Release Manager – Custom Software | Application Support

Release Manager – Application Support

Custom Software Development | Jira | Agile | Regulated Environment

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced Release Manager to oversee and coordinate the release of critical business applications, ensuring that updates, fixes, enhancements and new features are delivered efficiently, safely and to a high standard.

The successful candidate will play a key role in managing releases across custom software development and application support environments. They will work closely with development teams, application support, QA, business stakeholders, project teams and operational teams to ensure releases are properly planned, tested, communicated and deployed with minimal disruption to business services.

This role requires someone who is highly organised, detail-oriented and confident managing releases in an Agile delivery environment. Strong Jira experience is essential, including the ability to manage release boards, dashboards, workflows, reporting and delivery visibility across multiple teams.

The ideal candidate will have experience working with custom-built applications, rather than purely off-the-shelf systems, and will understand the challenges that come with bespoke software development, change control, defect management, release windows, dependency management and production readiness.

Main Responsibilities

Release Planning and Scheduling
Develop, own and maintain a centralised release schedule across project and operational deployments.
Coordinate release activity across development, QA, application support, infrastructure, business and operational teams.
Ensure all releases are properly planned, prioritised and scheduled to avoid conflicts, duplication or unnecessary business disruption.
Manage release calendars, deployment timelines, cutover plans, release windows and key milestones.
Work with Agile delivery teams to understand sprint outputs, release candidates, backlog priorities and deployment readiness.

Custom Software Release Management
Manage the release of updates, fixes, enhancements and new functionality across custom software applications.
Work closely with development teams to understand technical changes, dependencies, defects, configuration changes and deployment requirements.
Ensure that bespoke application changes are properly assessed, tested, approved and prepared for production deployment.
Coordinate releases involving multiple code streams, application components, integrations and technical dependencies.
Support version control, release notes, deployment documentation and traceability across the software release lifecycle.

Jira and Agile Delivery Coordination
Use Jira to track release scope, sprint outputs, user stories, defects, dependencies, risks and deployment readiness.
Maintain Jira dashboards and reports to provide clear visibility of release progress, blockers, risks and status.
Work with Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Project Managers and development teams to align release plans with Agile delivery cycles.
Support backlog review, sprint planning, release planning and go-live readiness discussions.
Ensure Jira is kept up to date and used consistently across teams for accurate reporting and governance.

Risk and Issue Management
Identify, manage and mitigate risks that may impact release scope, schedule, quality or business continuity.
Track release blockers, unresolved defects, testing gaps, dependency issues and approval delays.
Escalate risks and issues early, with clear options, impacts and recommended actions.
Ensure appropriate rollback, contingency and remediation plans are in place for key releases.

Go-Live Coordination
Lead and coordinate go-live activity across multiple teams.
Own deployment checklists, release runbooks, cutover plans and go/no-go criteria.
Coordinate release windows, technical deployment steps, business validation, smoke testing and post-release monitoring.
Ensure all teams understand their roles and responsibilities during deployment.
Manage post-release issue tracking, hypercare handover and lessons learned.

Process Improvement and Governance
Establish, improve and enforce release management processes, standards and controls.
Drive repeatable, secure and auditable release practices across application support and software development teams.
Support continuous improvement in how releases are planned, approved, deployed and reviewed.
Ensure release processes align with internal governance, audit, compliance and change control requirements.

Stakeholder Communication
Act as the central point of communication for all release-related activity.
Provide clear and timely updates to project teams, development teams, application support, business stakeholders and senior leadership.
Prepare release status reports, deployment summaries, risk updates, readiness updates and post-release reports.
Translate technical release information into clear business-friendly updates where required.

Essential Requirements

  • Strong experience as a Release Manager, ideally within application support, custom software development or enterprise application environments.
  • Excellent Jira experience, including release tracking, dashboards, reporting, workflows, boards and issue management.
  • Strong experience working in Agile delivery environments.
  • Experience coordinating releases from custom software development teams, including new features, enhancements, bug fixes and technical changes.
  • Good understanding of the software development lifecycle, including requirements, development, testing, defect management, deployment and post-release support.
  • Experience managing releases across multiple teams, workstreams or applications.
  • Strong understanding of release governance, deployment planning, change control, go-live coordination and production readiness.
  • Experience working in highly regulated environments.
  • Pharmaceutical, life sciences, healthcare, financial services or similarly regulated industry experience would be highly desirable.
  • Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.
  • Ability to manage risk, dependencies, priorities and conflicting timelines.
  • PMP certification or a strongly equivalent professional qualification.

Highly Desirable Experience

  • Experience working with bespoke or internally developed business-critical applications.
  • Experience supporting releases involving APIs, integrations, data changes or multi-system dependencies.
  • Experience working with DevOps, CI/CD pipelines or automated deployment practices.
  • Experience in application support environments where releases include both project change and operational fixes.
  • Experience managing releases in a pharmaceutical or GxP-regulated environment.
  • Experience working with distributed teams, vendors or third-party development partners.
  • Understanding of validation, audit trails, documentation and compliance requirements in regulated technology environments.

Key Skills

  • Release management
  • Application support
  • Custom software development
  • Jira
  • Jira dashboards
  • Agile delivery
  • Software development lifecycle
  • Go-live coordination
  • Deployment planning
  • Release scheduling
  • Change control
  • Defect management
  • Risk and issue management
  • Stakeholder communication
  • Production readiness
  • Release governance
  • Application deployments
  • Regulated environments
  • Pharmaceutical environments
  • PMP

Person Profile

The ideal candidate will be a structured, detail-focused Release Manager who can bring control and visibility to complex application releases.
They will be comfortable working with custom software development teams and will understand how to manage releases where there are code changes, defects, dependencies, testing cycles, deployment risks and business-critical timelines.
They must be strong on Jira and Agile ways of working, not just from a reporting perspective but in terms of using Jira properly to manage release scope, track readiness, identify blockers and communicate progress.
This person needs to be calm under pressure, highly organised and capable of coordinating multiple teams through release windows without losing sight of quality, governance or business impact.