Senior Release Manager
About the Role
As a Senior Release Manager at Agility Robotics, you'll own the end-to-end release process for our robot platform, ensuring seamless coordination across software, firmware, hardware, and field operations teams. You will triage the issues that decide whether a release ships, build the automation that makes releases repeatable, and instrument the release path so every release is measurable, observable, and reversible.
This role is ideal for someone who thrives at the intersection of technical execution and cross-functional leadership. You'll help establish release management as a capability that enables Agility Robotics to ship confidently and frequently while maintaining operational excellence in deployed customer environments.
About the Work
Release Planning & Execution
Define release scope, objectives, and timelines in collaboration with Product, Engineering, and Field Operations teams
Plan and run the release calendar for robot software, firmware, and cloud services, including major, minor, patch, and hotfix releases
Manage release cadence to balance rapid innovation with stability requirements for production deployments
Define entry and exit criteria, run release readiness reviews, and lead go/no-go decisions based on test and quality results from QA and V&V teams
Run blameless post-release reviews and drive root-cause follow-up
Release Process & Configuration Management
Establish and enforce standardized release processes including change control, version management, and release branching
Maintain configuration integrity across robot platforms and hardware variants
Define and maintain release policies, documentation standards, and traceability requirements so every release can be tied to what changed and who approved it
Partnership with the Issue Management team to ensure we have a release vehicle for upcoming issues that affect the fleet.
System Integration & Validation
Partner with Systems Engineering and Test teams to develop comprehensive validation strategies for each release
Ensure thorough integration testing across hardware-software-AI subsystems to validate functionality, performance, safety, and reliability
Coordinate field readiness assessments including deployment scenario validation and customer acceptance criteria
Drive cross-functional collaboration to resolve defects, integration issues, and regression failures
Release Improvements
Introduce release train models and standardized pipelines so releases are predictable and low-touch
Continuously remove manual steps, and measure the time and errors they cost and provide feedback to the Release Engineering team on how to make builds and releases more efficient.
Field Deployment & Operations Support
Plan staged OTA rollouts: internal fleet, canary sites, rollout rings, then general availability
Establish rollback criteria, automated rollback hooks, and contingency plans for production environments
Coordinate customer-site schedules and acceptance criteria to minimize operational disruption
Maintain incident playbooks and support incident response and post-deployment issue resolution
Release Instrumentation & Metrics
Establish and track key release metrics (cycle time, deployment frequency, change failure rate, defect escape rate, rollback frequency, update success rate, time to restore)
Instrument CI/CD, signing, artifact, and OTA pipelines so every stage is timed and traceable
Tag releases in telemetry, logging, and tracing systems so faults, crashes, and regressions map to a specific build
Build and maintain dashboards and alerts for engineering, product, operations, and support
About You
Experience
5+ years of release management experience for complex integrated systems involving hardware, firmware, and software
Proven track record managing releases in robotics, autonomous systems, automotive, aerospace, or similar hardware-software domains
Experience coordinating cross-functional teams through complex product development and deployment cycles
Demonstrated ability to operate effectively in fast-paced, high-growth environments with evolving requirements
Technical Skills
Hands-on experience building release automation, CI/CD pipelines, and deployment orchestration (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Buildkite)
Strong understanding of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), configuration management, and version control best practices
Experience with version control (Git) and issue tracking (Jira, GitHub), including severity-based triage and release criteria
Experience instrumenting delivery and fleet health with observability tools (e.g., Prometheus/Grafana, OpenTelemetry, Foxglove, Datadog, Sentry)
Proficiency in scripting languages (Python, Bash/Shell) for automation and data analysis
Domain Knowledge
OTA and fleet deployment: Experience with OTA updates, versioning, canary and ring-based rollouts, rollback design, and fleet state tracking
Understanding of release dependencies across software, firmware, and hardware variants
Familiarity with release health metrics and defining SLIs/SLOs for deployed devices
Mindset & Traits
Ownership mentality - takes initiative, drives closure, and delivers results
Strong technical communication skills - able to translate between engineering teams and business stakeholders
Proven ability to influence without authority and drive alignment across diverse teams
Data-driven decision-making approach with strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities
Resourceful and comfortable with ambiguity- brings clarity through structure and action
Bonus Points
Experience in robotics, autonomous vehicles, or advanced manufacturing automation
Familiarity with ROS 2 and its build and packaging tooling
Experience implementing release train models in hardware-software systems
Experience with automated release note generation and artifact management
Experience with artifact signing and secure update chains
Experience with containerization (Docker)
Experience triaging fleet issues and driving root-cause analysis with software teams
Why Join Agility Robotics?
Define release management practices for a real-world robotics platform
Direct impact on customer success through reliable, high-quality product releases
Work at the cutting edge of robotics in a fast-moving, highly collaborative environment where your contributions will have immediate impact
Shape operational excellence: Help build release automation and deployment processes from the ground up
Professional growth: Work with world-class robotics and engineering talent
Location
This is a fully remote role with the option to work hybrid if a commutable distance from our Salem, OR, Pittsburgh, PA, or Fremont, CA offices.
The final salary offered to a successful candidate will be dependent on several factors that may include but are not limited to: market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. This range may change based on geographical location and may be modified in the future.
Anticipated Base Salary Range
$128,000—$199,000 USD