Release Manager

The Pennsylvania State University; University Park (TX); On-site; USD 8,100 - 137,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

75% tuition discount

Medical, dental, vision coverage

Robust retirement plans

Paid time off

Job summary

Penn State University is seeking a Release Manager to drive the Enterprise CRM program, coordinating release strategy, schedules, and governance across multiple teams. The role spans DevOps, automation, and environment management to ensure reliable production deployments.

The position emphasizes SDLC, Agile/Waterfall practices, Salesforce release management, and ITIL-aligned change control. ETZ hours apply with potential off-hours deployments.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree 3+ years of relevant experience; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Senior Professional: Bachelor's Degree 6+ years of relevant experience; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain release management strategy and roadmap.
• Coordinate release schedules across teams and projects.
• Define release criteria, processes and approval workflows.
• Establish and monitor SLAs for release activities.
• Deploy and maintain enterprise DevOps services.
• Ensure environment traceability throughout release lifecycle.
• Coordinate environment provisioning and capacity planning.

Skills

SDLC knowledge

Waterfall & Agile

End-to-end release ownership

Salesforce release management

Cloud platforms (AWS/Azure)

Azure DevOps

ITIL practices

Project management

Change control & incident response

Risk assessment

Regulatory compliance

Stakeholder communication

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Tools

Azure DevOps

CI/CD tooling

Deployment automation tools

Backup & DR tooling

Job description

POSITION SPECIFICS

Penn State University is excited to announce an opportunity for a talented and experienced individual to join us as a Release Manager on the Enterprise Customer Relationship Management Program Team! As an enterprise implementation, this program is designed to advance engagement and service delivery for the entire university community, including faculty, students, staff, and alumni, ensuring integrated solutions that create value across all Penn State constituencies.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Release Planning & Strategy

• Develop and maintain comprehensive release management strategy and roadmap
• Coordinate release schedules across multiple teams and projects
• Define release criteria, processes, and approval workflows
• Establish and monitor service level agreements for release activities

DevOps & Automation

• Deploy and maintain enterprise DevOps services to streamline release management
• Enhance automation capabilities across the CI/CD pipeline
• Implement and maintain deployment automation tools and processes
• Ensure full environment traceability throughout the release lifecycle
• Serve as point of contact for the purchased devops and backup tool
• Maintain disaster recovery plans and support business continuity efforts, including monitoring and testing of backups

Environment Management

• Oversee development, testing, staging, and production environments
• Maintain environment configuration consistency and documentation
• Coordinate environment provisioning and capacity planning
• Monitor environment health and performance metrics

Process & Quality Assurance

• Establish and enforce code versioning best practices
• Implement deployment methodologies and standards
• Conduct release readiness assessments and go/no-go decisions
• Manage rollback procedures and incident response protocols

Stakeholder Coordination

• Facilitate release planning meetings and communication
• Coordinate with development, QA, operations, and business teams
• Provide release status updates to leadership and stakeholders
• Manage change control processes and documentation

QUALIFICATIONS

• Strong background in software development lifecycle (SDLC) processes
• Experience with both waterfall and agile development methodologies
• Demonstrated experience owning end-to-end software releases through production, including coordinating complex releases across multiple technical teams, applications or workstreams, and environments
• Salesforce-specific release management experience
• Experience with cloud platforms, including AWS and/or Azure
• Proficiency with Azure DevOps or a comparable CI/CD and release management platform
• Strong understanding of ITIL practices and change management
• Experience with project management methodologies and tools
• Experience with production change control, including release approvals, go/no-go decisions, rollback planning, and incident response
• Knowledge of risk assessment and mitigation strategies
• Understanding of compliance and regulatory requirements
• Demonstrated ability to coordinate release activities and communicate status, risks, and dependencies across technical and business stakeholders

MINIMUM EDUCATION, WORK EXPERIENCE & REQUIRED CERTIFICATIONS

If filled as DevOps Engineer - Advanced Professional, this position requires: Bachelor's Degree 3+ years of relevant experience; or an equivalent combination of education and experience accepted. Required Certifications: None

If filled as DevOps Engineer - Senior Professional, this position requires: Bachelor's Degree 6+ years of relevant experience; or an equivalent combination of education and experience accepted. Required Certifications: None

WORKING HOURS

Standard work hours are in the Eastern Time Zone. Release/Change window for production is 5:00 a.m.-7:00 a.m. EST. Flexibility is needed with off-hours work for deployments and major incidents.

APPLICATION MATERIALS

Applicants are encouraged to submit both a resume and cover letter for full consideration.

BACKGROUND CHECKS/CLEARANCES

Employment with the University will require successful completion of background check(s) in accordance with University policies. Penn State does not sponsor or take over sponsorship of a staff employment Visa. Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S.

SALARY & BENEFITS

The salary range for this position, including all possible grades, is $81,312.00 - $137,280.00.

Salary Structure - Information on Penn State's salary structure

Penn State provides a competitive benefits package for full-time employees designed to support both personal and professional well-being. In addition to comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, employees enjoy robust retirement plans and substantial paid time off which includes holidays, vacation and sick time. One of the standout benefits is the generous 75% tuition discount, available to employees as well as eligible spouses and children. For more detailed information, please visit our Benefits Page.

CAMPUS SECURITY CRIME STATISTICS

Pursuant to the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act and the Pennsylvania Act of 1988, Penn State publishes a combined Annual Security and Annual Fire Safety Report (ASR). The ASR includes crime statistics and institutional policies concerning campus security, such as those concerning alcohol and drug use, crime prevention, the reporting of crimes, sexual assault, and other matters. The ASR is available for review here.

EEO IS THE LAW

Penn State is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to providing employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status. If you are unable to use our online application process due to an impairment or disability, please contact 814-865-1473. Penn State is committed to and accountable for advancing equity, respect, and belonging. We embrace individual uniqueness, as well as a culture of belonging that supports equity initiatives, leverages the educational and institutional benefits of inclusion in society, and provides opportunities for engagement intended to help all members of the community thrive. We value belonging as a core strength and an essential element of the university’s teaching, research, and service mission.

Federal Contractors Labor Law Poster PA State Labor Law Poster Penn State Policies Copyright Information HotlinesThere's a reason Penn State consistently ranks among the top one percent of the world's universities. Across 24 campuses, our 100,000 students and 40,000 faculty and staff know the real measure of success goes beyond the classroom - it's the positive impact made on communities across the world. Our ideals stem from our origins as Pennsylvania's sole land-grant institution, which allow us to continue to bring positive impact to humanity through our teaching, research, and engagement mission. And across the world is a community of Penn Staters - more than half a million strong - driven by that same spirit to serve our local and global communities. At Penn State, passion is met with collaboration in an environment that is rooted in shared pride for the accomplishments of our fellow students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Penn Staters cheer each other on to build a culture committed to service and engagement. Our University values represent our core ethical aspirations for all our daily activities and actions as students, faculty, staff, and volunteers at Penn State. Our values are as follows; Integrity, Respect, Responsibility, Discovery, Excellence, and Community. We Are Penn State. One Community. Impacting Many.