing automation.
• Develop and maintain process documentation, workflows, and training materials.
• Ensure integration with ITSM tools (e.g., ServiceNow, BMC Remedy, JIRA) and CI/CD pipelines.
• Document change and release processes for future reference and training.

Qualifications and experience:

• Bachelor's degree in information technology, Computer Science, or related field (master's preferred).
• ITIL v4 Certification (Mandatory).
• Certifications in project management (PMP, PRINCE2) or service management tools are a plus.
• Minimum of 6-8 years of Management experience.