Excellus BlueCross BlueShield
Job Title:
Release Engineer I
Job Location:
Rochester, Syracuse or Utica
Number of
Openings:
1
Job Description:
The Release Engineer owns the cross-technology domain release management process, and is responsible for process design, optimization and policy. Release Management oversees the overall process by which the production environment is updated,upgraded and maintained. This includes all types of changes across facilities, infrastructure (hardware and software),
applications and operations. The Release Engineer is the major liaison between application development and production for release management control.
Essential Responsibilities/Accountabilities Level I
• Oversees release changes into production through controlled promotion processes and documented support procedures, with supervision.
• Assists in an advisory level, interacting with IT and line-of-business management--with the ability to deliver communication succinctly and clearly to both.
• Provides artifacts for release activities.
• Provides technical and administrative direction and oversight for the life cycle of release items.
• Creates and provides release status reports containing current and historical data connected with and related to production release items.
• Consistently demonstrates high standards of integrity by supporting the Lifetime Healthcare Companies’ mission and values and adhering to the Corporate Code of Conduct.
• Maintains high regard for member privacy in accordance with the corporate privacy policies and procedures.
• Regular and reliable attendance is expected and required. • Performs other functions as assigned by management.
Level II- In addition to level I responsibilities:
• Works closely with change managers, the program management office, project managers and the change advisory board to plan releases and manage the releases schedule, taking into consideration project mandates and associated business and
technical risks.
• Formalizes and oversees a release plan that includes all work approved for deployment (Projects, SR's, Help Desk Tickets, etc.) within a corporate release. Develops the Release schedule of deployment activities, including touch base conference calls, creates the message and artifacts for corporate communications and reports the upcoming plan as well as after-Release results to the Change Control Board (CCB). Oversees release changes into production through controlled promotion processes and
documented support procedures.
• Oversees exception requests looking to deploy into production outside of a corporate release and prepares for controlled promotion processes and documented support procedures.
• Removes project/item from being deployed into production when release plans are not met, and works with the business process owner, application owner, change manager, project management office and others to reschedule.
• Operates at an advisory level, consistently interacting with IT and line-of-business senior management--with the ability to deliver communication succinctly and clearly to both with supervision review.
• Reviews release items for quality, ensuring artifacts and documentation is provided for coding and testing activities and any possible code contention within the Release Management
Process.
• Consults with production teams on implementing release management, conducting audits to address failures and meet policy.
• Applies technical and administrative direction and oversight for the life cycle of release items with supervision.
• Provides support to and consults on, release management issues with enterprise divisions and subsidiaries with supervision. • Creates and provides release status reports containing current and historical data connected with and related to production release items.
• Acts as a liaison between other process managers (for example, problem incident and change) to ensure process alignment.
• Assists in coordinating cross-domain release processes between development and production.
• Develops, Governs and Trains on workflow tool. This includes providing support to the users and on-going maintenance. Level III- In addition to level II responsibilities:
• Oversees release changes into production through controlled promotion processes or documented support procedures. As much as possible improves the configuration changes/updates to the production environment to promote efficiency and consistency.
consistently interacting with IT and line-of-business senior
management--with the ability to deliver communication succinctly and clearly to both.
• Coordinates release activities designed to provide cross- domain visibility of release items for subcontractors and
customers, for complex and multiple environments.
• Provides support to and consults on, release management issues with enterprise divisions and subsidiaries.
• Defines release management process objectives and policies for cross-domain configuration integration, testing, completeness and consistency.
• Communicates release management objectives, concepts and policies internally and externally across all IT domains and to the business, when appropriate.
• Creates and tracks the release improvement process to be applied across all IT domains as well as develops and maintains documentation of release process and knowledge base.
• Provides expertise in the design, maintenance and delivery of training for release management, including a strong focus on processes for maintaining communication with other groups. • Researches, reviews and analyzes the effectiveness and efficiency of procedures, and develops strategies for enhancing the processes. Utilizing industry best practices of IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) would be a plus.
• Initiates new projects related to release management (for example, tool selection) and acts as the overseer once the project is under way.
• Handles more critical and complex releases with broader technical and business scope.
• Captures and builds product source code for deployment plan.
• Maintains and updates build deployment scripts to support environment technology and configuration changes.
• Coordinates configuration changes for more complex and multiple environments.
• Develops and maintains documentation of release process and knowledge base
• Executes, Governs and Trains processes in workflow tools. This includes providing support to the users and on-going
maintenance.
Job Requirements:
Level I• Associates degree, preferably in Computer Science, Information Technology or relevant field (or two to four years in related work experience in lieu of degree), Bachelor's degree preferred.
• Related work experience (i.e. Co-Ops/Internships) preferred.
• Ability to use Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Visio applications.
Level II- In addition to level I qualifications:
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology or relevant field (or four years related work experience in lieu of bachelors).
• Three years related work experience, in Release Management preferred.
• Demonstrated skills in developing and achieving release scope, costs and planning.
• Very strong analytical and business process development skills.
• Demonstrated skills in quality principles especially root cause analysis and business and technical problem solving. • Demonstrated skills in forming and fostering high performance, cross-functional teams.
• Demonstrated Skills in implementing application and process solutions utilizing SDLC
• ITIL v3 (foundation or manager's level) a plus.
• Demonstrated knowledge of SDLC's (Knowledge with Microsoft Solution Framework and Agile - SCRUM methodology a plus).
• Demonstrated delivery/deployment of both large-scale Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) applications and custom developed applications.
Level III- In addition to level II qualifications:
• Five years related work experience, preferably in Release Management.
• Lean Six Sigma Certification Required.
• ITIL v3 (Expert or Master’s level) would be a plus.
Physical Requirements
• This position requires candidate to be available on scheduled weekends and nights that coincide with Release activity.
• Ability to travel across regions.
In support of the Americans with Disabilities Act, this job description lists only those responsibilities and qualifications deemed essential to the position.
Equal Opportunity Employer
