Salesforce Release Manager

Key Responsibilities

Release Planning & Execution

• Execute end-to-end release activities across Salesforce Service Cloud environments, ensuring timely, controlled, and high-quality deployments.
• Coordinate release schedules, deployment windows, and environment readiness activities with cross-functional teams.
• Manage deployments across development, QA, UAT, staging, and production environments.
• Support release cutover planning, deployment validation, rollback preparedness, and post-deployment verification activities.
• Ensure all release activities adhere to established release management processes and governance standards.
• Maintain deployment documentation, release records, implementation logs, and release calendars.

Salesforce Deployment Management

• Perform package creation, package validation, and package deployment activities.
• Support deployment of Salesforce metadata and configuration changes across environments.
• Validate deployment readiness by confirming code quality, test completion, approvals, and environment stability.
• Coordinate release dependencies and identify potential deployment risks prior to production releases.
• Support Salesforce seasonal release readiness planning and assess potential impacts to business applications and integrations.

Source Control & Branch Management

• Work closely with development teams to maintain effective source control practices.
• Support merge request reviews and facilitate resolution of merge conflicts.
• Perform branch management activities including:
• Cherry-picking changes
• Branch creation and maintenance
• Branch protection enforcement
• Release branch preparation
• Code promotion activities
• Promote Git best practices and maintain repository hygiene across teams.
• Ensure proper version control and traceability for all production-bound changes.

Process Improvement & DevOps Enablement

• Identify opportunities to improve release predictability, quality, automation, and governance.
• Contribute to the evolution of release management processes, standards, and best practices.
• Recommend improvements to deployment workflows, environment strategies, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Help establish repeatable and scalable release processes across teams.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives focused on reducing deployment risk and operational overhead.

CI/CD Pipeline Management

• Execute and monitor CI/CD pipelines within GitLab.
• Develop, maintain, and update YAML-based pipeline configurations as required.
• Troubleshoot pipeline failures and deployment issues.
• Partner with developers and platform teams to improve automation coverage and deployment reliability.
• Support continuous improvement of deployment automation processes to reduce manual effort and deployment risks.

Environment & Sandbox Management

• Manage Salesforce sandbox lifecycle activities including setup, refresh coordination, and configuration validation.
• Maintain environment inventory and usage plans across development and testing teams.
• Coordinate sandbox refresh activities and ensure environment readiness for project and support activities.
• Monitor environment health and address configuration inconsistencies that could impact testing or releases.
• Support environment provisioning and release readiness planning.

Change Management & Governance

• Represent release activities during Change Advisory Board (CAB) meetings.
• Present release scope, implementation plans, risk assessments, rollback strategies, and deployment schedules.
• Ensure change requests are complete, accurate, and aligned with organizational governance requirements.
• Coordinate approvals and stakeholder communications throughout the release lifecycle.
• Support audit and compliance requirements related to release management processes.

Support

• Troubleshoot deployment, environment, and production issues related to releases.
• Participate in release-related issues and root cause analysis activities.
• Support rapid issue triage and coordination during critical release events.
• Document lessons learned and recommendations following release incidents.
• Work collaboratively with support, development, and administrative teams to restore service and minimize business impact.

Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement

• Collaborate closely with the existing Release Manager and global delivery teams.
• Partner with developers, QA engineers, Salesforce administrators, architects, and support teams throughout the release lifecycle.
• Support knowledge sharing and adoption of release management best practices.
• Communicate deployment status, risks, dependencies, and blockers effectively to stakeholders.

Required Skills & Experience

• Proven experience in Release Engineering, DevOps, or Release Management roles.
• Hands-on experience supporting Salesforce Service Cloud release processes.
• Strong understanding of Salesforce deployment concepts and environment management.
• Experience with package creation and deployment activities.
• Strong working knowledge of Git source control and branching strategies.
• Experience resolving merge conflicts and supporting merge request workflows.
• Experience with:
• Cherry-picking
• Branch protection
• Release branch management
• Version control best practices
• Hands-on experience with GitLab and CI/CD pipeline execution.
• Experience maintaining and troubleshooting YAML-based pipeline configurations.
• Experience managing Salesforce sandboxes and environment refresh activities.
• Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a collaborative, distributed team environment.