Senior Release Manager IFS Copperleaf

The Opportunity

We are looking for a Senior Release Manager to manage coordinate and govern the delivery of IFS Copperleafs product releases. The Senior Release Manager is the single point of accountability for a release owning it from planning through general availability and ensuring the committed scope ships on the agreed upon date at the agreed upon level of quality.

Senior Release Managers operate at the intersection of Engineering and R&D Product Client Experience Operations Sales and Marketing. They orchestrate critical release activities across the three R&D pillars: Core Engineering AI Engineering & Transformation and Agentic Platform and across the operations and commercial functions ensuring every team and every function moves on the same rhythm. They make complex multi-pillar releases predictable for customers and the business while progressively shortening the internal release cycle to early-adopter customers so R&D can learn and iterate faster without disrupting the external GA cadence the market depends on.

This is a pivotal time to be in this role. The R&D team is implementing an Agentic Operating Model (AOM) to accelerate delivery having humans and AI Agents working in collaboration to reshare how R&D builds software embedding AI-augmented production capabilities into every stage of the release lifecycle. The Senior Release Manager is central to making both transitions work: building the cadence integrating AOM into the release governance model and ensuring we continue to deliver predictably to our customers while the way we build software fundamentally changes.

Reporting to the VP of Engineering in R&D the Senior Release Manager works in close partnership with the three Senior Directors leading the R&D pillars with Product Management Customer Experience (CX) Operations Marketing and Sales teams. The Senior Release Manager also works with close relationship with Program Managers and Technical Product Owners (Champions) who report to their R&Ds Senior Director on the day-to-day coordination of the release success.

Key Responsibilities

Release Train Coordination 

• Control and manage the release project plan across the three R&D pillars (Core Engineering AI Engineering & Transformation Agentic Platform) and the cells within them. 
• Own and run the release battle rhythm bringing all pillars Product and key cross-functional stakeholders together to agree and deliver on scope and dependencies. 
• Leads cross-pillar meeting cadences and governs release activities (evolved from the current R&D Internal Progress Review) ensuring real-time visibility across pillars and cells. 
• Operate a dual annual release cadence: maintain the external GA cadence customers depend on for stability pricing and adoption planning while progressively accelerating the internal release cadence to early-adopter customers shortening the cycle from code-complete to early-adopter availability and creating faster feedback loops into R&D. 

Release Planning & Scope Governance 

• Maintain the release project plan release calendar and canonical scope baseline. 
• Coordinate cross-pillar dependencies sequencing and shared-capacity decisions; maintain the cross-pillar dependency board. 
• Establish release-level commitments exit criteria and definition of done at each gate. 
• Contribute to release planning and senior leadership gates approval (3 gates: scope intent; execution plan; pre-launch review). 
• Run change control: detect surface and adjudicate scope changes through formal change management; block undocumented scope from entering the release. 
• Hold defined decision rights at each gate: authority to block release progression on unmet exit criteria defer scope and require rework; escalate to the VP of Engineering and R&D when gate decisions are contested or commercial commitments conflict with readiness. 
• Maintain release governance documentation runbooks policies and audit trails. 
• Run release progress reports and communications through the organization including activity progress risk register and release scope schedule and cost elements. 

Cross-Pillar Coordination 

• Partner with the Program Managers and Technical Product Owners (Champions) across the three R&D pillars as the primary interface for release coordination. 
• Aggregate pillar-level status risks and dependencies into a release-level view. 
• Convene cross-pillar problem-solving sessions when dependencies conflicts or scope changes require negotiation between pillars. 
• Work with R&D Senior Directors supporting them in scope capacity and prioritisation decisions that affect release outcomes. 

Cross-Functional Alignment 

• Establish and own specific gate release meetings aligning Operations and Client Experience on support readiness client migration and infrastructure readiness for the upcoming release as well as enablement positioning and launch readiness. 
• Drive active participation in release enablement: coordinate demo releases and partner with Solutions Consulting on demo scripts so each release lands with field-ready demo assets aligned to the shipped scope. 
• Own Executive Status meeting with senior leadership covering what was completed what is planned key risks and decisions required. 
• Bridge commercial commitments (e.g. customer agreements partner agreements MOUs summit announcements) with engineering scope; flag conflicts early and route them through change control before they become release commitments. 

Risk Issue & Dependency Management 

• Identify track and escalate release-level risks issues and dependencies. 
• Run release risk reviews and contingency planning at each planning increment. 
• Govern hotfix and out-of-band releases: own the decision to trigger an emergency release control scope coordinate fast-path approvals across Engineering Operations and Client Experience and lead customer communications during the incident window. 

Release Readiness 

• Frame release readiness across three tiers: commercial readiness (Sales can position and sell) early access or limited availability (constrained customer engagement no GA promise) and general availability (full release). 
• Coordinate security compliance and regulatory sign-off as a release gate in partnership with InfoSec Legal and Operations including SOC 2 / ISO control evidence regional data-residency requirements and any industry-specific obligations relevant to utilities oil and gas and other regulated customers. 
• Coordinate early access and beta programs in partnership with Client Experience: participant eligibility logistics structured feedback collection. 
• Ensure release readiness activities are completed in-line with schedule and gate requirements for exit. 
• Ensure technical and internal-facing documentation required by each consuming function (Engineering Client Experience Operations Support Solutions Consulting) is complete and current for the release; go-to-market documentation remains owned by Product Management. 
• Track client adoption of upcoming versions and upgrade cycles in partnership with Client Experience and Sales; surface upgrade status against renewal timelines and flag accounts where version lag could put renewal at risk. 

AOM Integration 

• Operate within the Agentic Operating Model: leverage the AOM as the release production model.  
• Collaborate with Program Managers and Technical Product Owners (Champions) and Senior Directors on AOM adoption from a release-readiness perspective; provide release-level feedback to the AOM team on what is working and what is not. 
• Use AI-powered tools to streamline release workflows and accelerate decision-making. 

Continuous Improvement & Operating Model Stewardship 

• Run cross-functional post-release retrospectives at the close of each planning increment. 
• Track release metrics: deployment frequency lead & cycle time MTTR scope variance. 
• Own release-level success measures and report against them each cycle: on-time GA rate scope variance first-pass gate-readiness rate post-release defect escape rate customer upgrade-adoption rate within the target window and year-over-year reduction in internal release cycle time to early-adopter customers. 
• Maintain the release-management playbook as a living document; evolve the operating model based on retrospective findings and metrics. 
• Drive process improvements grounded in evidence and Inspect & Adapt outcomes. 

Building Knowledge 

• Stay fluent in AOM practices AI tools and emerging delivery capabilities applying them to improve release outcomes and operating-model maturity. 
• Build broad awareness of how each function: Product R&D Client Experience Operations Sales Marketing Legal Finance consumes the release. 
• Cultivate trusted relationships across the three R&D pillars and across all cross-functional partners; operate as a credible central coordination node. 

Qualifications :

Applying Skills

• Communicate clearly with both technical and non-technical audiences at every organizational level including executive forums.
• Operate decisively under ambiguity and time pressure.
• Balance competing priorities and align stakeholders toward a shared release goal.
• Use modern delivery tooling effectively (Jira Azure DevOps Linear release dashboards).
• Apply structured thinking to scope risk and dependency management.
• Use AI-powered tools to improve release visibility decision-making and delivery workflows.

Influencing Behavior

• Drive accountability across functions without direct line authority.
• Hold the line on governance and quality even under commercial or executive pressure.
• Surface uncomfortable truths early; advocate for what the release actually needs.
• Foster a culture of release discipline transparency and continuous improvement.
• Promote release-management best practices through documentation knowledge-sharing and cross-pillar collaboration.

You Have the Following Background

• 5 years in software delivery with 3 years leading release management or large-scale software delivery in complex multi-team organizations.
• Strong understanding of the software development lifecycle agile delivery practices DevOps CI/CD pipelines and scaled-agile delivery principles (cadence increment-based planning cross-team synchronization system demos inspect-and-adapt).
• Demonstrated ability to coordinate cross-functional teams (Engineering Product Quality Security Operations Sales Marketing Customer Success) toward predictable release outcomes.
• Experience driving release enablement in partnership with Solutions Consulting / Pre-Sales including demo releases demo-script alignment and internal documentation that equips each function to consume the release.
• Familiarity with the Copperleaf Suite and asset-intensive industries (utilities oil & gas mining) or comparable enterprise SaaS and B2B software domains.
• Experience releasing software into regulated environments coordinating with InfoSec Legal and Compliance on pre-GA gates (SOC 2 ISO regional data residency industry-specific obligations).
• AI fluency: comfort using AI tools as part of daily workflows with an understanding of how AI is reshaping software delivery.
• Strong written and verbal communication; comfortable presenting to executive audiences and producing executive-ready status reporting.
• Ability to balance competing priorities align stakeholders and maintain momentum in dynamic environments.

Additional Information :

What Were Offering

• Salary Range: $135000 CAD - $180000 CAD 
• Variable Company Bonus Plan
• Permanent Full-time
• Flexible paid time off including sick and holiday 
• Medical dental & vision insurance 
• RRSP Company contribution 
• Life insurance and disability benefits 
• Tuition assistance 
• Community involvement and volunteering events

We embrace flexibility and hybrid work opportunities to support diverse needs and lifestyles while also valuing inclusive workplace experiences. By fostering a sense of community we drive innovation strengthen connections and nurture belonging. Our commitment ensures you can work in a way that suits you best while also engaging with colleagues to share ideas and build meaningful relationships.

Remote Work :

No

Employment Type :

Full-time