Release & Cutover Manager

Description

PURPOSE OF POSITION
The Release & Cutover Manager ensures FSRA’s software releases are predictable, secure, auditable, and compliant with public sector requirements, while driving continuous improvement across the release and cutover lifecycle. The role leads cross functional coordination across engineering, infrastructure, security, and business operations to deliver repeatable, low risk release processes aligned with CI/CD and Dev Sec Ops  best practices.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Oversee end-to-end release processes for various environments, focus on Dynamics 365 CE/CRM, F&O, and Power Platform solutions.

• Owns the end-to-end planning and execution of software releases and production cutovers across various, multi-vendor environments—ensuring predictable, secure, and low-risk deployments.

• Manages solution packaging, deployment pipelines, unmanaged/managed solution strategies, and environment promotion.

• Works with developers, solution architects, system integrators, and product owners to confirm readiness, dependencies, and alignment with FSRA’s D365 roadmap.

• Builds the D365 environment strategy (Dev, SIT, UAT, Pre-Prod, Prod), ensuring consistency, data parity, and proper access controls.

• Participates in the Incident Management remediations

• Ensures documentation meets audit and CAB expectations

• Leads all production cutovers, including configuration migration, data migration steps, interface cutover, and validation.

• Develops and manages detailed cutover runbooks, identifying tasks, sequencing, dependencies, timings, and responsible owners.

• Executes dry-runs in pre-production to validate timing, data scripts, plugins/workflows, Power Automate flows, and key integrations.

• Directs cutover “command center” sessions during go-live, coordinating technical teams, business stakeholders, vendors, and IT operations.

• Designs and governs Dev Ops CI/CD pipelines, including Dynamics 365, Solution builds and exports, Automated deployments to lower and upper environments, Automated testing (Selenium, Easy Repro), ALM best practices across D365 and Power Platform

• Ensures pipelines include quality gates, code review standards, security scanning, and auditable approvals aligned with public-sector governance.

• Ensures all D365 changes comply with public sector IT policies, audit requirements, records management, and change control standards.

• Facilitates CAB reviews; prepares risk assessments, deployment packages, and rollback criteria for Dynamics releases.

• Maintains comprehensive documentation and traceability of all D365 configuration and code changes.

• Implements release metrics and KPIs specific to D365 delivery (deployment frequency, solution stability, regression defects, pipeline automation rate).

• Standardizes Dynamics ALM processes and reduces manual deployment efforts through automation.

• Conducts retrospectives to improve future releases and minimize production risk.

QUALIFICATIONS
Education

• Postsecondary degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and professional experience.

• Microsoft certifications: PL-200, PL-400, MB-600, Azure Dev Ops (AZ-400), an asset

Experience

• 5–10 years of experience in Release Management or Cutover Management, including direct experience with Microsoft Dynamics 365.

• Proven experience working in public sector, regulated, or compliance-driven environments managing releases within various environments.

• Demonstrated experience leading enterprise-scale Dynamics go-lives, data migrations, and complex cutovers.

Knowledge and Skills
Technical Skills

• Strong expertise in Dynamics solution deployment, best practice release governance, Azure Dev Ops CI/CD pipelines, and complex cutover planning for mission critical systems.

• Deep understanding of D365 solution architecture, environment strategy, and ALM principles.

• Demonstrated hands-on experience with Azure Dev Ops, including YAML pipelines, build agents, release artifacts, and approver workflows.

• Working knowledge of related Microsoft technologies:
Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate, Dataverse), Azure Integration Services (APIM,…