Information Technology Expert – Release Planning Coordinator (Ref: 5879)

Location: Rancho Cordova, CA

Work Arrangement: Hybrid – Alternating 3 days onsite one week and 2 days onsite the following week

Duration: 24 months, with possible 12-month extension

Employment Type: Contract

Anticipated Start: January 2027

Position Overview We are seeking an experienced Information Technology Expert / Release Planning Coordinator to support enterprise IT release planning, deployment coordination, and change management activities. The ideal candidate will have strong experience with SDLC, Agile methodologies, ITSM tools, and coordination of complex technology releases across multiple teams and environments.

Key Responsibilities

• Coordinate enterprise application releases, deployment schedules, and release calendars.
• Manage release readiness, dependencies, approvals, and go/no-go recommendations.
• Collaborate with development, testing, infrastructure, and business teams.
• Support release planning within hybrid Waterfall and Agile environments.
• Track release issues, risks, and deployment activities.
• Coordinate emergency releases and incident resolution.
• Support ITSM workflows and continuous process improvements.
• Prepare release documentation, status reports, and stakeholder communications.

Mandatory Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years of experience applying IT concepts, practices, and principles to deliver or support technology solutions or services, including extensive knowledge of release planning and coordination.
• At least 2 years of experience with SDLC and Agile methodologies, including demonstrated use of ITSM tools and processes such as ServiceNow, Rally, or equivalent platforms.
• Bachelor's degree in an IT-related or Engineering field. Additional qualifying experience may substitute for education on a year-for-year basis.

Desired Qualifications

• 5 years managing end-to-end release cycles, including upgrade planning, deployment coordination, release calendars, readiness checklists, and go/no-go recommendations.
• 3 years managing release-related issues, cross-team collaboration, and incident response.
• 2 years serving as an ITSM tool owner, including workflow management, user administration, troubleshooting, and UAT.
• 3 years leading process improvements involving SDLC, change management, Production Control Board, Change Advisory Board, and ITSM processes.

Technical Environment

ServiceNow, Rally, Jira or equivalent ITSM tools, Agile, Waterfall, SDLC, CI/CD, GitHub, release management, and change management.