Release Engineer

at  Finch Computing

RELEASE ENGINEER

Clearance: Must be able to obtain a US Security Clearance (Requires US Citizenship)
Location: Reston/Herndon, VA (Hybrid), available to be customer sites in the DC metro area
As a Finch AI Release Engineer, you join a dynamic team playing a pivotal role focusing on the Release Management lifecycle, which includes coordinating and management of releases across multiple teams. You will also help build automated release processes in support of deploying various applications across our environments. You’ll provide tools and services to the engineering teams and delivery teams to ensure quality releases. You will be responsible for managing multiple releases across multiple environments collaborating with multiple groups.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Demonstrated 7-10 years’ experience as Release Engineer for software development applications.
• Proficient with release automation processes and tools like CI/CD, feature flags, version control systems, build management, and configuration management tools; ability to configure and optimize tools to streamline release and improvement efficiency.
• Proven experience in defining release criteria/strategy, managing end-to-end release processes, and enhancing release gaps.
• Proficiency in technical domains (programming languages, cloud software architectures, deployment methodologies, infra components, and related tools)
• Experience with Systems Development Lifecycle, specifically Agile/Scrum.
• Ability to collaborate with multiple teams to diagnose and debug complex issues.
• Experience with Jira/Confluence
• Experience with Jenkins Declarative pipelines.
• Experience working with software installers (i.e. Inno Setup)
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills are required.
• Must be self-motivated and able to work independently, alert any issues and take corrective action.
• Must exhibit attention to detail, and the ability to make effective, timely decisions.
• Comfort with proactively and independently driving for results in small team environments.

• Define the release strategy and release criteria, coordinate go/no-go reviews with the service owners, and provide sign-off.
• Identify gaps in the release process and implement improvements.
• Manage the end-to-end release process and schedule, including critical deadlines for code and infrastructure releases in pre-production and production environments.
• Maintain regular release schedule, and conduct release calls with cross-functional teams to gather feature details for planning and deployment through CI/CD pipelines.
• Schedule and lead triage calls to investigate rollback features; drive Engineering owners to identify root causes and ensure improvement.
• Create release matrices; present & align matrices with leadership and service owners.
• Schedule and ensure Engineering owners implement emergency fixes in production while minimizing the impact on the production environment.
• Maintain all release management-related Standard Operating Procedures
• Work closely with Development and Software Quality Assurance teams to support their automated build needs, and develop procedures to maintain code base integrity, including check-in validation rules and branch/merge processes.
• Establish consistent release management processes and cadence.
• Facilitate cross-department coordination of release management functions.
• Develop scripts and automation tools used to build, integrate, and deploy software releases to various platforms.
• Configure and debug build automation environment using AWS/Jenkins
• Automate build tasks using scripting languages – Python
• Diagnose and troubleshoot build issues using AWS/Jenkins and communicate these to the team.
• Track and manage a multi-platform release calendar.
• Inform staff and management of release risks and work to effectively mitigate.
• Measure release cadence and effectiveness using common metrics across the platform portfolio and identify opportunities for greater efficiency.
• Define common mechanisms for rollback and standards for capturing release-related performance indicators.
• Ensure accurate and efficient release blocker meetings.
• Continually work towards making improvements in the release process.
• Lead and coordinate go-live activities.
• Create or maintain documentation for build systems and environments.
• Proactively seek out tasks and take ownership to improve the software.
• Take initiative in finding ways to optimize the automation build and release process.