Release Management Specialist

The Opportunity

This role provides leadership in representing the business unit IS audit/SOX activities, security reviews, disaster recovery, business continuity, and records management. In addition the role is responsible for overall business unit education of audit and compliance requirements, and providing management reporting.

Position Responsibilities:

Process Management

• Own and manage the end-to-end Release Management process, ensuring alignment with Global Release Management standards.
• Define workflows, maintain documentation, and oversee process compliance through regular audits.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to drive process efficiency and quality.
• Plan and deliver process training, support tools, and implement continuous improvements.
• Monitor and report on process performance through metrics and audits.
• Coordinate with DevOps teams to ensure process integration across the release lifecycle, aligning deployment practices with established workflows and governance standards.

Process Governance

• Plan, schedule, and control software rollouts across production environments.
• Ensure all release requirements are met before deployment and sign-off.
• Review and approve deployment plans to ensure alignment with release objectives, rollback strategies, and operational readiness.
• Govern release planning, scheduling, and execution, including risk mitigation and rollback strategies.
• Coordinate with change owners and key stakeholders (e.g., DevOps, QA, Security, and Application teams) to ensure release readiness, including validation of deployment plans, testing status, and risk assessments.
• Assess and manages risks that impede successful project delivery
• Maintain accurate release records, notes, and documentation.
• Participate in CAB and PCR meetings, and conduct post-deployment checks for all releases within MITDC.
• Generate and distribute release reports and metrics.

Additional Accountabilities :

• Provides oversight to ensure completeness and compliance to process of proposed changes.
• Reviews and approves all in scope changes within MITDC based on the process standards and best practices.
• Challenge proposed requests for change to ensure that the change is robust and that the impact on and risk to the organization is minimal.
• Provides effective and regular communication within the project team, stakeholders, sponsors and management.
• Identifies issues that impact delivery and escalate to management.
• Understands relationships between all ITIL processes and how it affects each other.
• Conduct Post Implementation Reviews (PIRs) after the implementation of changes

Key Relationships:

• The Release Manager will work closely with internal and external stakeholders at all levels, but with focus on MITDC Operations, Delivery and Engineering.
• The Release Manager will involve developing and maintaining close working relationships with other process owners/managers, delivery manager/staff, especially with the change management lead, continuous improvement lead and Information risk lead.
• The Release Manager will advise and support the management team in developing change policy in accordance with business requirements, responding to and providing tactical direction for business change when necessary.

Required Qualifications:

• 3-5 years of experience in IT Operations and/or IT Service Management.
• Working knowledge of Incident, Problem, and Change Management frameworks such as ITIL (v3 or higher).
• Bachelor's degree in Information Systems, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• Familiarity with process mapping and modeling techniques.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to collect, analyze, and interpret complex data.
• Ability to manage and perform multiple complex tasks as part of daily responsibilities.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, including Excel, PowerPoint, and Visio.
• Strong communication and presentation skills to effectively convey process changes and recommendations to stakeholders at all levels.
• Knowledge of Agile methodologies.
• Familiarity with ITSM tools, especially ServiceNow.
• Exposure to DevOps tools is a plus (e.g., Jenkins, Bitbucket/Git).
• Experience with reporting tools such as Power BI and Power Automate is a plus.

When you join our team:

• We'll empower you to learn and grow the career you want.

• We'll recognize and support you in a flexible environment where well-being and inclusion are more than just words.

• As part of our global team, we'll support you in shaping the future you want to see.

About Manulife and John Hancock

Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services provider, helping people make their decisions easier and lives better. To learn more about us, visit .

Manulife is an Equal Opportunity Employer

At Manulife/John Hancock, we embrace our diversity. We strive to attract, develop and retain a workforce that is as diverse as the customers we serve and to foster an inclusive work environment that embraces the strength of cultures and individuals. We are committed to fair recruitment, retention, advancement and compensation, and we administer all of our practices and programs without discrimination on the basis of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, religion or religious beliefs, creed, sex (including pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions), sexual orientation, genetic characteristics, veteran status, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, family status, disability, or any other ground protected by applicable law.

It is our priority to remove barriers to provide equal access to employment. A Human Resources representative will work with applicants who request a reasonable accommodation during the application process. All information shared during the accommodation request process will be stored and used in a manner that is consistent with applicable laws and Manulife/John Hancock policies. To request a reasonable accommodation in the application process, contact .

Working Arrangement

Hybrid