Client Release Manager

## Role Overview
We are looking for an experienced and customer-focused Client Release Manager to manage the end-to-end software release lifecycle. The role involves release planning, governance, readiness, customer communication, deployment coordination, and post-release reviews. The candidate will act as a key point of contact for customers regarding planned software releases, ensuring that releases are delivered on schedule, risks are managed effectively, and all technical and business stakeholders remain aligned.
## Key Responsibilities

- Own end-to-end release planning, scheduling, coordination, and governance for software releases.
- Maintain release schedules, dependencies, Jira versions, and associated tickets.
- Coordinate release readiness activities, including testing, approvals, risk assessments, and Go/No-Go decisions.
- Identify release risks and dependencies and ensure appropriate contingency and rollback plans are in place.
- Act as the primary customer contact for planned releases, communicating scope, timelines, potential impact, and required customer actions.
- Coordinate customer acceptance testing (UAT), feedback, and formal release sign-offs.
- Support customer Change Advisory Board (CAB) meetings and ensure compliance with change-management processes.
- Prepare and maintain release notes, deployment documentation, post-deployment reports, and rollback procedures.
- Coordinate with Product, Development, QA, Technical Operations, and Service Desk teams to ensure release readiness.
- Ensure development, system, and regression testing activities are completed before releases.
- Coordinate environment readiness, build requirements, and deployment prerequisites.
- Maintain accurate release documentation and records in Jira, SharePoint, or similar platforms.
- Conduct post-release reviews and drive continuous improvements in release-management processes.

Required Skills & Experience

- Proven experience in software Release Management, preferably within SaaS, managed services, or enterprise technology environments.
- Strong understanding of software release processes, change control, and IT service transition.
- Experience coordinating technical and business teams to deliver releases within agreed timelines.
- Strong customer-facing communication and stakeholder-management skills.
- Hands-on experience with Jira or similar project/work-management tools.
- Experience preparing release plans, status reports, release notes, and customer-facing documentation.
- Understanding of release risk assessment, testing, deployment readiness, and rollback planning.
- Excellent organisational skills, attention to detail, and ability to manage multiple releases and competing priorities.