Director, Release & Change Management

Find • Herndon, VA

3d • Hybrid

About The Position

Exostar is seeking a Director of Release Engineering to establish, scale, and lead this function from the ground up. This is a senior leadership position — not a process management or senior IC role. You will fundamentally reshape how Exostar approaches software delivery and operate as a peer to the Directors of DevOps, Engineering, Operations, and QA. You will co-own the delivery architecture, drive cross-functional alignment, and build the governance frameworks that enable the entire organization to ship faster, more safely, and with full compliance auditability across a FedRAMP Moderate / CMMC Level 2 environment serving the Defense Industrial Base. The CTO expects this leader to transform how change management and releases work at Exostar — building a function that carries the company through its next stage of growth. You will set strategy, influence peers without formal authority, and report outcomes directly to senior leadership. Exceptional written and verbal communication is a baseline requirement. You surface risks before they become issues, set clear expectations early, and represent the release engineering function credibly with executive stakeholders, compliance auditors, and customers.

Requirements

• 10+ years in Release Management, DevOps, Software Delivery, or operational engineering leadership
• 5+ years in a formal leadership role managing teams - including hiring, developing, and retaining engineering talent
• Demonstrated track record leading release engineering transformation in a multi-team, enterprise SaaS environment
• Deep expertise implementing change management and release governance at scale in regulated environments
• Working knowledge of FedRAMP, NIST, SOC2, or equivalent compliance frameworks applied to software delivery
• Strong executive communication skills - written, verbal, and presentation - with experience reporting to C-suite and interfacing with auditors
• Deep working knowledge of enterprise CI/CD platforms (Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Harness) and cloud deployment services across AWS, Azure, or GCP
• Architectural fluency in Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, and Git branching strategies at scale
• U.S. Citizenship is required.
• Ability to gain and maintain Trusted Role is required.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent professional experience

Nice To Haves

• SaaS or regulated-industry experience in aerospace, defense, healthcare, or federal government
• Certifications in ITIL v4, PMP, AWS, Azure, Kubernetes, or equivalent DevOps leadership credentials
• Driven AI-assisted delivery, platform engineering transformation, or DevOps modernization at scale
• Prior budget ownership or P&L accountability for engineering tooling and vendor relationships
• Hands-on experience in Azure Government or FedRAMP Authorized SaaS environments
• Experience with AI-enhanced delivery platforms (Harness AI, LaunchDarkly) and LLM-powered release automation

Responsibilities

• Lead and Build the Function (50%) Define the org model for release engineering - centralized center of excellence vs. federated embedding - and evolve it as Exostar scales
• Mentor and grow release engineers and DevOps practitioners across the organization
• Act as a peer and strategic partner to Directors of DevOps, Engineering, Operations, and QA; align delivery strategy across all four functions
• Represent the release function in leadership forums; report on delivery health, risk posture, and improvement roadmaps to the CTO and executive team
• Manage outward Customer Communication
• Define Strategy and Govern Delivery (30%) Own and evolve the enterprise release framework across all product teams and platforms; define how Exostar ships software at scale
• Establish risk-based change management aligned to CI/CD; define and govern standard, significant, and major change pathways
• Define Engineering Change Request (ECR) standards; ensure full traceability and auditability across all systems
• Facilitate Change Advisory Board (CAB) processes and governance gates; lead executive-level change review when required
• Set architecture standards for enterprise CI/CD pipelines; define approval gates, automated validation, and deployment patterns
• Partner with Exostar's ESO organization on compliance posture for release processes aligned to FedRAMP, NIST, and SOC2; own deployment evidence and audit trail strategy
• Eliminate release conflicts and deployment collisions; maintain portfolio-level visibility into schedules, risks, and production readiness
• Drive AI-Assisted Transformation (20%) Lead adoption of AI-assisted release capabilities: predictive deployment health, automated rollback, anomaly detection, ECR generation, and release notes
• Champion LLM-powered workflow automation and documentation tooling across Engineering and DevOps
• Define, own, and report DORA metrics organization-wide: deployment frequency, change failure rate, MTTR, approval compliance, and audit readiness
• Identify systemic bottlenecks and influence organizational behavior through data-driven decision making and executive storytelling

Benefits

• We believe in employee development: we promote internally and provide training and educational assistance
• We provide a fun, engaged workplace, with social and community-building events
• We offer comprehensive benefits and flexible time off plans

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior