Release/Environment Manager

Koniag IT Systems, LLC a Koniag Government Services company, is seeking a Release/Environment Manager to support KITS and our government customer in Washington, DC. The position is hybrid, requires 1 day onsite. This position requires the candidate to be able to obtain a Public Trust.

We offer competitive compensation and an extraordinary benefits package including health, dental and vision insurance, 401K with company matching, flexible spending accounts, paid holidays, three weeks paid time off, and more.

The Release/Environment Manager is responsible for planning, coordinating, and managing the controlled release and deployment of application changes across Client's enterprise environment, and for maintaining the availability, integrity, and readiness of Client's non-production and production application environments. This individual serves as the central coordination point for all application release activities and environment management functions across the enterprise.

This role requires a disciplined, process-oriented professional with strong technical knowledge of enterprise application environments, release management methodologies, and environment lifecycle management practices. The Release / Environment Manager ensures that application changes move through the release pipeline in a controlled, well-documented, and low-risk manner, and that non-production environments are available, properly configured, and ready to support development, testing, and release activities at all times.

This individual must demonstrate strong organizational skills, deep familiarity with ITIL 4 release and change management practices, and the technical depth to coordinate complex, multi-system release activities across Client's on-premises and cloud environments.

Key Responsibilities:

Release Planning & Coordination

• Serve as the central coordinator for all application release activities across Client's enterprise environment, maintaining a current and accurate release calendar
• Lead release planning activities, including release scoping, scheduling, dependency mapping, and risk assessment for all planned application changes
• Coordinate with application teams, infrastructure teams, the Service Management Lead, and the Applications & Integration Lead on release planning and scheduling
• Develop and maintain release plans, deployment runbooks, and rollback procedures for all planned releases
• Facilitate release readiness reviews to validate that releases are fully prepared, tested, and approved prior to production deployment
• Maintain accurate release records, release calendars, and deployment documentation in the Government ITSM platform
• Coordinate with the Government COR and TPOC on release scheduling and approval activities as directed by the Applications & Integration Lead

Release Execution & Deployment Management:

• Coordinate and oversee execution of application releases across Client's enterprise environment, ensuring controlled and well-managed deployment
• Serve as the release execution coordinator during scheduled release windows, managing deployment activities, stakeholder communications, and real-time issue resolution
• Maintain on-call availability for scheduled release windows outside core business hours as needed to support release execution
• Monitor release execution progress, escalating issues to the Senior Application Operations Engineer or Applications & Integration Lead as appropriate
• Conduct post-release validation activities, including smoke testing coordination, monitoring review, and release closure documentation
• Maintain accurate post-release records, including deployment outcomes, issues encountered, and lessons learned in the Government ITSM platform
• Coordinate emergency release activities for critical fixes and high-priority changes in accordance with ITIL 4 emergency change procedures

Environment Management:

• Manage the availability, integrity, configuration, and readiness of Client's non-production application environments, including development, test, staging, and pre-production environments
• Maintain accurate environment inventory, configuration records, and status documentation for all managed environments
• Coordinate environment refresh, data masking, and configuration alignment activities to ensure non-production environments accurately reflect production configurations
• Monitor non-production environment health and availability, taking proactive action to address issues before they impact development and testing activities
• Manage environment access and user administration for non-production environments in coordination with the Microsoft Infrastructure and Infrastructure and Platform Operations teams
• Support environment provisioning and decommissioning activities in coordination with the Infrastructure and Platform Operations team
• Develop and maintain environment management standards, procedures, and runbooks

Release Pipeline & Automation Support:

• Support development and maintenance of release pipeline automation workflows in coordination with the Senior Application Operations Engineer and Integration / Middleware Engineer
• Coordinate with the Infrastructure and Platform Operations team on CI/CD pipeline infrastructure requirements and maintenance
• Support implementation of release automation improvements that reduce manual effort, improve deployment consistency, and decrease release risk
• Maintain accurate release pipeline documentation, automation workflow records, and pipeline configuration standards
• Monitor release pipeline performance and identify opportunities for improvement in coordination with the Applications & Integration Lead
• Support testing and validation of release pipeline automation changes prior to production use

Change Management Integration:

• Serve as the primary liaison between release management and the ITIL 4 change management process, ensuring all releases are properly documented and approved as change records
• Coordinate with the Service Management Lead on change advisory board (CAB) participation, change record management, and change approval activities for application releases
• Ensure all application release changes are accurately documented as standard, normal, or emergency change records in the Government ITSM platform
• Support development and maintenance of standard change templates for routine, low-risk application release activities
• Contribute to change management reporting, including change success rate tracking, failed change analysis, and release metrics
• Provide change and release data for Sprint metrics reporting, monthly performance dashboards, and continual improvement activities

Environment Configuration Management:

• Maintain accurate configuration management records for all managed environments, including environment topology, component versions, configuration baselines, and change history
• Support configuration management database (CMDB) accuracy for environment-related configuration items in the Government ITSM platform
• Conduct periodic environment configuration audits to validate that environment records accurately reflect the actual environment state
• Coordinate environment configuration change activities with the Infrastructure and Platform Operations team and application teams
• Develop and maintain environment configuration management standards and procedures
• Support FISMA assessment and authorization activities that require accurate environment configuration documentation

Stakeholder Communication & Coordination:

• Develop and distribute release communications to CLIENT stakeholders, including release schedules, maintenance window notifications, and post-release status updates
• Coordinate with the Customer Success / Service Delivery team on user-facing release communications and service adoption messaging
• Maintain a current and accurate release calendar that is visible and accessible to all relevant stakeholders
• Facilitate release coordination meetings, including pre-release planning sessions, release execution stand-ups, and post-release retrospectives
• Provide timely and accurate updates on release status, environment availability, and deployment outcomes to the Applications & Integration Lead and Contractor Program Manager
• Support Sprint Reviews and monthly reporting with accurate release and environment metrics and status information

Agile Delivery & Collaboration:

• Actively participate in Agile Sprint Planning, Daily Coordination, Sprint Reviews, and Retrospectives
• Maintain and contribute to the prioritized backlog for release and environment management work items
• Deliver committed Sprint work items at or above the 85% completion target
• Coordinate release activities with the Agile Sprint cadence, ensuring that release windows and environment management activities are aligned with Sprint boundaries and commitments
• Provide timely and accurate updates on release and environment management status, project progress, and upcoming activities to the Applications & Integration Lead
• Contribute actionable improvement recommendations to Sprint Retrospectives based on release and environment management observations and metrics

Required Qualifications:

Experience:

• Minimum 4-6 years of hands-on release management, environment management, or IT operations experience in an enterprise environment
• Demonstrated experience planning, coordinating, and executing application releases in a Federal or comparable enterprise environment
• Proven experience managing non-production application environments at enterprise scale
• Experience coordinating release activities across multiple application teams and infrastructure teams simultaneously
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipeline concepts and release automation in an enterprise environment
• Experience with ITIL 4 change and release management practices in a formal IT service management environment
• Demonstrated experience using a formal ITSM platform (e.g., ServiceNow) for release and change management activities
• Experience in a Federal or private-sector enterprise environment of comparable scale, complexity, and security posture

Technical Expertise:

• Solid proficiency in:
• Release planning, scheduling, and coordination for enterprise application portfolios
• Non-production environment management and lifecycle operations
• ITIL 4 release management, change management, and configuration management practices
• Release risk assessment, readiness review, and quality assurance
• Deployment runbook development and release documentation
• ITSM platform administration for release and change management workflows (e.g., ServiceNow)
• Release calendar management and stakeholder communication
• Environment configuration management and CMDB maintenance
• SaaS Platforms such as Salesforce, Mulesoft, Snowflake, etc.
• Working knowledge of:
• CI/CD pipeline concepts and release automation tools (e.g., Azure DevOps, Jenkins, GitHub Actions)
• Microsoft Azure Government and AWS environments as they relate to application deployment
• Application deployment methodologies (e.g., blue/green deployments, canary releases, rolling updates)
• FedRAMP requirements for change and release management in cloud environments
• Zero Trust Architecture principles as applied to environment access management
• NIST SP 800-53 security controls relevant to change and configuration management
• Data masking and data protection requirements for non-production environments
• Agile/Scrum delivery practices and integration with release management workflows

Additional preferred certifications:

• ITIL 4 Specialist: Deploy, Adopt, and Manage (DAM) or equivalent
• Microsoft Certified: Azure DevOps Engineer Expert (AZ-400)
• AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional
• Project Management Professional (PMP) or equivalent
• Certified Scrum Master (CSM) or equivalent

Our Equal Employment Opportunity Policy

The company is an equal opportunity employer. The company shall not discriminate against any employee or applicant because of race, color, religion, creed, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity (except where gender is a bona fide occupational qualification), national origin or ancestry, age, disability, citizenship, military/veteran status, marital status, genetic information or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. We are committed to equal employment opportunity in all decisions related to employment, promotion, wages, benefits, and all other privileges, terms, and conditions of employment.

The company is dedicated to seeking all qualified applicants. If you require an accommodation to navigate or apply for a position on our website, please get in touch with Heaven Wood via e-mail at accommodations@koniag-gs.com or by calling 703-488-9377 to request accommodations.

Koniag Government Services (KGS) is an Alaska Native Owned corporation supporting the values and traditions of our native communities through an agile employee and corporate culture that delivers Enterprise Solutions, Professional Services and Operational Management to Federal Government Agencies. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Koniag, we apply our proven commercial solutions to a deep knowledge of Defense and Civilian missions to provide forward leaning technical, professional, and operational solutions. KGS enables successful mission outcomes for our customers through solution-oriented business partnerships and a commitment to exceptional service delivery. We ensure long-term success with a continuous improvement approach while balancing the collective interests of our customers, employees, and native communities. For more information, please visit www.koniag-gs.com.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled. Shareholder Preference in accordance with Public Law 88-352