Release Manager

Tailscale

12h • $181,000 - $226,000 • Remote

About The Position

Tailscale is seeking a Release Manager to own how the company ships its product internally and to customers. The role will build and run release coordination and establish operational practices that coordinate product and engineering. The Release Manager will work closely with engineering leads, product managers, technical program managers, and support.

Initially, the role will establish release management from the ground up by setting release cadence, defining roles, creating tooling, and agreeing on release norms with participating teams. Over time, the role will expand to processes that support broader product and engineering collaboration, including operational metrics. The position requires understanding how software is shipped—including branching strategies, build pipelines, feature flags, and rollout mechanics—and using that technical fluency to design release processes engineers trust and adopt. Processes should preserve Tailscale’s pace, keep relevant people informed, avoid unnecessary friction, and provide teams with a plan.

Requirements

• At least 5 years of experience in engineering operations, release management, or a closely related role at a software company.
• Direct experience building or significantly improving release management processes.
• Technical fluency sufficient to discuss build systems, deployment pipelines, branching strategies, and production operations credibly with engineers.
• Strong judgment about which processes are worthwhile and which create unnecessary overhead, with a focus on trust and adoption.
• Comfort with ambiguity and the ability to build structure from scratch.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with both client and server software release processes.
• Experience at a developer tools, infrastructure, or security-focused SaaS company.
• Familiarity with DORA metrics and using them to drive meaningful improvement.
• Experience with feature flag systems, progressive rollouts, or canary deployments as release tools.
• Experience scaling operational practices during rapid team or product growth.
• Hands-on experience with Tailscale at work or home.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and continuously improve Tailscale’s release management process, including release cadence, readiness criteria, rollout coordination, and go/no-go decisions.
• Build and maintain tooling, templates, runbooks, and documentation that make release processes repeatable and low-friction.
• Partner with engineering leads and product managers to surface risk early and drive its resolution.
• Define and track operational metrics that reflect release-practice health, such as release frequency and change failure rate.
• Facilitate cross-team planning rituals to keep engineering and product coordinated and releases on schedule.
• Identify and drive systemic operational improvements, using data and judgment to prioritize meaningful changes.

Benefits

• Equity incentive plan.
• Comprehensive group benefits, including health, vision, and dental coverage for employees and their families, with no waiting period.
• Employer-funded retirement contributions, matching contributions dollar-for-dollar up to a maximum annual employer contribution equal to 0.75% of eligible compensation.
• Annual professional development funding of $1,500 USD, with mentorship, coaching, and internal promotion opportunities also available.
• Flexible paid time off.
• Company-owned laptop choice (Mac or PC), monthly home internet reimbursement, and $500 USD to customize a home workstation.
• Paid parental leave top-ups: 20 weeks for birthing parents and 16 weeks for non-birthing parents.
• Remote-first work environment, with a corporate co-working program and virtual and in-person social events.
• Annual company retreat, team off-sites, and supported team travel for in-person connection.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed