Devops (Technical Release Engineer )

Job Title

DevOps (Technical Release Engineer)

Location

Hammersmith, Watford, Greater London, Hertfordshire

Responsibilities

• Define, author, and maintain the master Technical Cutover Runbook, detailing minute‑by‑minute technical tasks, owners, dependencies, and estimated durations.
• Plan and lead rehearsal and dress rehearsal “dry runs” to stress‑test the runbook, identify gaps, and refine time estimates.
• Ensure business readiness: track end‑user training, operational workarounds during downtime, and helpdesk readiness.
• Design comprehensive, deterministic rollback and contingency plans for every stage of the cutover process.
• Facilitate formal Go/No‑Go checkpoint meetings with technical leads, project teams, and key stakeholders during the cutover window.
• Maintain environment synchronization across staging, pre‑production, and production; audit and reconcile configuration, data schemas, and security policies.
• Coordinate with Release Engineers to ensure correct software versions, third‑party dependencies, and patches are uniformly deployed.
• Automate manual cutover steps into CI/CD pipelines and implement automated post‑deployment smoke tests and health checks.
• Lead the Technical Command Centre during live cutover windows, directing engineers, DBAs, and sysadmins.
• Act as the central communication hub, translating complex technical status updates into clear, business‑focused impacts for executive stakeholders.
• Partner with Data Engineers to execute delta data migrations, schema updates, and data validation scripts during the cutover window.
• Maintain a cutover‑specific risk register with pre‑approved mitigation strategies for likely technical or operational bottlenecks.

Technical Proficiency

• Hands‑on experience managing infrastructure state changes during live cutovers.
• Strong knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP) including traffic routing, load balancers, and CDN caching.
• Understanding of data migration tools, database schema deployment, and data replication/synchronization techniques.
• Experience with Kubernetes or Docker environments; managing Helm charts or Kustomize for multi‑environment deployments.
• Proficient in at least one programming language: JavaScript, Python, Java, Groovy, TypeScript, or C++.
• Deep expertise with CI/CD tools (e.g., GitHub Actions) and deployment automation.
• Solid grasp of SQL/NoSQL databases, schema migration tools (Liquibase, Flyway), and data replication strategies.
• Experience with Git workflow models (GitFlow, Trunk‑Based Development, Feature Branching) and merge conflict resolution.

Requirements, Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field.
• Minimum 3–5 years of hands‑on experience in a technical release engineering environment.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English.
• Understanding of modern application architectures: monolithic, microservices, and distributed systems.
• Familiarity with deployment topologies, dependency management, and zero‑downtime deployment strategies.
• Knowledge of infrastructure as code and environment promotion strategies.

Preferred Competencies

• Calm under pressure; proven ability to make critical, time‑sensitive decisions during high‑stress deployment windows.
• Meticulous organisational and detail‑oriented focus on task tracking and resource availability.
• Cross‑functional diplomacy: ability to command respect and direct actions across engineering, DBA, product, and testing teams.
• Availability to work non‑standard hours (nights and weekends) during scheduled cutovers.
• Clear communication: ability to translate complex technical blockers into concise status updates for non‑technical stakeholders.

Mandatory Skills

• Cloud Engineering experience with AWS.