IT Release Manager

About Olympus

We are an equal opportunities employer and we are committed to ensuring that no applicant or employee receives less favorable treatment on the grounds of gender, age, disability, religion, belief, sexual orientation, marital status, or race, or is disadvantaged by conditions or requirements which cannot be shown.

The job is conducted in line with our Core Values which are: Patient Focus, Integrity, Innovation, Impact and Empathy. Olympus is an equal opportunities employer championing a culture of equality, diversity and inclusion embedded throughout the organization and workforce.

Job Summary

The Release Manager is responsible for overseeing the software change and release processes for all SAP systems, related release planning and tracking within Olympus IT. The Release Manager creates and maintains the overall release roadmap across the SAP landscape. The Release Manager supports specific programs and projects as required, managing the release pipeline across development, testing and production environments. The role is responsible for the successful delivery of technical releases across the SAP landscape within the organization, managing and coordinating the IT project deployment and transition into business-as-usual.

PRIMARY DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Project Management for major releases

• Deliver an agreed SAP release on time and within budget.
• Scheduling, planning, and managing SAP deployment and delivery process
• Own (create and maintain) the project plan of key activities, outputs, and dependencies necessary for the assigned release.
• Establish best practice guidance

Change Management & Continuous Improvement:

• Develop and implement change management processes to control and manage changes to software applications.
• Collaborate with development, testing, and operations teams to assess the impact of proposed changes.
• Ensure that changes are documented, reviewed, and approved before implementation.
• Identify areas for process improvement and implement best practices to enhance the efficiency of the change and release management processes.
• Conduct post-implementation reviews to evaluate the success of releases and implement lessons learned.
• Create and maintain comprehensive documentation for change and release management processes.
• Ensure that documentation is up-to-date and accessible to relevant teams.

Project Governance and Communications

• Mitigate risks, assumptions, issues, and dependencies, escalating where required.
• Effectively manage relationships with delivery teams, including 3rd parties where required.
• Manage expectations of sponsors and other stakeholders through timely, well-structured communications on progress and project health.
• Drive robust project governance, taking into consideration delivery, architecture, and change management.
• Conduct Release Readiness reviews, Milestone Reviews, and Business Go/No-Go reviews.
• Continually work towards making improvements in the release process.
• Lead and co-ordinate the Go-Live activities including the execution of the deployment Plans and checklists.
• Participate in Change Approval Board meetings to discuss release scope and/or roadblocks where applicable

Other responsibilities / duties as assigned.

TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES

• Systems and software life cycle engineering - Lead activities to manage risks associated with systems and software life cycle working practices. Develop and deploy the working environment supporting systems. Work to integrate organizational policies, standards and techniques across the full software and systems life cycle.
• Release and deployment - Lead the assessment, analysis, planning and design of release packages, including assessment of risk. Ensure that the transition of services, service components and packages is planned and compliant and that test, validation and configuration management are partnered in all release and deployment activities.
• Change control - Develop implementation plans for complex requests for change. Review proposed implementations and evaluate the risk to the integrity of the product and service environment.

Other Competencies (Behavioral, Leadership)

• Strategic mindset - Seeing ahead to future possibilities and translating them into breakthrough strategies.
• Cultivates innovation - Creating new and better ways for the organization to be successful.
• Drives results - Consistently achieving results, even under tough circumstances.
• Decision quality - Making good and timely decisions that keep the organization moving forward.
• Balances stakeholders - Anticipating and balancing the needs of multiple stakeholders.
• Collaborates - Building partnerships and working collaboratively with others to meet shared objectives.
• Instills trust - Gaining the confidence and trust of others through honesty, integrity, and authenticity.
• Situational adaptability - Adapting approach and demeanor in real time to match the shifting demands of different situations.
• Situational adaptability - Adapting approach and demeanor in real time to match the shifting demands of different situations.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education

• Bachelor's degree or higher in IT, Computer Science or Business Management (or equivalent and related experience preferred).
• Project Management qualifications desirable e.g., PMP/ Prince II certifications or equivalent.

Experience

• Minimum 5+ years of working experience as a Release manager or similar in the IT sector with a technical focus on SAP.
• Strong understanding of change management principles and best practices.
• Experience with configuration management tools and techniques.
• Solid technical background, with understanding or hands-on experience in software and system development.
• Experience of negotiation and working with project and process management.
• Experience in stakeholder management.
• Experience working with Microsoft Office suite (Project, Word, Excel)
• Good planning and organization skills with key attention to budget and resource management.

Preferred Skills:

• Certification in change or release management (e.g., ITIL).
• Familiarity with version control systems (e.g., Git).
• Knowledge of continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) practices.
• Experience with release automation tools.

• Demonstrable technical skills.
• Demonstrable business and tech acumen.