IT Change and Release Manager

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UK Research and Innovation

Salary: £56,745 to £72,509 per annum dependent on skills and experience (this may include allowances).
Hours: Full time
Contract Type: Open Ended.
Location: Polaris House, Swindon or Keyworth Nottingham (Hybrid working available)

Closing date Sunday 19th January 2025

About us

The UKRI CIO Group plays a pivotal role in managing and optimising the organisations critical enterprise technical services that underpin and enable UKRI's business capabilities. Within the group a team of Service Delivery professionals support the delivery of modern, secure, resilient and scalable services across a larger federated team of Digital, Data and Technology professionals to deliver impact across the organisation and the wider UK research and innovation system.

Purpose

This post provides a rare opportunity for an experienced Service delivery professional to step into a lead planning and operations role in an organisation at the heart of research and innovation in the UK. Working as part of a team of technical specialists, and reporting directly to the Head of Service Delivery, your broad remit is to ensures that technical changes to IT services are adequately assessed for impact, prioritised, scheduled, authorised and implemented. They ensure this is done in line with processes and using appropriate tools.

Main outputs and activities

• Evaluating Current Processes: Assessing the existing release processes for gaps, inefficiencies, or risks and developing mitigation plans
• Planning and Coordination: Planning, coordinating, and managing releases across development, testing, and production environments, ensuring communication channels for release updates, risks, and issues
• Documentation and Tools Audit: Auditing existing documentation and tools for release management processes and ensuring alignment with organizational goals
• Stakeholder Communication: Communicating with various stakeholders, including product management, DevOps, developers, and QA teams, to understand dependencies and ensure smooth releases
• Release Scheduling: Developing and managing release schedules, coordinating with various teams to ensure timely delivery
• Deployment Management: Producing deployment run books and implementation plans, maintaining a release repository with key information such as build and release procedures, dependencies, and notification lists
• Process Improvement: Working towards improving the release process, conducting release readiness reviews, and business go/no-go reviews
• Risk Management: Conducting risk assessments to identify potential issues and evaluating the benefits versus the costs of changes
• Change Management: Managing the entire lifecycle of all changes, facilitating beneficial changes with minimal disruption to business operations
• Compliance and Reporting: Ensuring SLAs and KPIs are well designed and properly reported to senior teams, and maintaining compliance with organizational standards

Shortlisting criteria

Applicants will be able to demonstrate skills in line with the Change and release manager level using the Government Digital and Data Professional Capability Framework

(S) - Assessed at shortlisting

(I) - Assessed at interview

(S&I) - Assessed at both shortlisting and interview

Essential:

• Demonstrated extensive experience in managing IT change and release processes, ensuring seamless transitions and minimal disruption to business operations. (S)
• Advanced certification in ITIL 4, showcasing a deep understanding of IT service management principles and practices. (S)
• Proven expertise in working within Agile environments, enabling quick adaptation to changes and efficient project delivery. (I)
• Outstanding ability to communicate effectively with diverse stakeholders, including product management, DevOps, developers, and QA teams, ensuring clear and consistent messaging. (S&I)
• Strong skills in conducting thorough risk assessments, identifying potential issues, and developing robust mitigation plans.(I)
• In-depth knowledge of CI/CD pipelines, workflows, and other release management tools, ensuring technical excellence in release processes.(S&I)
• Exceptional documentation and reporting skills, with a keen eye for auditing existing documentation and tools for release management processes. (I)
• Ability to strategically manage dependencies between different teams, ensuring smooth coordination and collaboration.(S)
• Demonstrated commitment to continuous improvement of release processes, conducting release readiness reviews, and business go/no-go reviews.(S&I)
• Ensuring SLAs and KPIs are meticulously designed and accurately reported to senior leaders, maintaining strict compliance with organisational standards (I)

Desirable: (optional)

• Kubernetes or Docker Certification (S)
• Strong scripting knowledge (e.g., Python). (S)
• Experience of working in a Public Sector Organisation (S)

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field. (S)
• AWS/Azure Certified DevOps Engineer. (S)
• ITIL Certification (S)

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process at Grade 7:

• Managing a quality service
• Changing and improving
• Making effective decisions
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Delivering at pace

About UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

UKRI launched in April 2018, UKRI is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).

Our organisation brings together the seven disciplinary research councils, Research England, which is responsible for supporting research and knowledge exchange at higher education institutions in England, and the UK's innovation agency, Innovate UK. Together we build an independent organisation with a strong voice and vision to ensure the UK maintains its world-leading position in research and innovation. More information can be found at www.ukri.org.

Choosing to come to work at UKRI means that you will have access to a whole host of benefits from a defined benefit pension scheme, excellent holiday entitlement, access to employee shopping/travel discounts and salary sacrifice cycle to work scheme. For more details, visit Benefits of working for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

The role holder will be required to have the appropriate level of security screening/vetting required for the role. UKRI reserves the right to run or re-run security clearance as required during the course of employment.

How we support EDI in the workforce

At UKRI, we believe that everyone has a right to be treated with dignity and respect, and to be provided with equal opportunities to thrive and succeed in an environment that enables them to do so. We also value diversity of thought and experience within inclusive groups, organisations and the wider community. For further information, please visit 'How we support EDI in the workforce'.

Disability Confident Employer

As users of the disability confident scheme, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the vacancy/ies. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

How to apply

Online applications only preferred for this role. Please submit a CV and covering letter which clearly outlines how you fulfil the criteria specified along with your motivation for UKRI and the role. Ensure that the job reference number is included in the filename description of each document uploaded. Note that failure to address the above criteria or submit an application without a covering letter may result in the application not being considered. Assessment will only be based upon the content of your submitted covering letter and CV and not the 'experience' section of the application.

UKRI seeks to ensure it creates and maintains a system of openness, fairness and inclusion - a collaborative, trusted environment, which is attractive to and accessible to everyone who is interested in developing their career with us.