Release Management Lead

The Release Management Lead / VP will oversee and coordinate the release management life cycle within the Technology department of a financial services organisation. This role will focus on ensuring seamless delivery and deployment of software and system updates in a fast-paced environment.

Client Details

The organisation is a well-established player in the Financial Services industry, with a focus on delivering innovative technology solutions.

Description

Strategic Release Planning & Execution:

• Own and manage the enterprise-wide release calendar, ensuring alignment with business priorities, regulatory deadlines, and change windows.
• Lead the planning and execution of major, minor, and emergency releases across multiple platforms and business units.
• Partner with Product Managers and Engineering Leads to plan, schedule, and coordinate major releases, patches, and hotfixes across multiple interconnected product teams.
• Require, review, and approve detailed Rollback Plans and communication strategies for every critical release, ensuring swift recovery in the event of failure.
• Lead regular coordination meetings with development, QA, infrastructure, cybersecurity, and business teams to ensure release readiness, resolve scheduling conflicts and pre-empt deployment risks..
• Oversee release bridges and provide leadership during out-of-hours deployments and critical cutovers.
• Manage and lead post live release periods, ensuring issues are captured, prioritised, communicated and plans for remediation are put into place.

Governance & Compliance:

• Ensure all release activities comply with internal controls, audit requirements, and regulatory standards (e.g., SOX, PCI-DSS, GDPR, PRA/FCA).
• Maintain comprehensive release documentation, including approvals, risk assessments, rollback plans, and post-implementation reviews.
• Serve as a key point of contact for internal and external audits related to release governance.
• Enforce segregation of duties, change control policies, and traceability across the release lifecycle.

Leadership & Stakeholder Engagement:

• Act as a central point of coordination for enterprise releases, engaging senior stakeholders, business sponsors, and technology leaders.
• Chair Release Governance Boards and contribute to Change Advisory Boards (CABs).
• Provide regular reporting on release performance, risks, and compliance metrics to executive leadership.

Continuous Improvement & Tooling:

• Drive continuous improvement of release processes, automation, and tooling to support Agile, DevOps, and CI/CD practices.
• Evaluate and support the implementation of enterprise release management tools and frameworks.
• Foster a culture of accountability, quality, and operational excellence across delivery teams.

Miscellaneous

• Developing skills pertinent to role.
• Undertaking other reasonable tasks at the discretion of the Head of Section and Group.

Profile

A successful Release Management Lead / VP should have:

• Extensive experience in release management, IT operations, or technology delivery, preferably in the banking or financial services sector.
• Proven experience managing enterprise-scale releases in a regulated financial services environment.
• Strong knowledge of ITIL, release governance, and change management frameworks.
• Experience with ITSM tools (e.g., ServiceNow), CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Jenkins, Azure DevOps), and enterprise architecture platforms.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
• Understanding of regulatory and compliance standards relevant to banking (e.g., DORA, SOX, PCI-DSS, GDPR).
• Experience with scaled agile frameworks (e.g., SAFe).
• Knowledge of risk management, audit controls, and change governance in regulated environments in the banking sector.
• Experience with core banking systems, digital banking platforms, or financial transaction processing.

Job Offer

• Competitive daily rate of £778 a day inside IR35
• Temporary role offering flexibility and project-based engagement.
• Opportunity to work within a reputable organisation in the Financial Services industry.
• London-based role with exposure to innovative technology projects.

If you are ready to take the next step in your career as a Release Management Lead / VP, apply today to join a leading team in the Financial Services sector.