Enterprise Release Engineering Architect

Position Enterprise Release Engineering Architect

Experience- 18 +Years

Location- Onsite to Riyadh location

Role :- Enterprise Release Engineering Architect

About the Role

We are looking for a highly experienced Enterprise Release Engineering Architect to establish and lead our enterprise-wide Release Management capability. This is a strategic leadership role responsible for defining the release management vision, operating model, governance, standards, and tooling, while simultaneously building and leading a high-performing execution team.

The successful candidate will transform release management into a predictable, automated, risk-driven capability that enables frequent, reliable, and business-aligned software delivery across multiple technology platforms, applications, cloud environments, and engineering teams.

Key Responsibilities

Enterprise Release Strategy

• Define and implement the enterprise Release Management strategy aligned with business and technology objectives.
• Establish standardized release governance across all application portfolios.
• Design release policies, standards, controls, workflows, and approval mechanisms.
• Develop enterprise release calendars and planning frameworks.
• Take a holistic approach of how environments, DevSecOps pipelines, and project releases come together to deliver event-free releases for customers
• Establish KPIs, SLAs, maturity metrics, and continuous improvement initiatives.

Build the Release Management Function

• Work closely with customers and represent customers internally in leading the Release Management Agenda
• Be the SPOC for the customers for anything that is associated with Release Management, DevSecOps and Environment Management
• Design the organizational structure for the Enterprise Release Management Office.
• Recruit, mentor, and develop a team of Release Managers, Release Coordinators, and Deployment Engineers.
• Define operating procedures, roles, responsibilities, and RACI models.
• Create a scalable service model supporting multiple business units and delivery teams.
• Establish engagement models with Development, QA, Infrastructure, Security, Architecture, Change Management, and Operations teams.

Enterprise Release Execution

• Lead planning and execution of enterprise-wide releases.
• Coordinate cross-functional release activities across multiple applications and environments.
• Manage release readiness assessments.
• Conduct Go/No-Go governance meetings.
• Ensure deployment checklists and implementation plans are completed.
• Coordinate rollback planning and production readiness activities.
• Drive release retrospectives and continuous improvement.

Governance & Risk Management

• Establish release governance forums and executive reporting.
• Identify release risks, dependencies, and mitigation strategies.
• Ensure compliance with audit, security, regulatory, and organizational standards.
• Manage release conflicts across programs and portfolios.
• Own release quality metrics and operational stability after deployments.

DevSecOps & Automation

• Drive release automation initiatives across CI/CD pipelines.
• Collaborate with DevSecOps teams to improve deployment maturity.
• Standardize deployment patterns and release templates.
• Promote Infrastructure as Code, GitOps, feature flags, automated testing, and progressive deployment practices.
• Reduce manual intervention in release processes.

Stakeholder Management Partner closely with:

• Engineering Leadership
• Product Management
• Enterprise Architecture
• Infrastructure & Cloud Teams
• DevSecOps
• Information Security
• Testing & Quality Engineering
• Service Management
• Business Leadership

Required Experience

• 18+ years of experience in Enterprise IT.
• Minimum 5 years leading enterprise Release Management.
• Experience establishing Release Management functions from the ground up.
• Proven experience leading releases across large-scale, multi-application environments.
• Strong consulting skills and executive presence
• Able to present solutions to complex enterprise challenges at CXO level
• Strong experience managing geographically distributed engineering teams.
• Experience with Agile, DevOps, and traditional delivery models.
• Experience in regulated industries such as Banking, Financial Services or Insurance is highly desirable.

Technical Expertise Strong understanding of:

• Enterprise Release Management
• DevSecOps practices
• CI/CD pipelines
• Change Management
• Environment Management
• Configuration Management
• Version Control (Git)
• Release Automation
• Deployment Orchestration
• Cloud Platforms (AWS, Azure, OCI, GCP)
• Kubernetes and container platforms
• Feature Flags
• Blue-Green and Canary deployments
• Rollback strategies
• ServiceNow Change Management
• Jira and Agile delivery tools
• Artifact repositories (Nexus, Artifactory)
• Observability platforms
• Enterprise Architecture principles

Leadership Competencies

• Strategic thinking with the ability to define enterprise operating models.
• Proven experience building and scaling high-performing teams.
• Strong executive communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Excellent planning, governance, and decision-making abilities.
• Ability to influence without direct authority.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Calm and decisive during critical production events.

Success Measures

Within the first 3 months, the successful candidate will:

• Establish an enterprise-wide Release Management framework.
• Build and operationalize the Enterprise Release Management Office.
• Standardize release governance across all technology platforms.
• Increase deployment success rates while reducing release-related incidents.
• Improve release predictability and deployment frequency.
• Reduce manual release effort through automation.
• Deliver executive dashboards for release health, risks, and KPIs.
• Drive measurable improvements in release maturity across the organization.

Preferred Certifications

• ITIL 4 Foundation / Managing Professional
• SAFe Release Train Engineer (RTE)
• PMP or PRINCE2
• Certified Scrum Master (CSM) or equivalent Agile certification
• Azure DevOps, AWS, or OCI certifications (preferred)
• DevOps Institute certifications (preferred)