Location: Wokingham – Onsite (with travels if required)

Start date: ASAP

Contractor Rate: £400 per day inside IR35

Duration: 6 months initially

Clearance: Must be eligible for UK SC (active SC advantageous)

Role Summary

The Release Manager will lead network release activities and CNI cutovers, ensuring secure, well‑governed and high‑quality deployments across mission‑critical environments.

You’ll manage the release lifecycle, coordinate technical teams, and oversee complex network migrations while ensuring compliance with security, architecture and change‑control standards.

Responsibilities

* Manage end‑to‑end release and cutover planning for network/CNI changes

* Lead major cutovers including WAN/LAN, SD‑WAN, firewalls, routing and CNI migrations

* Coordinate readiness across network, security, testing, operations and change teams

* Run release reviews and Go/No‑Go decisions

* Oversee deployment execution, manage escalations and ensure accurate documentation

* Ensure alignment with security, architecture and ITIL change‑management processes

* Communicate release status and risks to project and operational stakeholders

Skills & Experience

* 5+ years as a Release Manager or Delivery Lead (network/infrastructure)

* Strong understanding of: WAN/LAN, SD‑WAN, routing (BGP/OSPF), firewalls, load balancers

* Knowledge of secure network zones/segmentation (CNI/OT/IT)

* Experience managing complex cutovers and multi‑vendor deployments

* Familiarity with CI/CD tools (Azure DevOps, Jenkins, GitLab) and ServiceNow/JIRA

* Strong communication, stakeholder management and problem‑solving skills

* Ability to lead confidently during high‑pressure deployment windows

SC Clearance Requirements

* 5 years’ continuous UK residency

* Clean criminal and financial history

* Ability to meet UK vetting standards
Active SC preferred but not essential