HR Systems Release Manager

We’re looking for an experienced Release Manager to take end-to-end ownership of vendor-led releases, patches and technology changes across our HR, payroll and wider people technology landscape.  

Working across Technology, People teams, suppliers and operational stakeholders, you’ll bring together the moving parts of complex releases, ensuring integrations, dependencies, testing, approvals and deployment are effectively planned and managed.  

You’ll have experience working with enterprise HR and/or payroll platforms, whether that’s Dayforce, Oracle, SAP or similar. We’re not looking for expertise in one specific system. What matters is that you understand how these environments connect, where risks and dependencies can arise and, importantly, you know the right questions to ask. 

Role:                              Release Manager 

Contract Type:       Full time, Permanent  

Location:                     Whitbread Court, Dunstable (Hybrid, 3 days per week) 

Why You’ll Love It Here  

• Healthcare: Family BUPA healthcare 

• 10% matched pension 

• Discounts: Up to 60% discount on Premier Inn stays and 25% discount on our Restaurant brand 

• Annual Incentive of up to 20% Bonus 

Check out all our benefits here: https://www.whitbreadcareers.com/about-us/benefits/ 

What you’ll be doing: 

Own the release from start to finish by coordinating the end-to-end release lifecycle, bringing together vendor releases, patches and internal technology changes from initial planning through to successful deployment. 

Join the dots across systems and integrations and working closely with technical teams and suppliers to understand how changes connect, identifying dependencies, integration impacts and potential risks before they become issues. 

Keep our suppliers on track by working side by side with our third-party vendors and technology partners, asking the right questions, challenging where needed and ensuring commitments, quality and timelines are met. 

Make sure we’re ready to release by bringing together testing, assurance, approvals, deployment and rollback plans, ensuring releases are delivered safely and with minimal disruption. 

Connect technology and the business as you’ll turn complex technical and vendor information into clear updates, keeping stakeholders informed of progress, risks and key decisions. 

Learn from every release by working with teams to understand issues, incidents and lessons learned, turning these into practical improvements for future releases. 

What you’ll need: 

Strong end-to-end release management experience within complex technology environments.  

Experience working with enterprise HR and/or payroll platforms, such as Dayforce, Oracle, SAP or equivalent.  

A strong understanding of systems integration and dependencies, with the ability to identify impacts and risks across connected systems.  

Strong vendor and supplier management experience, with the confidence to challenge constructively and drive delivery.  

Experience of planning, managing and coordinating multiple environment releases across development, test, staging and production environments.  

Good knowledge of ITIL-based change management and governance, including risk, approvals and Change Advisory Board processes.  

Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technical information and keep technical and business teams aligned. 

Be part of our Technology Team at Whitbread  

Through collaboration, passion and hiring the smartest minds, our Technology team builds products and services that are used by 38,000 of us at Whitbread and millions of guests. Everything from an eCommerce website that handles £2 billion in transactions per year, applications that are scalable across our 1,200 hotel and restaurants, devices that enable our teams and guests to have a seamless experience, all whilst keeping data secure. Together we’re building the hotel of the future.