Test Release Manager

State of Washington • Thurston County – Olympia, WA

13d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Office of Financial Management (OFM) is seeking a Test Release Manager to coordinate release and environment readiness activities that support testing across the One Washington program. This role ensures the correct code, configuration, and test data are deployed to the appropriate test environments at the right time, enabling testing teams to execute planned activities across multiple agencies and integrated systems. The Test Release Manager will coordinate release schedules, environment configurations, system versions, and test data to help ensure testing produces accurate and reliable results. They will work with testing teams, technical teams, and program partners to identify and manage dependencies that could affect testing schedules, create rework, or disrupt testing activities. Additionally, this role will help distinguish between actual system defects and issues related to release timing, environment configuration, or test data integrity, supporting timely resolution and effective defect management. By managing release and environment dependencies across concurrent testing phases, the Test Release Manager will help maintain a stable, predictable testing schedule and support the overall quality and continuity of the One Washington testing program. The One Washington (OneWA) project is an enterprise-wide transformation project replacing outdated technology with a cloud-based Workday solution for finance, procurement, budget, HR, and payroll processes. This is a long-term, fast-paced project anticipated to fully implement all phases by 2030. The project’s core business hours are Monday through Friday, and all project positions are full-time. Flexibility in schedules is offered around core business hours with prior supervisory approval, but it is common to work beyond the typical 40-hour workweek to meet rigorous operational needs and business deliverables for go-live timelines.

Requirements

• Release and Deployment Management: Knowledge of software release processes, deployment practices, configuration migration approaches, and controlled transition activities within complex technology environments. Ability to coordinate software releases, deployments, and configuration migrations across multiple systems, environments, and stakeholder groups while supporting successful release outcomes.
• Technical Dependency Management: Knowledge of system environments, deployment sequencing, release dependencies, test data requirements, and technical readiness considerations. Skill in coordinating cross-team dependencies, identifying readiness gaps, and ensuring technical prerequisites are addressed prior to release activities.
• Cross-Functional Coordination and Influence: Skill in building effective working relationships and facilitating collaboration among technical teams, vendors, business partners, and project stakeholders. Ability to coordinate release activities in a matrixed environment where resources and stakeholders do not report directly to the position, while maintaining alignment and accountability across teams.
• Operational Problem Solving: Skill in analyzing and resolving issues related to releases, environments, deployments, and data integrity. Ability to troubleshoot operational challenges, evaluate impacts, coordinate resolution with technical teams, and escalate issues appropriately with recommended actions.
• Planning and Prioritization: Skill in managing schedules, sequencing activities, tracking dependencies, and balancing competing priorities in a structured delivery environment. Ability to coordinate multiple release activities while maintaining focus on deadlines, readiness requirements, and successful implementation outcomes.
• Release Communication and Status Management: Skill in maintaining accurate technical status information and communicating release readiness, deployment progress, risks, and dependencies to diverse stakeholder groups. Ability to organize and present complex release information, including version status, environment readiness, deployment activities, and outstanding issues, to support informed decision-making.
• Release Governance and Change Management: Knowledge of release management practices, change control processes, deployment governance, and operational controls. Ability to apply established governance processes and standards to promote consistent, controlled, and reliable release execution.
• Configuration and Environment Management: Knowledge of enterprise application environments, configuration management principles, and practices for maintaining consistency across development, testing, and production environments. Skill in coordinating environment readiness activities, validating configuration changes, and supporting controlled movement of application components and data across environments.
• Equity Minded: The ability to learn and grow: Curious about themselves and others, who take responsibility for knowing their own strengths and weaknesses, and who use their learning to make government programs and processes more efficient and effective to serve all in Washington.
• The ability to meet the needs of others: Flexible, adaptable, customer-service focused, and willing and able to empathetically respond to the unique needs of the people we work with and serve.

Nice To Haves

• Enterprise Release Management: Knowledge of enterprise release management practices, deployment coordination, and environment management within complex ERP or enterprise technology environments. Experience supporting release management, environment coordination, or deployment activities involving platforms such as Workday, SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, or comparable enterprise systems.
• Enterprise Technology Operations: Knowledge of enterprise technology operations, integrated application environments, and organizational practices that support large-scale technology delivery. Experience working in large-scale, multi-agency, public sector, or similarly complex enterprise IT environments requiring coordination across multiple business and technical teams.
• DevOps and Configuration Management: Knowledge of DevOps principles, release automation concepts, configuration management, and continuous delivery practices. Experience applying release pipelines, configuration management processes, or automated deployment practices to support reliable, efficient, and controlled software delivery.
• Environment and Integration Management: Knowledge of systems integration, environment management, and multi-environment lifecycle practices. Experience supporting systems integration testing environments, coordinating environment readiness activities, or complex application landscapes spanning multiple development, testing, and production environments.
• Change and Release Governance: Knowledge of change management, release governance, IT service management (ITSM), and operational control frameworks. Experience applying structured change control processes, release governance practices, or ITSM frameworks to support stable, compliant, and well-coordinated technology deployments.
• Education and Professional Certifications: Professional certification such as ITIL, PMP, Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD), or comparable credentials; equivalent education, training, or demonstrated experience in structured IT operations, release management, or deployment coordination will also be considered.
• Operational Readiness: Knowledge of operational readiness, production support, service transition, and post-deployment stabilization practices. Experience supporting implementation readiness, production cutovers, hypercare activities, or operational transition planning following enterprise system deployments.

Responsibilities

• Plan and coordinate the movement of code releases, configuration updates, and test data into multiple test environments, ensuring alignment with the overall testing schedule and phase execution needs.
• Coordinate release activities with agency system teams and technical owners, working through agency personnel to ensure releases are deployed into the correct environments at the correct time, since direct access to agency environments is not available.
• Maintain visibility and control of release versions across environments, ensuring testing teams understand what code, configuration, and data sets are active in each environment at any point in time.
• Develop and maintain processes for release management, environment coordination, and test data flow, establishing consistent practices for managing deployments across multiple systems and agencies.
• Support defect triage and resolution by identifying and separating release, environment, and test data issues from true system defects, and routing issues to the appropriate technical or testing teams for resolution.

Benefits

• An environment of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging
• Medical, Dental, Vision, and Life Insurance
• 12 paid holidays, 14 paid vacation days (minimum), and 12 days of sick leave per year
• State retirement programs

What This Job Offers

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