Release Manager - Remote - Outside IR35 at Solirius Limited, London, 3 Months, £Contract Rate

About Us:

Solirius Reply, part of the Reply Group, is a technology consultancy and digital transformation partner that helps organisations solve complex challenges through strategy, design, engineering, and delivery.

We work closely with our clients to deliver secure, accessible, user-focused services that evolve with their needs. By combining deep technical expertise with people-centred design, we create solutions that deliver meaningful, lasting impact.

Our consultants partner directly with client teams, embedding into organisations to understand their goals, challenges, and users. This collaborative approach enables us to deliver tailored solutions that drive measurable outcomes across public and private sectors.

Past and present clients include the Ministry of Justice, Department for Education, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, UEFA, International Olympic Committee, and Mercedes-Benz. Our services span the full digital delivery life cycle, including architecture, engineering, delivery management, user-centred design, business analysis, data, DevOps, and AI.

We operate as a collaborative and inclusive organisation that empowers our people to take ownership, innovate, and develop their expertise. As an equal opportunities employer, we are committed to encouraging equality, diversity, and social mobility, while creating opportunities for our teams to work on meaningful projects that deliver lasting impact.

About You:

You are a motivated and adaptable professional with a strong analytical mindset and a passion for using technology to solve real-world problems. You enjoy working in collaborative, agile teams and take pride in delivering high-quality solutions that make a tangible impact. With strong communication skills and a consultative approach, you're comfortable engaging with clients, understanding their needs, and translating them into effective outcomes.

Role Overview:

We are looking for an experienced Release Manager to oversee, plan, and execute complex technology releases.

The ideal candidate will bridge the gap between technical engineering and strategic stakeholder delivery. You will possess a strong technical background combined with client-facing consultancy skills, ITIL-aligned governance expertise, and proven experience navigating the complexities of central or local Government environments.

Key Responsibilities:

• Release Governance & Planning: Define, implement, and maintain the end-to-end release management life cycle across complex, multi-system environments with intricate dependencies.

• Technical & Stakeholder Advisory: Translate complex technical release dependencies into clear strategic risks and progress updates for non-technical stakeholders, senior leadership, and external partners.

• Cross-Functional Coordination: Collaborate closely with Technical Leads, Agile Delivery Leads, DevOps, QA, to align deployment windows and manage environment contention.

• Risk & Issue Mitigation: Proactively identify, track, and resolve release risks, blockers, and deployment conflicts prior to production deployment.

• Service Management Alignment: Enforce release readiness criteria (Go/No-Go gateways), post-implementation reviews, and rollback strategies in full alignment with ITIL Service Management standards.

• Public Sector Standard Compliance: Ensure all release governance, security, and change control practices adhere to Government Digital Service (GDS)/public sector frameworks and compliance guidelines.

Key Requirements:

Essential Experience

• Government/Public Sector Experience: Demonstrated track record of delivering technology projects or releases within Government departments, agency frameworks, or heavily regulated public environments.

• Complex Dependency Management: Proven expertise orchestrating multi-stream deployments involving Legacy platforms, cloud native solutions, and integrations.

• Consultancy & Stakeholder Management: Exceptional communication, advisory, and facilitation skills, with the ability to manage diverse senior stakeholders and drive consensus across multi-supplier ecosystems.

• ITIL Certification/Rigor: Formal training or certification in ITIL (v3 or ITIL 4 Framework), with practical experience in Change Management, Release & Deployment Management, and Service Transition.

Technical Background

• Tech Lead/Engineering Background: Prior hands-on background as a Tech Lead, Senior Developer, or Systems Architect, enabling you to challenge technical estimates, review deployment scripts/architecture, and engage directly with engineering teams on equal footing.

• CI/CD & Cloud Familiarity: Strong functional understanding of modern deployment pipelines, cloud environments (Azure), and automated testing strategies.