Change & Release Specialist

Deka Minas Pty Ltd; Gauteng; On-site; ZAR 300 000 - 400 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading tech company is seeking a Change & Release Specialist in Sandton to plan and execute changes and software releases. The ideal candidate will have over 5 years of experience in release/change management and expertise in CI/CD pipelines. The role requires strong collaboration with development and operations groups to ensure aligned release activities with business priorities. Opportunities to implement best practices in cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP) await the successful applicant.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in release/change management or DevOps.
• Experience with public cloud platforms and cloud-native deployment practices.
• Proven hands-on experience in building and managing CI/CD pipelines.

Responsibilities

• Own the change process, including assessing, authorizing, and scheduling.
• Lead Change Advisory Board meetings and maintain documentation.
• Coordinate software and infrastructure releases.

Skills

Change Management

CI/CD Pipeline Management

AWS

Azure

Kubernetes

Docker

Terraform

Education

Bachelor's degree in IT or related field

Relevant certifications (e.g., PMP, ITIL)

Tools

Prometheus

Grafana

Datadog

Job description

Change & Release Specialist required in Sandton.

This role is responsible for planning, coordinating, and executing changes and software releases by ITIL4 best practices and ensures that changes are implemented with minimal service disruption and that releases are delivered efficiently and reliably into the production environment.

Main Responsibilities

End-to-End Change Management : Own the change process, including assessing, authorizing, and scheduling changes, while evaluating risks and ensuring alignment with business goals.

Change Advisory Board (CAB) Facilitation : Lead CAB meetings, ensure timely decisions, and maintain thorough documentation and post-implementation reviews.

Release Planning and Execution : Coordinate software and infrastructure releases, defining schedules and ensuring controlled, repeatable deployments with rollback plans.

CI / CD Pipeline Management : Execute and maintain CI / CD pipelines for cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP), using blue-green, canary, or rolling deployment strategies.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) : Implement automated infrastructure deployments using tools like Terraform, CloudFormation, or Pulumi, and support containerized services (Docker, Kubernetes, Helm).

Pre-Production Environment Management : Maintain consistent pre-production environments mirroring production, managing lifecycle, configuration, and access controls.

Monitoring and Incident Response : Integrate third-party monitoring tools (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog) and define alerting mechanisms for post-deployment validation and root cause analysis.

Security and Compliance : Incorporate security scanning tools (e.g., Snyk, Trivy, SonarQube) into pipelines, enforce secure deployment practices, and ensure compliance with standards like SOC 2, ISO, and NIST.

Stakeholder Collaboration and Communication : Act as a liaison between development, operations, QA, and stakeholders, aligning release / change activities with business priorities and conducting workshops / training.

Documentation and Continuous Improvement : Maintain release documentation, track metrics, and contribute to retrospectives for ongoing process enhancement.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in information technology, Computer Science, Data Science, or a Business Administration, or a related field.

Relevant certifications (e.g., PMP, ITIL) preferred.

5 years or more experience in release / change management, DevOps, or cloud infrastructure engineering.

Experience with public cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and cloud-native deployment practices.

Proven hands‑on experience building and managing CI / CD pipelines and deploying applications using blue‑green or canary release strategies.

Familiarity with Kubernetes, Docker, and container orchestration.

Strong understanding of pre‑production / test environment architecture and best practices

Please note that by submitting your personal information to Deka Minas you free‑willingly issue the business consent to make use of such data for the specific purpose of securing you either permanent or temporary employment.

Our business makes use of a POPIA compliant database and you have the right to access, right to correction and right to deletion of your personal information.