Principal Release Engineer

Job Summary

As a Principal Software Release Engineer, you will define, own, and continuously improve the end-to-end release lifecycle for software delivered across cloud-service and storage-platform environments. You will coordinate release planning, build generation, readiness validation, change approvals, deployment execution, status reporting, and post-release follow-through while progressively replacing manual handoffs with reliable automation and clear engineering controls.

Job Requirements

Own the end-to-end software release lifecycle, from release intake and planning through build, validation, approval, deployment, verification, and closure.
Plan and coordinate concurrent releases across development, test, staging, and production environments, maintaining clear schedules, dependencies, milestones, owners, and decision points.
Design, maintain, and improve CI/CD and release automation that reduces manual steps, accelerates delivery, and provides repeatable, auditable outcomes.
Partner with development and quality teams to confirm required test coverage, regression results, performance validation, and environment readiness; escalate gaps that could compromise release quality.
Lead response to build or deployment failures by rapidly coordinating triage, clarifying ownership, documenting the failure path, and ensuring the correct new release, hotfix, retry, rollback, or recovery workflow is initiated.
Conduct post-release reviews and convert lessons learned into improved tooling, templates, quality gates, automation, and release policy.
Mentor engineers and release participants on release processes, tools, quality expectations, change controls, and failure-recovery practices.

Job Requirements

12+ years of software engineering, DevOps, build and release engineering, site reliability engineering, or production engineering experience, including technical leadership for complex, business-critical software releases.
Demonstrated experience managing the full release lifecycle for production software or cloud services across multiple environments and teams.
Hands-on experience with CI/CD systems, build automation, source control, branching and versioning strategies, artifact management, and deployment pipelines.
Proficiency in one or more scripting or programming languages such as Python, PowerShell, Bash, Go, or similar languages used for release automation.
Experience with Azure DevOps, Git, Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, or comparable build, release, and work-tracking platforms.
Ability to analyze release risks using defect data, test evidence, dependencies, configuration changes, and operational impact rather than relying only on schedule readiness.
Strong troubleshooting skills with the ability to isolate build, pipeline, configuration, environment, and deployment issues under time pressure.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including concise executive status, detailed technical handoffs, and decision-focused escalation.
High attention to detail, disciplined follow-through, and the ability to manage multiple releases and priorities without losing traceability or control.

Education

IC - Typically requires a minimum of 15 years of related experience.Mgr & Exec - Typically requires a minimum of 10 years of related experience.