Release Manager

About Us Sharp Gaming is a brand new state of the art technology platform for the gambling industry. We are on an exciting journey to build the next generation sports betting and gaming platform that will support market leading bookmakers globally. With over 25 million investment so far, we have a long term vision for it with lots of opportunities in the future. Sharp Gaming is based in Manchester City Centre and stems from the gaming division at Degree 53. The platform is still in development and we are recruiting talented individuals to help bring our vision to life. Due to our successful growth, we are now looking for a Release Manager to join our team. What will I be doing? Reporting into the Head of Delivery, as an experienced Release Manager you will own and publish the Release Schedule and forward plan the releases across the Sharp Gaming delivery teams. Your day will consist of: * Coordinating release schedules with change schedules owned by service management * Agreeing the contents of each release with the development managers, product owners and project managers and inform senior management (RACI matrix) * Measuring and monitoring progress to ensure releases are delivered on time and that they meet or exceed expectations * Managing risk and resolving issues that affect release scope, schedule and quality * Communicating all release commitments, release plans, schedule, and scope changes to both Sharp Gaming and Betfred * Maintaining a release repository and manages key information such as build and release procedures, dependencies, and notification lists * Running release retrospectives for successful and failed releases, to identify continuous improvements * Weekly release reporting across Sharp Gaming and Betfred * Leading and coordinating the Go-Live activities including the execution of the deployment plans and checklists and notifications. * Conducting release readiness reviews, milestone reviews, and business Go/No-Go reviews to ensure * The release has been formally accepted by the test team. * The release has been formally accepted by the business and any agreed workarounds identified and in place * All the business prerequisite activities for Go-Live have been completed or there is an agreed workaround in place for any that aren't * Business resources are available to support the release during go live and post go live and have the requisite business processes in place About You Working closely with the development managers to produce and sign off the deployment run books and implementation plans, you will have exceptional communication skills (written and verbal) and have previous experience in leadership roles. You will be responsible for: * Working effectively with technical teams to ensure the detail is in place on the run books for the required steps of a release (for all components) * Ensuring the prerequisites are met before progressing to each phase, escalating to project managers or development managers where necessary * Plans are updated should any changes occur * Recording and reviewing points on the run books after each release to ensure continuous improvement * Managing all stakeholder communication throughout the release implementation You also have previous experience working with development managers to understand impacts of branches and code merges. You are a great negotiator and are used to plan and manage all release activities and resources across the different teams. You are driven by success and constant improvement, therefore working towards implementation of new processes for release is a second nature to you. You have great organisational skills as you will organise and participate in CAB meetings to discuss release scope and/or roadblocks. What's in it for me? * Competitive Salary * Monthly Team Events * Generous Referral bonus * 25 days of holiday a year in addition to bank holidays * Flexi-time (start anywhere between 7.30am -9am - whatever suits you best!) * Company Pension Scheme * City Centre office space with a cosy breakout area and Wii U and PS4 consoles Employment Type: FULL_TIME