Release Manager

About Strong Mind

Strong Mind builds digital learning experiences for K–12 online schools and homeschool families. We’re turning Strong Mind Core (SMC) into an online school operating system – a product/platform hybrid that powers students, parents, and teachers across multiple experiences.

About the role

We’re hiring a Release Manager to own end-to-end coordination of software releases across our K–12 customer base. You’ll ensure schools, districts, partners, internal support, and educators are aligned on what’s changing, when it’s changing, and how to adopt it—without disrupting instruction.

This role blends release operations, stakeholder coordination, customer enablement, and communication, with hands‑on ownership of feature‑flagged rollouts and strong execution using Jira.

Release planning and execution

• Own the release calendar and coordinate release readiness across Product, Engineering, QA, Support, Customer Success, and Partnerships
• Run release rituals (release planning, go/no‑go, launch reviews, post‑release retrospectives)
• Use Jira to track release scope, dependencies, risks, and readiness status across teams
• Coordinate staged deployments aligned to K–12 schedules (time zones, assessment windows, back‑to‑school periods)

School, district, and partner coordination

• Communicate release timelines, scope, and rollout plans to schools/districts and partners
• Ensure stakeholders are prepared and know what to expect before changes land

Feature flags and controlled rollouts

• Manage feature flag configuration by school/district/client (on/off, phased cohorts, pilots)
• Maintain an auditable record of feature availability per customer and keep Support/CS aligned on what’s live where
• Partner with Engineering Managers to support safe launches, canaries, gradual ramps, and rapid rollback when needed through feature flagging so that you can act independently

Release communications

• Write clear, educator‑friendly release notes (impact, benefits, who is affected, required actions)
• Produce launch comms (emails, FAQs, partner notices, release notes) in coordination with Product/CS/Support
• Maintain a consistent and discoverable release notes/changelog process

Training and enablement

• Create and/or coordinate training materials (short videos, walkthroughs, guides) for teachers and admins
• Deliver webinars or live demos as needed and package recordings for on‑demand access
• Ensure Support and Customer Success readiness (briefings, internal playbooks, known issues, escalation paths)

Quality, risk, and disruption management

• Coordinate release readiness checks, including backward compatibility expectations and operational risk review
• Monitor early rollout signals (tickets, incidents, adoption, feedback) and coordinate response
• Drive process improvements based on post‑release learnings and stakeholder feedback

Success metrics (how performance is measured) Enablement and communication effectiveness

• Release note timeliness: release notes published by (or before) release time for 100% of releases
• Internal readiness SLA:
  Support/CS trained and “ready” by a defined lead time (e.g., 3–5 business days pre‑release)
• Training coverage: % of major releases with companion materials (video + FAQ/guide) and stakeholder comms

Adoption and rollout control

• Feature adoption rate: usage of launched features by target segments within X weeks (teachers/admins)
• Pilot‑to‑general‑availability conversion: % of pilots that progress to broader rollout on schedule
• Feature flag accuracy: % of customers with correct flag state vs. plan (auditable, no surprises)

Process maturity

• Release cycle time: time from “code complete” to “fully rolled out” (measured and improving where appropriate)
• Retrospective completion rate: % of meaningful releases with documented post‑release learnings and action items closed
• Stakeholder satisfaction: periodic CS/Support and key district stakeholder feedback on release clarity and preparedness

Requirements

• 4–8+ years of experience in release management, technical program management, product operations, or similar roles in a SaaS environment
• Strong cross‑functional management and coordination skills; able to run release processes end‑to‑end
• Knowledge of…