Release Manager

C5MI Insight

4d•$143,600 - $160,100

About The Position

The Release Manager owns release, change, and transport management for a large-scale, greenfield SAP S/4HANA financial management modernization program supporting a Department of War organization. The role is accountable for the safe, auditable movement of configuration and code across a multi-system SAP S/4HANA landscape serving nine concurrent financial process areas. It establishes the release calendar, transport strategy, and change control governance that enable parallel development streams to converge without regression, and leads cutover and go-live execution for each deployment wave. The Release Manager serves as the program’s change-process standards authority, ensuring promoted changes are approved, tested, traceable, and consistent with configuration management requirements that support the system’s authority to operate. This position is contingent upon contract award. The role may require travel to client sites up to 50%, depending on program schedules. The employee will follow certified processes, participate in quality assurance activities, protect sensitive information, and perform other related tasks as assigned by the direct supervisor. The position also supports post-deployment hypercare and transition of release operations to the sustainment organization.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in a related field or equivalent experience; a master’s degree is a plus.
Relevant experience requirement: 8–10 years with a bachelor’s or master’s degree, or 10–13 years without a bachelor’s or master’s degree.
8 or more years of SAP experience, including significant experience in release, change, transport, or deployment management.
Hands-on expertise with SAP transport management, multi-system landscape design, and transport dependency and conflict management.
Demonstrated experience with SAP change-control tooling such as SAP Change Request Management (ChaRM), SAP Cloud ALM, or an equivalent enterprise change-management platform.
Experience leading enterprise system deployment cutover and go-live execution, including dress rehearsals, go/no-go decision support, and hypercare.
Demonstrated experience operating a formal change advisory board and enforcing documented approval and separation-of-duties controls.
Experience integrating release processes with DevSecOps toolchains and automated testing.
Ability to set standards and best practices and influence delivery teams across multiple workstreams.
Must meet DoDM 8140.03 (formerly DoD 8570.01-M) IAT Level II baseline certification requirements, such as CompTIA Security+ CE, before being granted privileged access to production environments.
Must hold an active Secret security clearance or be able to obtain and maintain one before assignment; U.S. citizenship is required.
Adhere to C5MI policies and procedures, maintain respectful conduct, protect proprietary information, and safely perform essential job functions with or without reasonable accommodation.

Nice To Haves

Active Secret security clearance at time of hire.
Experience supporting federal ERP modernization programs, Department of War SAP environments, or other defense business systems acquired under DoDI 5000.75.
Industry-recognized certification relevant to the discipline, such as ITIL 4 Foundation, SAP Certified Technology Associate, or SAFe Release Train Engineer.
Experience with configuration management under the risk management framework, including change documentation supporting continuous authorization.
Experience with dual-maintenance and retrofit processes during a parallel legacy and target-state landscape period.
Experience delivering within the SAP Activate methodology using a fit-to-standard, clean-core approach.
Master’s degree.

Responsibilities

Own the program release strategy and release calendar across development, quality assurance, staging, training, and production environments, coordinating concurrent process-area delivery streams.
Design and govern the transport landscape and transport route architecture, including sequencing, dependency management, and conflict and overtake analysis.
Administer change request and transport management tooling, including change-control workflows, approval gates, and automated import scheduling.
Establish and enforce change-control governance, including the change advisory board, emergency change procedures, freeze windows, and documented approval evidence for production promotions.
Enforce separation of duties between development, approval, and transport import authority, and maintain supporting evidence for information system controls testing.
Ensure promoted changes have completed testing, defect closure, documentation, and traceability from requirements through design, build, and test.
Lead cutover planning and execution for each deployment wave, including task sequencing, dress rehearsals, go/no-go criteria, command center operations, and rollback planning.
Coordinate with risk management framework and security functions to ensure releases comply with configuration management controls and do not invalidate system authorization.
Partner with platform operations on system refresh, client strategy, kernel and support package application, and maintenance-window coordination.
Integrate release management with the DevSecOps pipeline, including automated build, static and security scanning, and deployment gates.
Establish and report release metrics, including deployment frequency, change failure rate, emergency change volume, and defect escape rate.
Set release and change management standards, patterns, and best practices, and mentor delivery teams in their application.
Support post-deployment hypercare and transition release operations to the sustainment organization for the option-period lifecycle.
Travel to client sites up to 50%, varying with client program schedules.
Adhere to certified processes, participate in quality assurance activities, and protect sensitive information in accordance with security policies.
Perform other related tasks as assigned by the direct supervisor.
Adhere to C5MI policies and procedures and conduct oneself consistently with the company’s Core Values.
Maintain a positive and respectful attitude, report to work on time and prepared, meet productivity standards, maintain privacy of proprietary information, and treat vendors, customers, and team members with respect and dignity.
Safely perform the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodation.