Release Manager

Greetings!

We are seeking an experienced Release Manager with a strong background in Banking and Financial Services (BFSI) to lead enterprise release operations on a 12+ month contract based in Toronto. In this role, your primary focus will be orchestrating release cycles across native/hybrid mobile platforms (iOS and Android) and Java enterprise backends, while supporting ongoing integration with modern AI-driven product capabilities.

Release Manager – Financial Services (Mobile & Java Platforms, AI Integration)

Location: Toronto, ON (Hybrid: 3 days onsite, 2 days remote per week)

Position Type: Contract (12+ Months)

You will partner closely with mobile engineering squads, core Java microservices teams, QA, security, and Change Advisory Boards (CAB) to guide critical customer-facing banking applications safely into production. The ideal candidate pairs deep knowledge of mobile app store release mechanics (Apple App Store / Google Play) and Java deployment pipelines with institutional banking governance, dynamic feature rollouts, and zero-downtime rollback strategies.

Key Responsibilities

• Direct end-to-end release cycles for customer-facing mobile applications (iOS/Android) alongside backend Java microservices, ensuring synchronized deployments between front-end interfaces and core banking APIs.
• Manage the operational submission and release pipeline through Apple App Store Connect and Google Play Console, coordinating review timelines, staged/phased rollouts, test flight distributions, and urgent hotfix releases.
• Coordinate deployment lifecycles for Java/Spring Boot enterprise backends, cloud infrastructure, and AI/ML model endpoints to prevent schema mismatches, version drift, and service downtime.
• Ensure every release package adheres strictly to institutional change management policies, segregation of duties, audit trails, and banking regulatory requirements.
• Lead release gate reviews, assess deployment risks across mobile binary updates and backend services, and author detailed contingency plans, feature-flag kill switches, and database/service rollback procedures.
• Maintain an agile, rapid release cadence for iterative product enhancements while safeguarding core transaction processing, mobile security, and strict uptime SLAs.
• Own the unified master release calendar, run operational war rooms during deployment windows, and deliver crisp, real-time status broadcasts to technical squads and executive stakeholders.
• Facilitate post-release retrospectives, analyze production telemetry and app store adoption curves, and collaborate with DevOps and MLOps teams to automate release pipelines.

What You Bring

• Mobile Release Expertise (Top Priority): Proven experience driving production releases for enterprise mobile applications across iOS and Android, including hands-on familiarity with App Store Connect, Google Play Console, phased rollouts, and mobile binary submission workflows.
• Java Enterprise Ecosystem: Strong familiarity with the deployment architecture of modern enterprise Java applications (Java/Spring Boot microservices, REST APIs, containerized workloads).
• Banking & Financial Services Domain: 5+ years of release or delivery management experience within BFSI, capital markets, retail banking, or wealth management, with practical expertise navigating ITIL/CAB change approval processes.
• AI & Platform Awareness: Direct exposure to coordinating releases for platforms incorporating AI/ML services, data pipelines, predictive models, or real-time streaming components alongside core transactional systems.
• Rollback & Deployment Strategies: Hands-on mastery of modern deployment patterns, including blue-green deployments, canary releases, staged rollouts, and feature flag gating (e.g., LaunchDarkly) for instant risk mitigation.
• CI/CD & Tooling Stack: Solid understanding of enterprise CI/CD tooling (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Fastlane, GitLab CI), ticket and change systems (Jira, ServiceNow), and enterprise cloud providers.
• Location & Presence: Based in the Greater Toronto Area and able to commute onsite 3 days per week to the downtown Toronto office.

Best Regards,