Release Manager

Key Responsibilities

Release Planning & Scheduling

Own and maintain the release calendar, aligning studio priorities, testing milestones, and external deadlines.

Track release scope, dependencies, and risks using JIRA.

Partner with the QA Manager to ensure test phases, certification, and sign-off are fully integrated into release plans.

Build & Deployment Management

Manage release build pipelines, ensuring stable, validated builds are delivered to internal teams and external platforms.

Oversee store submissions and full store propagation across Apple App Store, Google Play, and other distribution channels.

Ensure compliance with platform guidelines, submission requirements, and versioning standards.

Identify, track, and resolve build, environment, or deployment blockers.

Quality Assurance & Release Reporting

Work closely with QA teams using TestRail to validate release readiness, including regression, performance, and compliance testing.

Produce clear, professional release reports for stakeholders, covering test coverage, risk assessments, and go/no-go status.

Ensure rollback, hotfix, and recovery procedures are defined and ready when required.

Localisation Management

Coordinate localisation testing and sign-off across all supported languages and regions.

Ensure translated content is accurate, culturally appropriate, and fully integrated into release builds.

Partner with QA and localisation vendors to validate functionality and user experience across locales.

Incident Management & Communication

Monitor releases during submission and launch windows, providing real-time incident reporting to relevant stakeholders.

Communicate incident impact, mitigation actions, and resolution timelines clearly and concisely.

Maintain incident logs and contribute to post-mortems and root-cause analysis.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Act as the primary point of contact for release status and readiness across development, QA, and leadership teams.

Facilitate release reviews and retrospectives to capture lessons learned and improve processes.

Ensure consistent, transparent communication throughout the release lifecycle.

External & Compliance Oversight

Coordinate with third-party partners (e.g. cybersecurity, audit, or holding group teams) to meet compliance and security requirements.

Monitor changes to platform policies (Apple, Google) and adapt release practices accordingly.

Continuous Improvement

Drive efficiency and reliability through automation and CI/CD improvements.

Champion best practices to reduce release cycle times and improve release quality.

Maintain up-to-date documentation for release processes, standards, and compliance requirements.