Job Description

The Change & Release Specialist is responsible for planning, coordinating, and executing changes and software releases by ITIL 4 best practices. This role ensures that changes are implemented with minimal service disruption and that releases are delivered efficiently and reliably into the production environment.

Job Purpose
The Change & Release Specialist is responsible for planning, coordinating, and executing changes and software releases by ITIL 4 best practices. This role ensures that changes are implemented with minimal service disruption and that releases are delivered efficiently and reliably into the production environment.
Key Responsibilities
Change Enablement

• Take ownership of the end-to-end change process, including assessment, authorization, and scheduling of changes.
• Evaluate change requests for risk, impact, and alignment with business goals.
• Facilitate Change Advisory Board (CAB) meetings and ensure timely decision-making.
• Ensure proper documentation, communication, and post-implementation reviews of changes.

Release Management

• Own the planning, coordination, and execution of software and infrastructure releases.
• Define and maintain release schedules in coordination with project managers and development teams.
• Ensure release packages are built, tested, and deployed in a controlled and repeatable manner.
• Coordinate deployment plans and rollback procedures to mitigate potential issues.

Deployment Coordination

• Control and coordinate deployment activities for planned releases, including scheduling, resource coordination, and communication.
• Collaborate with technical teams to facilitate deployment tasks, oversee deployment activities, and monitor progress.
• Help troubleshoot deployment-related incidents and coordinate resolution efforts as needed

Cloud Deployments & Automated Pipelines

• Coordinate and oversee application and infrastructure releases across environments.
• Ensure release plans, schedules, and communication are documented and agreed with stakeholders.
• Support deployment execution by liaising with technical teams, ensuring adherence to approved change processes.
• Track and report on release success rates, rollback incidents, and deployment-related issues.
• Maintain release documentation, change records, and post-implementation reviews.
• Assist in continuously improving change and release processes to reduce risk and downtime.

Pre-Production Environment Management

• Coordinate with technical teams to ensure pre-production environments are available for testing before releases.
• Validate that test results and signoffs are obtained before deployment to production.
• Support environment readiness checks (e.g., access, data, and configuration) to reduce release risks.
• Maintain a schedule of environment usage to avoid conflicts between projects and releases.
• Facilitate communication between QA, development, and operations to ensure smooth release preparation.

Monitoring and Observability

• Coordinate with monitoring and support teams to ensure adequate coverage of new releases.
• Facilitate setup of alerts and escalation paths in line with change and release processes.
• Ensure post-deployment validations are performed and documented.
• Participate in post-implementation reviews and assist in identifying root causes of failed or degraded releases.
• Track release-related incidents and feed lessons learned into process improvements.

Security & Compliance

• Work with security and compliance teams to ensure releases meet organizational and regulatory requirements.
• Verify that security signoffs and approvals are obtained before production deployments.
• Ensure change records include security considerations, risk assessments, and mitigation plans.
• Support access control reviews and proper authorization for release activities.
• Contribute to audit readiness by maintaining accurate release and change documentation.

Networking & Infrastructure

• Collaborate with infrastructure teams to confirm the readiness of networking and system components before releases.
• Ensure release schedules align with infrastructure availability and planned maintenance windows.
• Track and document dependencies on infrastructure changes that impact releases.
• Facilitate communication between application, infrastructure, and operations teams to reduce release risks

Documentation and Reporting

• Maintain release documentation, including release notes, deployment instructions, and version control information.
• Prepare status reports, release metrics, and performance indicators to track the progress and success of release activities.
• Contribute to post-implementation reviews, retrospectives, and lessons learned sessions to capture feedback and drive continuous improvement.
• Framework

Stakeholder Communication

• Act as the liaison between development, operations, QA, and service management teams.
• Communicate release and change activities to stakeholders clearly and proactively.
• Align change and release initiatives with business priorities, timelines, and risk appetite.
• Conduct stakeholder meetings, workshops, and training sessions to gather requirements and address concerns related to release activities.

Job Requirements
Competencies

• Strong organizational, coordination, and documentation skills.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal abilities to collaborate across teams.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
• Attention to detail with an analytical mindset for problem-solving and continuous improvement.

Education

• Matric - Essential
• Diploma or certificate in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business Administration, or related field.

Experience

• 2-3 years' experience in change management, release management, or IT support/operations.
• Exposure to application deployments and collaboration with technical teams (cloud experience beneficial but not mandatory).
• Familiarity with ITIL processes, release/change governance, and related tools.
• Basic understanding of software development lifecycle (SDLC) and Agile methodologies.
• Relevant certifications (e.g., ITIL Foundation, Agile, or project management) preferred.
• Experience with release management tools (e.g., Jira, ServiceNow, or similar) is advantageous.

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Skills Required