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- If you are NOT a current employee or student, please click “Apply” and complete the application process for external applicants.
Approval of remote and hybrid work is not guaranteed regardless of work location. For additional information on remote work at Penn State, see Notice to Out of State Applicants.
POSITION SPECIFICS
Penn State University is excited to announce an opportunity for a talented and experienced individual to join us as a Release Manager on the Enterprise Customer Relationship Management Program Team! As an enterprise implementation, this program is designed to advance engagement and service delivery for the entire university community, including faculty, students, staff, and alumni, ensuring integrated solutions that create value across all Penn State constituencies. The Release Manager is responsible for orchestrating and streamlining the software release process across development, testing, and production environments. This role combines technical expertise in DevOps practices with project management skills to ensure reliable, efficient, and traceable software deployments.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIESRelease Planning & Strategy
● Develop and maintain comprehensive release management strategy and roadmap
● Coordinate release schedules across multiple teams and projects
● Define release criteria, processes, and approval workflows
● Establish and monitor service level agreements for release activities
DevOps & Automation
● Deploy and maintain enterprise DevOps services to streamline release management
● Enhance automation capabilities across the CI/CD pipeline
● Implement and maintain deployment automation tools and processes
● Ensure full environment traceability throughout the release lifecycle
● Serve as point of contact for the purchased devops and backup tool
● Maintain disaster recovery plans and support business continuity efforts, including monitoring and testing of backups
Environment Management
● Oversee development, testing, staging, and production environments
● Maintain environment configuration consistency and documentation
● Coordinate environment provisioning and capacity planning
● Monitor environment health and performance metrics
Process & Quality Assurance
● Establish and enforce code versioning best practices
● Implement deployment methodologies and standards
● Conduct release readiness assessments and go/no-go decisions
● Manage rollback procedures and incident response protocols
Stakeholder Coordination
● Facilitate release planning meetings and communication
● Coordinate with development, QA, operations, and business teams
● Provide release status updates to leadership and stakeholders
● Manage change control processes and documentation
QUALIFICATIONSQualified candidates will demonstrate strength across several of the following areas:
Experience
- Strong background in software development lifecycle (SDLC) processes
- Experience with both waterfall and agile development methodologies
- Demonstrated experience owning end-to-end software releases through production, including coordinating complex releases across multiple technical teams, applications or workstreams, and environments
- Experience coordinating releases across development, testing/UAT, staging, and production environments
- Salesforce-specific release management experience
- Experience with cloud platforms, including AWS and/or Azure
- Proficiency with Azure DevOps or a comparable CI/CD and release management platform
Process & Project Management
- Strong understanding of ITIL practices and change management
- Experience with project management methodologies and tools
- Experience with production change control, including release approvals, go/no-go decisions, rollback planning, and incident response
- Knowledge of risk assessment and mitigation strategies
- Understanding of compliance and regulatory requirements
- Demonstrated ability to coordinate release activities and communicate status, risks, and dependencies across technical and business stakeholders
MINIMUM EDUCATION, WORK EXPERIENCE & REQUIRED CERTIFICATIONS
If filled as DevOps Engineer - Advanced Professional, this position requires: Bachelor's Degree 3+ years of relevant experience; or an equivalent combination of education and experience accepted Required Certifications: None If filled as DevOps Engineer - Senior Professional, this position requires: Bachelor's Degree 6+ years of relevant experience; or an equivalent combination of education and experience accepted Required Certifications: NoneWORKING HOURSStandard work hours are in the Eastern Time Zone. Release/Change window for production is 5:00 a.m.-7:00 a.m. EST. Flexibility is needed with off-hours work for deployments and major incidents.
APPLICATION MATERIALS
Applicants are encouraged to submit both a resume and cover letter for full consideration.
BACKGROUND CHECKS/CLEARANCES
Employment with the University will require successful completion of background check(s) in accordance with University policies.Penn State does not sponsor or take over sponsorship of a staff employment Visa. Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S.
SALARY & BENEFITS
The salary range for this position, including all possible grades, is $81,312.00 - $137,280.00.
Salary Structure - Information on Penn State's salary structure
Penn State provides a competitive benefits package for full-time employees designed to support both personal and professional well-being. In addition to comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, employees enjoy robust retirement plans and substantial paid time off which includes holidays, vacation and sick time. One of the standout benefits is the generous 75% tuition discount, available to employees as well as eligible spouses and children. For more detailed information, please visit our Benefits Page.
CAMPUS SECURITY CRIME STATISTICS
Pursuant to the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act and the Pennsylvania Act of 1988, Penn State publishes a combined Annual Security and Annual Fire Safety Report (ASR). The ASR includes crime statistics and institutional policies concerning campus security, such as those concerning alcohol and drug use, crime prevention, the reporting of crimes, sexual assault, and other matters. The ASR is available for review here.
EEO IS THE LAW
Penn State is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to providing employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status. If you are unable to use our online application process due to an impairment or disability, please contact 814-865-1473.
Penn State is committed to and accountable for advancing equity, respect, and belonging. We embrace individual uniqueness, as well as a culture of belonging that supports equity initiatives, leverages the educational and institutional benefits of inclusion in society, and provides opportunities for engagement intended to help all members of the community thrive. We value belonging as a core strength and an essential element of the university’s teaching, research, and service mission.
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Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree and 3+ years of relevant experience for the Advanced Professional level, or equivalent education and experience
- Bachelor's degree and 6+ years of relevant experience for the Senior Professional level, or equivalent education and experience
- Strong understanding of software development lifecycle processes
- Experience with waterfall and agile development methodologies
- End-to-end software release ownership through production across multiple technical teams, applications, workstreams, and environments
- Experience coordinating releases across development, testing/UAT, staging, and production environments
- Salesforce-specific release management experience
- Experience with cloud platforms, including AWS and/or Azure
- Proficiency with Azure DevOps or a comparable CI/CD and release management platform
- Strong understanding of ITIL practices and change management
- Experience with project management methodologies and tools
- Experience with production change control, release approvals, go/no-go decisions, rollback planning, and incident response
- Knowledge of risk assessment and mitigation strategies
- Understanding of compliance and regulatory requirements
- Ability to coordinate release activities and communicate status, risks, and dependencies across technical and business stakeholders
Penn State University Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Penn State University and has not been reviewed or approved by Penn State University.
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Retirement Support — Employer contributions to SERS and the TIAA Alternate Plan are described as significant, with supplemental retirement options available. Feedback suggests these choices and contributions create strong long‑term value.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Full‑time employees accrue over 24 sick and vacation days annually, with additional university holidays and a winter break. Feedback suggests this depth of leave supports work–life balance.
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Inclusive Benefits Coverage — A 75% tuition discount extends to employees, spouses, and dependent children up to age 26 across resident instruction, World Campus, and Penn College courses. Feedback suggests this broad eligibility meaningfully enhances total rewards, especially for families.
Penn State University Insights
What We Do
There’s a reason Penn State consistently ranks among the top one percent of the world’s universities. Across 24 campuses, our nearly 88,000 students and 17,000 faculty and staff know the real measure of success goes beyond the classroom—it’s the positive impact made on communities across the world. From access to state-of-the-art resources to interdisciplinary pursuits in collaborative atmospheres, a Penn State degree is more than an education. The experiences and knowledge gained here will form the foundation for the lives our students build. Their contributions to the world begin with a Penn State degree. We Are Penn State.
