Release Engineer

Key Responsibilities

• Release Planning & Coordination
• Own and manage the release calendar across iOS, Android, and backend platforms
• Coordinate release scope with Product Managers, Engineering Leads, QA, and Ops
• Ensure alignment on priorities, timelines, and dependencies across teams
• Facilitate release readiness reviews and go/no-go decisions
• Execution & Delivery
• Oversee end-to-end release execution , including build, testing, and deployment phases
• Coordinate mobile app submissions (App Store & Google Play)
• Manage backend release deployments, ensuring compatibility with mobile versions
• Ensure versioning, tagging, and branching strategies are followed consistently
• Operational Responsibilities
• Execute and coordinate production releases for mobile applications and supporting backend services.
• Manage release schedules and deployment activities across multiple environments.
• Own production feature flag management, including planning, enabling, disabling, validating, and monitoring feature flags throughout the release lifecycle.
• Support production incidents related to deployments, feature flags, and release activities, coordinating with engineering teams to restore service where required.
• Monitor release health and coordinate issue resolution with engineering teams.
• Ensure deployment checklists and release runbooks are followed.
• Support production rollbacks when required.
• Stakeholder Communication
• Act as the central point of communication for all release-related activities.
• Proactively communicate release progress, risks, blockers, deployment status, and production issues to engineering, product, and business stakeholders.
• Ensure all release activities are clearly documented and communicated before, during, and after deployments.
• Translate technical updates into concise, business-friendly communication where appropriate.
• Maintain release documentation, release notes, deployment records, and post-release summaries.
• Risk & Issue Management
• Identify, track, and mitigate release risks and dependencies
• Coordinate resolution of blocking issues and incidents during release cycles
• Lead rollback planning and execution where required
• Quality & Process Improvement
• Drive continuous improvement of release management processes and tooling
• Implement and maintain best practices for CI/CD pipelines and automation
• Partner with QA to ensure robust testing and release quality gates
• Analyse release KPIs such as deployment frequency, lead time, release success rate, and rollback incidents to drive continuous improvement
• Identify opportunities to automate repetitive release tasks and improve deployment efficiency

Key Skills & Experience

• Technical Competence
• Strong understanding of mobile application release lifecycles (iOS & Android).
• Hands-on experience with mobile CI/CD and release automation.
• Experience with Git and GitHub workflows.
• Experience with CI/CD platforms such as GitHub Actions and/or CircleCI.
• Basic understanding of Kubernetes, containerised applications, and deployment concepts.
• Familiarity with backend deployment pipelines and APIs.
• Understanding of Git branching, tagging, versioning, and release strategies.
• Knowledge of Apple App Store and Google Play release processes.
• Experience troubleshooting release pipeline failures and deployment issues.
• Communication & Organisation
• Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills
• Ability to coordinate multiple teams and manage competing priorities
• Strong organisational skills with high attention to detail
• Comfortable facilitating meetings and driving alignment across teams
• Collaboration
• Proven experience working closely with Product and Engineering teams
• Ability to bridge technical and non-technical stakeholders effectively
• Strong influencing skills without direct authority
• Problem Solving
• Proactive in identifying risks and resolving issues quickly
• Calm under pressure, especially during critical release windows
• Strong analytical mindset with a focus on continuous improvement