Environments and Release Manager

• Environments and Release Manager Role Profile
• Disclosure Questions

Orbit is a fantastic business and one that’s really going places.

Orbit was formed in 1967 with the aim of providing good-quality housing for people who would otherwise not be able to afford to buy their own home.

Over 50 years later, we’re one of the leading housing providers in the UK.  Our services have diversified, our housing portfolio has expanded, and our reputation as an innovator within our sector has grown.  But one thing that has never changed.  Our belief in people and what they can achieve.

Your role at Orbit.

We are looking for an experienced IT leader to join our busy IT team as Environment and Release Manager. Owning the cross-technology domain release management process, you will be responsible for process design, optimisation and policy creation and implementation and effectively service as a subject matter expert in release and environment management.

You will work closed with the Product, Project, and Architecture teams to ensure the environment standards are maintained and met; creating environment roadmaps based on multiple project requirements. You will also set environment guidelines, with the provision and management of environments (release and refresh) through the entire application lifecycle.

You will be responsible for:

• Develops, monitors and enforces release management processes and policies.
• Provides support to the domain teams as well as to service providers, vendors and customers, by coordinating and providing release management consultation in a timely and efficient manner.
• Functions as a subject matter expert in release and environment management.
• Coordinates release program activities (for example, cross-domain release integration testing and assessment of release production worthiness) designed to provide key stakeholders with pertinent information, such as summary data, key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics.
• Acts as the gatekeeper to the production environment, ensuring conformance to policies (e.g. Change Management) and operational processes/procedures, release integration testing and production validation.
• Define and agree a release management strategy with third parties and relevant Orbit Stakeholders.
• Develop and maintain the forward plan the release schedules and cycles across the organisation.
• The management, coordination and acceptance of all releases, including release into production.
• Ensure environments are maintained, clean, and remain well managed
• Ensuring adequate checks are in place and completed ahead of any release (production) - including managing any risks that affect the release scope.
• Ensure consistency between environments is maintained.
• Communicates release management objectives, concepts and policies across all IT domains and to the business, when appropriate.
• Works closely with change managers, the program management office, project managers and the Change Advisory Board to plan releases and manage the release schedule, taking into consideration associated business and technical risks.
• Oversees release changes into production through controlled promotion processes or documented support procedures. As much as possible, automates the configuration changes/updates to the production environment to promote efficiency and consistency.
• Holds back the release from being deployed into production when release plans are not met, and works with the business process owner, Product Manager, change manager, Business Change team and others to identify the cause, bring appropriate resources to bear and reschedule the release.
• Creates and tracks the release improvement process to be applied across all IT domains.
• Researches, reviews and analyses the effectiveness and efficiency of procedures, and develops strategies for enhancing these processes in accordance with IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) best practices.
• Acts as a liaison between other process managers (for example, incident and change) to ensure process alignment.
• Ensures environment stands up to security measures and legislation, including Data obfuscation where required.
• Work with the various Product Managers, Project Managers and Test Leads to coordinate planned outage and environment refresh

What will help you make a difference.

To be successful in this role of Environments and Release Manager you will have previous experience working within a similar role and level. It is also essential that you have:

• Change and Release Management experiences for both Agile and Waterfall project releases.
• Solid MS Dynamics 365, MS Azure knowledge and DevOps Experience
• Agile Release Management, Agile delivery Experience
• A strong and confident communicator, able to manage internal and external stakeholders effectively.
• Project management - creation and maintenance of plans, risks, issues etc.
• Experience with application and SaaS development release processes.
• Experience creating detailed production implementation plans and performing mock dress rehearsals in a production release environment is desired.
• Experience with the full project life cycle, who has a positive attitude when approaching complex IT solutions.
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Strong organisational skills; ability to manage multiple projects with competing demands
• Proficiency in process formulation and communication to others.
• Proven ability to build relationships and to influence individuals at all levels in the organization, as well as with external vendors and service providers, to ensure that segregation and overlapping roles are identified and coordinated.

We know that an inclusive environment makes us more accessible and ensures we attract, engage, promote and retain great people. We welcome applications from all individuals regardless of background, age, gender/gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity/nationality, religious belief, faith or disability.  As part of our Armed Forces Covenant commitment, we welcome ex-services professionals to consider career opportunities at Orbit.

Why Orbit?

Rewarding your contribution.

For those who want or need more of a work life balance our view is that this role is suitable for WorkSmart. This means we would consider a more flexible working arrangement, where your hours and work location are managed according to business, customer and personal needs. Agile working arrangements will be discussed during the interview process.

Some of our core benefits include:

• Group bonus potential up to 15% of salary
• 27 days annual leave plus bank holidays and the “Orbit day”
• Private medical insurance
• Excellent contributory pension scheme
• Life assurance
• A great pick and mix of flexible benefits including the option to buy and sell holiday and much more

Our culture and purpose.

We know that great people are central to achieving our ambitions and as such we want everyone to have a voice and make a positive difference.  We are proud to be a Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to work for, this demonstrates we place people at the heart of everything we do. We continue to create a culture that celebrates diversity and an environment where everyone feels able to contribute towards achieving together.

We support our colleagues to be at their best through our wellbeing programme #ThisIsMe, our corporate learning programme, opportunities for professional development, our innovative approaches to making the world and our homes a greener place and our leading reward and recognition package. Because of this our people tell us Orbit is a great place to work for.

At Orbit, our people are enthusiastic and passionate about making a real difference to our customers and communities. We are one team where everyone is connected and encouraged to have the freedom to think differently.

Each year we build many new affordable homes and manage a total portfolio of around 45,000 properties.  Over 100,000 people live in an Orbit home and our innovative approach empowers every one of them to grow and thrive.  We are commercially driven. The more profit we make, the more we invest into the communities that we work for, improving services and playing a key role in driving UK housing growth.

Work for Orbit.  Believe in people.

We have so much more that we’d like to share with you so please submit your CV demonstrating the value you could bring to Orbit.

https://jobs.talent.dynamics.com/jobs/orbitgroupltd/7/471/apply

We put the safeguarding of our customers, colleagues and contractors at the heart of everything we do and as such, certain roles will be subject to a DBS check.