We are looking for an experienced Director of Release Management/ Technical Program Manager to lead and uplevel our release practices for a growing suite of SaaS products. This senior leadership role will be responsible for defining and implementing scalable release strategies, driving automation and efficiency, and ensuring the seamless deployment of software to production environments. The ideal candidate has 15+ years of experience in release management, a strong background in SaaS operations, and a proven ability to lead cross-functional teams at scale.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and execute a holistic release management strategy that aligns with business goals, ensuring reliable and high-quality software delivery.
• Lead and mentor a team of three release managers, fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and operational excellence.
• Develop and maintain a multi-product release calendar, coordinating release cycles across global teams to optimize delivery cadence and minimize downtime.
• Oversee the design and improvement of CI/CD pipelines and deployment automation frameworks, enhancing speed, reliability, and security.
• Collaborate with senior leaders across Product, Engineering, and Operations to define release policies, manage dependencies, and address risks proactively.
• Drive the adoption of metrics-driven practices by defining and monitoring release performance KPIs, such as lead times, failure rates, and mean time to recovery.
• Lead release readiness reviews and post-mortems, continuously improving processes to increase efficiency and reduce risk.
• Own change management processes, ensuring compliance with security and regulatory requirements while maintaining operational flexibility.
• Represent Release Management in executive planning sessions, communicating roadmap milestones, risks, and opportunities for improvement.
• Partner with DevOps and infrastructure teams to improve scalability, performance, and reliability.
• Work with engineering and product team to define a Release Tracking structure and cadence
• Partner with professional services, customers success, product, and engineering team to define a process for Customer Bug/Defect Tracking to impact defect burn down
• Establish portfolio wide process to Dependency Management. Work with product and engineering to drive the dependency tracking between projects
• Customer Commitment Management: Track the customer commitments and ensure they are delivered in time

Qualifications

Experience

• 15+ years of release management experience, with at least5 years in a leadership role within a SaaS company.
• Proven track record of leading complex, multi-product release programs at an enterprise scale.
• Extensive experience with Agile, DevOps, and CI/CD frameworks in cloud-based environments.

Technical Expertise

• Deep understanding of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
• Experience with containerization and orchestration tools (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Advanced knowledge of CI/CD tools (Jenkins, GitLab, Azure DevOps, or similar).
• Familiarity with automation and scripting languages (Python, Shell scripting).

Leadership and Soft Skills

• Exceptional strategic thinking and problem-solving skills, with a focus on operational excellence and continuous improvement.
• Outstanding communication and collaboration skills, capable of influencing at all levels of the organization.
• Proven ability to build and manage high-performing teams and foster a culture of innovation.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field; Master’s degree preferred.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with SaaS solutions for enterprise customers.
• Certifications in Agile, DevOps, or ITIL frameworks (e.g., SAFe, AWS DevOps Engineer).
• Experience with scaling release processes in a global, distributed environment.

Talkdesk is pioneering a new era of Customer Experience Automation (CXA), redefining how the world’s most admired brands interact with their customers through AI. Our global team of courageous innovators is customer-obsessed, building AI-first solutions that put empathy, trust, and transparency at the center of every interaction. We foster an inclusive culture where diverse perspectives drive our success and every voice belongs. Combining the stability of a global leader with the agility of a disruptor, Talkdeskers are empowered with the autonomy to drive meaningful impact, while giving back to the communities and environment around us.

Talkdesk has been recognized as a Leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) and in the G2 Overall Grid® Reports for AI Agents and Contact Center. With seven consecutive years on the Forbes Cloud 100 and multiple AI Breakthrough awards, there has never been a more exciting time to join us as we shape the future of customer experience automation!

Work Environment and Physical Requirements:

Primarily office-environment work, extended periods of sitting or standing, computer-based work. Limited lifting, and equipment usage limited to computer-related equipment (keyboards, mouse, etc.)

The Talkdesk story hinges on empathy and acceptance. It is the shared goal among all Talkdeskers to empower a new kind of customer hero through our innovative software solution, and we firmly believe that the best path to success for our mission is inclusivity, diversity, and genuine acceptance. To that end, we will hire, promote, work along, cheer for, bond with, and warmly welcome into the Talkdesk family all persons without regard to ethnic and racial identity, indigenous heritage, national origin, religion, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, marital status, veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected status.