Director, Service and Release Management

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, develop, and hold accountable a team of SDMOs, Project Managers, and Release Managers across the Global Services portfolio.
• Define career development paths and capability-building plans for each function; actively grow internal talent.
• Set consistent performance expectations, escalation standards, and ways of working across the team.
• Ensure appropriate span of control and program coverage; identify and address resourcing gaps.
• Serve as the senior operational leader bridging delivery execution with customer and customer-facing teams across all regions.
• Represent the Service and Release Management function in customer operational forums, executive briefings, and QBR preparation when senior operational leadership is required.
• Own the maturity roadmap for Service Delivery, Project Management, and Release Management, defining where the functions need to be and driving a structured path to get there.
• Own the forward release and change calendar for Global Services, maintaining a rolling 3-6-month view of planned changes, upgrades, and releases across all programs and environments.
• Own capacity and impact planning for the Service and Release Management function, ensuring the team has the headroom to manage programs, releases, and escalations without compromising quality or customer commitments.
• Build and maintain strong working relationships with Global Tech Ops, Customer Success Operations, Technical Account Management, Business Analysis, and Financial Services.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in IT, Engineering, Operations, Business, or a related discipline (or equivalent experience)
• 10+ years' experience in service delivery, program management, or technology operations roles within complex, enterprise environments
• 5+ years in a senior leadership role managing multi-disciplinary operational or delivery teams
• Demonstrated success leading delivery and operations functions through a maturity uplift, establishing process, governance, and execution standards where they previously lacked consistency
• Proven ability to lead release governance, delivery planning, and operational readiness across lower and production environments in high-availability, mission-critical settings
• Experience coordinating delivery across engineering, infrastructure, operations, and third-party vendors in a matrixed organization
• Strong track record of working directly with customers and customer-facing teams, with the executive presence to represent operational complexity credibly at senior levels and manage high-stakes escalations with clarity and composure
• Experience in transit, payments, public-sector technology, or regulated, high-availability managed services
• Exposure to compliance frameworks such as PCI DSS, ISO 27001, or similar, and their implications for release and change governance
• Familiarity with cloud-based infrastructure delivery (e.g., AWS, Azure) and its operational implications
• Experience operating within global service organizations with teams and customers across NAM, EMEA, and APAC
• Background working alongside or within a Centre of Excellence (CoE) model for service delivery standards