Director, Service and Release Management

Job Summary

The Director, Service and Release Management is a senior leader responsible for the operational execution, delivery governance, and release integrity of live and in-flight services across the Global Services portfolio. This role leads a multi‑disciplinary team of Operational Service Delivery Managers (SDMOs), Project Managers, and Release Managers, providing unified direction across the functions responsible for running services, delivering programs, and controlling the flow of change through lower and production environments.

This function sits at the heart of Customer Success and Global Services. The Director and their team are the primary operational liaison to customers and customer‑facing teams, working hand‑in‑hand with Service Delivery Managers (SDMs), Associate General Managers, and regional Customer Success Heads to ensure that service performance translates into sustained customer confidence. SDMOs operate as direct partners to SDMs and Associate GMs, and this Director ensures that relationship operates with clarity, consistency, and mutual accountability.

Beyond day‑to‑day leadership, this Director owns the maturity agenda for their functions, building repeatable, scalable processes that raise the quality of how Global Services plans, delivers, and operates, and defining how those functions integrate across the broader organization.

• Lead, develop, and hold accountable a team of SDMOs, Project Managers, and Release Managers across the Global Services portfolio.
• Build a high-performing team culture grounded in operational discipline, customer accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Define career development paths and capability‑building plans for each function; actively grow internal talent.
• Set consistent performance expectations, escalation standards, and ways of working across the team.
• Ensure appropriate span of control and program coverage; identify and address resourcing gaps.

• Serve as the senior operational leader bridging delivery execution with customer and customer‑facing teams across all regions.
• Work closely with the regional Heads of Customer Success (NAM, EMEA, APAC), who report to the Senior Director of Customer Success, to ensure operational performance aligns with regional customer commitments, priorities, and expectations.
• Ensure SDMOs maintain strong, day‑to‑day working relationships with their assigned SDMs and Associate GMs, operating as a unified customer‑facing team and partnering on escalation resolution, service performance narratives, and customer communications.
• Represent the Service and Release Management function in customer operational forums, executive briefings, and Q  preparation when senior operational leadership is required.
• Ensure that delivery and release activity, including the impact of changes across lower and production environments, is communicated proactively to customer‑facing teams so they can set expectations and maintain customer trust.

• Own the maturity roadmap for Service Delivery, Project Management, and Release Management, defining where the functions need to be and driving a structured path to get there.
• Establish and enforce standard processes, playbooks, and operating procedures across all three functions, ensuring consistency of execution regardless of program, region, or team member.
• Drive a step‑change in how the team understands the business and the customer: ensure SDMOs, Project Managers, and Release Managers are fluent in the commercial context of their programs, understand the value delivered to each customer, and can connect their operational decisions to customer and business outcomes.
• Embed customer health metrics into the team’s standard ways of working. Every SDMO, Project Manager, and Release Manager should be actively aware of their customers’ health indicators, using that awareness to prioritize, elevate, and communicate with greater precision.
• Identify systemic execution gaps, including repeated delivery issues, process failures, or governance breakdowns, and lead root…