Change & Release Coordinator

Ness Group; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Ness Group is seeking an experienced Change & Release Coordinator in Chicago to govern end-to-end change and release processes across production and non-prod environments. You will coordinate cross-functional teams and drive automated deployment pipelines with strong governance.

The role emphasizes ITIL-based controls, risk mitigation, and continuous improvement of release practices to ensure stable, repeatable deployments.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5+ years in IT Change, Release, or Environment Management within cloud or hybrid environments.
• Experience in Release Engineering and automation with DevOps collaboration.
• Strong knowledge of ITSM frameworks and tools including ServiceNow, Jira, Confluence, and BMC Helix.

Responsibilities

• Own the Release Management Lifecycle for scheduled releases across Dev, Test, Staging and Prod environments.
• Lead release readiness reviews, Go/No-Go decisions, deployment planning and PIRs.
• Collaborate with DevOps, QA, IT Ops to standardize automated deployment scripts and CI/CD pipelines.

Skills

Release coordination

Automation & CI/CD

ITIL & governance

Stakeholder management

Communication

Education

ITIL Foundation certification (preferred)

Bachelor’s degree in IT/CS or related

Tools

ServiceNow

Jira

Confluence

BMC Helix

Docker

Kubernetes

CI/CD pipelines

Job description

Location: Chicago, IL, United States
Date Created: Aug 21, 2026
Requisition ID: 9176

Focus: Release Engineering, Automation & Environment Management (Prod & Non-Prod)

Position Summary

We are seeking an experienced Change & Release Coordinator to manage, oversee, and optimize end-to-end change and release deployment processes across both production and non-production environments. You will bridge the gap between Development, DevOps, QA, and IT Operations to drive reliable, repeatable releases using automated deployment pipelines and strict governance framework protocols.

Key Responsibilities

Release Orchestration & Coordination

• Own the Release Management Lifecycle for scheduled software releases, continuous integration builds, and hotfixes across multi-environment landscapes (Dev, Test, Staging, Prod).
• Lead Release Readiness reviews, Go/No-Go checkpoints, Deployment Planning meetings, and post-implementation reviews (PIRs).
• Coordinate deployment cutovers and dry runs across engineering, infrastructure, database, and security teams.

Change Governance & Compliance

• Evaluate Change Requests (CRs) for risk, impact, environment dependencies, and technical readiness prior to CAB (Change Advisory Board) reviews.
• Enforce compliance with organizational change policies, audit requirements, and ITIL standards across all changes.
• Track change success/failure metrics, maintaining accurate release schedules and release documentation.
• Collaborate with DevOps and Release Engineers to standardize automated deployment scripts, CI/CD pipelines, and environment configuration controls.
• Drive transition strategies from manual deployment steps to fully automated pipeline deployments.
• Manage environment access, code branch cutoffs, configuration drift monitoring, and synchronization between non-production and production environments.

Incident & Risk Mitigation

• Establish standardized rollback protocols and contingency plans for high-risk changes.
• Serve as the escalation point for deployment failures, environment contention issues, or pipeline blockages during release windows.

Qualifications & Key Skills

• Experience: 5+ years of dedicated experience in IT Change, Release, or Environment Management within cloud or hybrid enterprise landscapes.
• Release Engineering & Automation: Knowledge and experience in working with team DevOps and automation work
• ITSM & Governance: Deep working knowledge of ITSM frameworks and tools (ServiceNow, Jira, Confluence, BMC Helix).
• Environment Knowledge: Familiarity with managing code deployments across microservices, containers (Docker, Kubernetes), databases, and legacy platforms.
• Methodologies: Strong understanding of Agile, DevSecOps, Continuous Delivery, and ITIL methodologies (ITIL Foundation certification preferred).
• Communication: Excellent coordination, stakeholder management, and crisis control skills during critical deployment cutover windows.