Senior Cluster Release Manager – Banking

Senior Cluster Release Manager - Banking Transformation Introduction

The Senior Cluster Release Manager will play a key leadership role in the end-to-end orchestration of complex, integrated software releases within a major transformation programme at Julius Baer, spanning approximately 25 interdependent value chains/projects across a complex Private Banking technology landscape .

As a senior member of the Release Management Team, the role will take ownership of Release Management across a defined cluster of critical initiatives, ensuring that Release Planning, Dependency Management, Deployment Coordination, Quality Gates, Release Readiness, Risk Management, Governance and Communication are consistently executed to programme standards.

Operating in a highly matrixed and regulated environment, the Senior Cluster Release Manager will act as the central release authority for the assigned cluster , coordinating Programme and Project Leads, Application Owners, Engineering teams, Testing, Environment Management, Infrastructure, Change Management, external suppliers and business stakeholders.

The role requires strong leadership, sound judgement and the ability to challenge release readiness, drive decisions and escalated material risks where delivery quality, timelines or production stability may be compromised.

Flexibility to support critical programme activities outside standard business hours, including Data Refreshes, Dress Rehearsals, Cutover and Production Deployment weekends , is required.

• Take senior ownership of the Release Management discipline across a cluster of up to 5 complex projects/value chains running in parallel , supported by Release Coordinators.
• Develop, own and maintain the integrated cluster release plan , aligned with programme milestones, dependencies, test cycles, deployment windows, environment availability and business priorities.
• Lead Release Management activities across SIT, UAT, Data Refresh, Dress Rehearsal, Cutover and Production Deployment .
• Coordinate complex dependencies across projects, applications, environments, infrastructure teams, business functions and external suppliers.
• Lead release readiness assessments and ensure required quality gates, entry/exit criteria, approvals and governance controls are achieved.
• Chair release governance and coordination meetings, driving decisions, resolving blockers and ensuring clear ownership of actions and risks.
• Act as the primary escalation point for release-related risks, dependencies and readiness issues within the assigned cluster.
• Ensure end-to-end traceability across requirements -> design -> development -> testing -> defects -> deployment -> production .
• Oversee the staging and promotion of application, code and configuration changes across environments in close collaboration with Environment and Deployment Management.
• Ensure appropriate deployment, rollback, contingency and recovery plans are established and validated for critical releases.
• Monitor release health through KPIs including deployment success rate, regression results, defect leakage, rollback frequency and production stability .
• Provide clear, decision-oriented reporting to Programme Release Management and senior programme stakeholders covering release status, milestones, dependencies, risks and readiness.
• Drive continuous improvement of Release Management processes and adapt governance and ways of working to the needs of the transformation programme.
• Lead post-release reviews and ensure lessons learned are incorporated into future release cycles.
• Provide guidance and mentoring to Release Managers, Release Coordinators and other delivery stakeholders where required.

• Minimum 12+ years of experience in IT delivery ,…