Release Manager

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Full Time Overland Park, KS, US

Competitive Compensation & Benefits Package
* 401(k) with Profit Sharing
* Flexible Time Off
* Office Dog!!

ABOUT US

By combining our unparalleled domain expertise with leading-edge technology, Ad Astra is helping higher education in its mission to advance timely student completions. We are building a cloud-based software platform that will provide the foundation for our next generation of industry-leading solutions and analytics. Simply put, we're helping students graduate faster.

OUR CORE VALUES

• We recognize talent. We recognize and appreciate the unique God-given talents that our people bring to Ad Astra. Aligning these individual gifts with our work sets team members up to succeed.
• We’re unpretentious. There’s no room for ego. We admit our imperfections and have the humility to know what we don’t know.
• We’re passionate. We aren’t satisfied with the status quo. We’re on a mission together to protect the value of degree completion and to transform the higher education industry.
• We’re pioneering. We’re pioneering and aren’t afraid of failing—in fact, we celebrate it. We love it when our people boldly experiment with innovative solutions.
• We love fun. The health of our relationships is strengthened by working with people who stretch our thinking—and by enjoying the lighter side of life together. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we do take fun seriously.
• We have grit. Beyond talent and intelligence, our people have stick-to-itiveness. We push through challenges to make goals a reality.

POSITION SUMMARY

The Release Manager is a highly organized and resourceful delivery leader responsible for planning, coordinating, and enabling the frequent, safe, and successful release of Ad Astra’s products and platform enhancements. Working closely with Product, Engineering, Quality Engineering, Client Success, and other stakeholders, the Release Manager ensures that product releases are delivered on time, with high quality, minimal disruption to clients, and measurable value to clients and the business.

The Release Manager reports to the head of product and serves as the central point of coordination for release activities, facilitating communication across teams, identifying and mitigating risks, and driving continuous improvement of release processes. Through strong operational leadership and collaboration, they enable Ad Astra to efficiently deliver valuable product enhancements that support our mission of Graduating More Students, Faster.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS/CORE RESPONSIBILITIES

• Own and manage the enterprise release management operating model and serve as the accountable leader for cross‑functional release/launch readiness, governance, risk visibility and mitigation, and execution, in strong coordination with Product, Engineering, Quality Engineering, Delivery, Marketing, and Client Success teams.
• Coordinate the planning, execution, and communication of software releases, feature launches, updates, and maintenance activities.
• Partner with product teams (Product Managers, Product Designers, and Tech Leads) and Engineering leaders to assess release readiness, dependencies, risks, and deployment timelines.
• Facilitate release planning meetings, readiness reviews, and post‑release retrospectives to ensure successful go‑to‑market coordination and execution, and continuous improvement.
• Work with the product team to ensure planning happens on cadence, product operating model practices are followed, and decisions on prioritization and changes to upcoming sprints are made, documented, and communicated.
• Facilitat…