Deployment Manager

Job Overview

The deployment manager in the Test & Deployment team of the W- IT & Remote Services department is responsible for managing and deploying software components on medium to regular size and complexity Vanderlande Warehouse systems.  As a manager he takes the lead in deployment activities and delegates part of the effort to (specialist) deployment engineers.
He identifies relevant requirements, is responsible for creating deployment runbooks including risk analysis, release notes and rollback scenarios and manages the execution of deployments on virtual test environments and at customer production systems. Thus, delivering the necessary quality by ensuring a calculated and minimal impact and downtime of customer production.

This role requires a high degree of coordination skills, involves careful preparation and planning, impeccable execution and cooperation with various disciplines like Customer, technology and testing.

He is the main go-to person for deployment knowledge, and guiding engineers to a successful outcome also requires a good degree of social skills.

Your department

The W- IT & Remote Services department is responsible for the Life-cycle Services intake, validation, deployment and after care of material handling solutions worldwide.
The Test & Deployment team is an internationally operating service organization for our customers in the Warehousing and Parcel business units. Apart from the traditional delivery service aligned with ITIL Change Management we are also dedicated to continuing to develop ourselves as a business partner for our customers.

Your position

The deployment Manager is part of a team that includes deployment engineers that master one or more Vanderlande Warehouse software technologies that require new releases for new functionality or functional improvements. As a manager you provide the necessary coordination, and you ensure that the necessary steps are taken for deployment engineers to execute the deployment with confidence so that you are also able to handle unforeseen scenarios when they develop during execution. The main objective is to ensure that the customer retains a working production system.
 
Key Roles & Responsibilities

• Performs risk analysis and deployment impact assessments on component and subsystem level.
• Is responsible for creating the Runbook which describes the required deployment steps together with deployment engineers.
• Is responsible for providing the deployment effort estimates on component level together with deployment engineers.
• Is responsible for Rehearsing deployments and rollbacks on different types of (virtual) environments together with deployment engineers.
• Is responsible for the successful execution of deployments according to the runbook together with deployment engineers.
• Escalates to Service Management in case of issues during deployment on the customer production environment.
• Is responsible for preparing the test environment together with deployment and test engineers
   (setup IT infra, deploy software and tooling, configure system), including debugging, enhancement, defect resolution and configuration.
• Is responsible for Monitoring system behavior during customer smoke tests / post deployment validation tests.
• Is responsible for providing feedback on deployments and introducing improvements into product, process and tooling.
• Facilitates transferring knowledge to other engineers.
• Initiates improvements in content, process and tooling.
• Defines system performance KPI and monitoring tools.
• Aligns with internal and external stakeholders to ensure seamless integration.
• Contributes to identifying, tracking, and managing defects using appropriate tools and methodologies.
• Cooperates with test team and site deployment.
• Maintains detailed documentation of Vanderlande warehousing technologies and deployments according to existing processes for preparation, execution results, and any issues encountered.
• Understands compliance with industry standards and best practices.
• Provides commissioning and stand-by support during project go-live.
• Is willing to learn new technology in helping in the automation of deployments.
• Acts in Production/Service Support.
• Helps setup/configure the components by following the deployment overview.

Qualifications and Skills

• Bachelor's / university degree in a technical and logistics field, preferably with a focus on systems engineering and quality or a related discipline like mechatronics, informatics, electrical engineering.
• Experience in a service-oriented environment, supporting live customer systems according to ITIL standards.
• Experience in technically leading engineering projects with multidisciplinary teams.
• Ideally, some years of working experience in the field of special engineering and/or integration.
• Good command of the English language and because of international projects - willing to travel (50%)
• Experience in customer processes within a relevant industry like ASML or Thales or a comparable job role.
• 3-7 years of work experience in configuration, Integration and development of software based on project requirements.
• A good understanding of systems engineering processes.
• Good analytical skills with an ability to think at a system level, able to reduce information to essential parts and provide to the point communication.
• Able to decompose work into essential steps, give realistic effort estimations, and to help create feasible planning for execution.
• Able to balance quality, lead time, and cost effectively.
• Proactive and pragmatic approach to problem-solving.
• Good ability to build good working relations with stakeholders like internal and external suppliers.
• Excellent communication skills in English, both written and verbal.
• Proactive and supportive in team participation, working with people at all skill levels and diverse cultural backgrounds.
• Tooling Knowledge: SQL Developer, Apache Maven, JIRA /HP ALM, OP5, Flux, Bamboo, Docker, Git / BitBucket, Lense and similar.
• Primary skills: Oracle SQL, PL/SQL (Basic), Tool: Creation and Modification of Jenkins Jobs, Power Shell, Kubernetes, Helm, Deployment of Software, Excellent Communication & Problem-Solving Skills.
• Secondary skills: Working Exp on Virtual Machine, VM Clusters, Power shell, Understanding/Reading XML, knowledge of Git repository.

Required understanding

• Customer processes in relevant market segments.
• Material handling systems on system level.
• IT architecture, industrial automation (incl. OT SW), business process automation (incl. IT SW).
• Test strategies / test methods / risk analysis and relevant tooling.
• Change- and configuration management and relevant tooling.
• Software development methods and relevant tooling.
• Integration strategies and processes.
• Relevant department processes.

Good to have

• Experience in Automation or DevOps/CI CD.
• Experience in Integration Testing.
• Experience in Networking / IT.
• Experience in coding, scripting, or software development.
• Experience in Control Systems: PLCs, barcode scanners, Photoelectric Eye (PEC) sensors, and motors & drives (Direct Online (DOL) motors, frequency controllers).
• Experience in Warehouse & Industrial Automation: WMS/WCS (Warehouse Management Systems) and IACS (Industrial Automation and Control Systems).
• Experience in SCADA Systems: SCADA operations, system integration, and control processes.
• Experience in System Messaging & Communication: HLC messaging and data exchange between high-level and low-level controllers (HLC/LLC).
• Networking Fundamentals: VLANs, subnets, gateways, firewalls, NAT, port forwarding, WiFi, port mirroring.
• Servers & Virtualization: ILOs, ESXi, VMs, Hyper-V, RAID.
• Storage & Connectivity: NAS systems, handheld scanner connectivity, and industrial network integration.
• Cloud-Native & Containerized Environments: Microservices & Kubernetes within IT infrastructure.
• Cybersecurity Awareness: Understanding security protocols, risk mitigation, and best practices.
• Certifications: CCNA or equivalent is a plus.
• Data analytics (Experience with Splunk or similar data analysis platforms)
• Testing Methodologies: ISTQB Foundation, TMAP.
• Test Tooling: Experience with Polarion or similar requirements and test management tools.