Manager, Release Management

Dayforce

5d•$116,000 - $181,300•Remote

About The Position

The Manager, Release Management leads the people, practices, and cross-functional coordination required to deliver reliable, predictable, and well-governed software releases to our customers. This role leads a team of Release Managers and partners closely with Product Management, Application Development, Cloud Infrastructure and Operations, Support, Cybersecurity, and other stakeholders throughout the software development lifecycle. The Manager is accountable for ensuring that release contents are complete and accurate, risks and dependencies are understood, release-readiness expectations are consistently applied, and stakeholders have the information needed to make sound release decisions. This leader will build an environment where Release Managers take ownership, collaborate effectively, continuously improve how work gets done, and use modern automation and AI-enabled practices to improve release quality, efficiency, and predictability. The successful candidate must understand modern software delivery practices to lead release decisions, ask the right questions, assess delivery risk, and influence technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Requirements

Experience leading and developing a high-performing release management team responsible for monolithic and microservices releases, fostering accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
Experience establishing clear operating practices, performance expectations, and success measures for a release management function.
Experience overseeing release planning and coordination across products and services, including schedules, deployment windows, milestones, dependencies, and stakeholder alignment.
Experience leading release-readiness and Go/No-Go governance, ensuring decisions are based on clear criteria, reliable information, and cross-functional input.
Experience managing release risks, exceptions, decisions, reporting, documentation, and audit evidence while ensuring information is communicated effectively.
Experience improving release quality and predictability through root-cause analysis, standardized practices, automation, self-service capabilities, and modern DevOps and AI-enabled approaches.

Nice To Haves

Experience working in Agile, Lean, DevOps, or product operating models.
Familiarity with ITIL, change enablement, or other IT service management frameworks.
Experience managing releases across a combination of cloud-native services, microservices, platform components, and large enterprise applications.
Experience improving or automating release controls, readiness checks, reporting, or deployment workflows.
Experience supporting regulated, audited, or compliance-sensitive software delivery environments.
Experience introducing AI-assisted tools or workflows within an operational, delivery, or program management function.

Responsibilities

Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing release management team responsible for monolithic and microservices releases, fostering ownership, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
Establish clear operating practices, performance expectations, and measures of success for the release management function.
Oversee release planning and coordination across products and services, including release schedules, deployment windows, milestones, dependencies, and stakeholder alignment.
Lead release-readiness and Go/No-Go governance, ensuring decisions are based on clear criteria, reliable information, and appropriate cross-functional input.
Define, communicate, and continuously improve release-readiness and release-exit criteria across Product and Technology.
Ensure release risks, exceptions, decisions, and key information are identified early, actively managed, accurately documented, and clearly communicated.
Maintain consistent release reporting, dashboards, audit evidence, procedures, and decision records to support operational transparency and compliance.
Drive improvements in release quality and predictability through root-cause analysis, automation, standardization, self-service capabilities, and modern release management, DevOps, and AI-enabled practices.
Identify practical opportunities to use AI to improve release planning, risk identification, readiness assessment, reporting, communications, and post-release learning.
Use AI and automation to reduce repetitive administrative work, enabling Release Managers to focus on judgment, coordination, and risk management.
Measure the value of AI-enabled practices through outcomes such as reduced manual effort, earlier risk detection, improved predictability, and stronger stakeholder confidence.