Job Description

Exostar is seeking a Director of Release Engineering to establish, scale, and lead this function from the ground up. This is a senior leadership position — not a process management or senior IC role. You will fundamentally reshape how Exostar approaches software delivery and operate as a peer to the Directors of DevOps, Engineering, Operations, and QA.

You will co-own the delivery architecture, drive cross-functional alignment, and build the governance frameworks that enable the entire organization to ship faster, more safely, and with full compliance auditability across a FedRAMP Moderate / CMMC Level 2 environment serving the Defense Industrial Base.

The CTO expects this leader to transform how change management and releases work at Exostar — building a function that carries the company through its next stage of growth. You will set strategy, influence peers without formal authority, and report outcomes directly to senior leadership.

Exceptional written and verbal communication is a baseline requirement. You surface risks before they become issues, set clear expectations early, and represent the release engineering function credibly with executive stakeholders, compliance auditors, and customers.

Responsibilities:

Your day if you join us:

Lead and Build the Function (50%)

• Define the org model for release engineering - centralized center of excellence vs. federated embedding - and evolve it as Exostar scales
• Mentor and grow release engineers and DevOps practitioners across the organization
• Act as a peer and strategic partner to Directors of DevOps, Engineering, Operations, and QA; align delivery strategy across all four functions
• Represent the release function in leadership forums; report on delivery health, risk posture, and improvement roadmaps to the CTO and executive team
• Manage outward Customer Communication

Define Strategy and Govern Delivery (30%)

• Own and evolve the enterprise release framework across all product teams and platforms; define how Exostar ships software at scale
• Establish risk-based change management aligned to CI/CD; define and govern standard, significant, and major change pathways
• Define Engineering Change Request (ECR) standards; ensure full traceability and auditability across all systems
• Facilitate Change Advisory Board (CAB) processes and governance gates; lead executive-level change review when required
• Set architecture standards for enterprise CI/CD pipelines; define approval gates, automated validation, and deployment patterns
• Partner with Exostar's ESO organization on compliance posture for release processes aligned to FedRAMP, NIST, and SOC2; own deployment evidence and audit trail strategy
• Eliminate release conflicts and deployment collisions; maintain portfolio-level visibility into schedules, risks, and production readiness

Drive AI-Assisted Transformation (20%)

• Lead adoption of AI-assisted release capabilities: predictive deployment health, automated rollback, anomaly detection, ECR generation, and release notes
• Champion LLM-powered workflow automation and documentation tooling across Engineering and DevOps
• Define, own, and report DORA metrics organization-wide: deployment frequency, change failure rate, MTTR, approval compliance, and audit readiness
• Identify systemic bottlenecks and influence organizational behavior through data-driven decision making and executive storytelling

Qualifications:

You are a great fit for this role if you:

• 10+ years in Release Management, DevOps, Software Delivery, or operational engineering leadership
• 5+ years in a formal leadership role managing teams - including hiring, developing, and retaining engineering talent
• Have a demonstrated track record leading release engineering transformation in a multi-team, enterprise SaaS environment
• Have deep expertise implementing change management and release governance at scale in regulated environments
• Working knowledge of FedRAMP, NIST, SOC2, or equivalent compliance frameworks applied to software delivery
• Have strong executive communication skills - written, verbal, and presentation - with experience reporting to C-suite and interfacing with auditors
• Have deep working knowledge of enterprise CI/CD platforms (Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Harness) and cloud deployment services across AWS, Azure, or GCP
• Have architectural fluency in Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, and Git branching strategies at scale
• S. Citizens only- Due to customer requirements, U.S. Citizenship is required. Ability to gain and maintain Trusted Role is required.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent professional experience

Location: Herndon, VA- Hybrid (3x/week)

Preferred Qualifications:

You are exactly who we are looking for if you:

• Have SaaS or regulated-industry experience in aerospace, defense, healthcare, or federal government
• Hold certifications in ITIL v4, PMP, AWS, Azure, Kubernetes, or equivalent DevOps leadership credentials
• Have driven AI-assisted delivery, platform engineering transformation, or DevOps modernization at scale
• Have prior budget ownership or P&L accountability for engineering tooling and vendor relationships
• Have hands-on experience in Azure Government or FedRAMP Authorized SaaS environments
• Have experience with AI-enhanced delivery platforms (Harness AI, LaunchDarkly) and LLM-powered release automation

Core Competencies:

• Organizational Leadership - Builds and develops high-performing teams; promotes from within and grows talent over time
• Strategic Ownership - Takes full accountability for the release engineering function, not just individual releases
• Cross-Functional Influence - Earns trust and drives alignment with peer Directors without formal authority
• Technical Credibility - Deep enough to architect solutions, challenge vendors, and hold engineers accountable
• Compliance Mindset - Builds audit-ready processes by default; understands FedRAMP and CMMC as engineering constraints, not blockers
• AI and Automation Drive - Actively reduces manual work and improves delivery quality through intelligent tooling
• Executive Communication - Translates delivery risk, DORA metrics, and release posture into clear narratives for senior leadership
• Calm Under Pressure - De-escalates during critical production events; decisive and grounded when it matters most

Why Exostar

• AI-native engineering org - Claude Code and Copilot are standard practice, not experiments; leadership uses them daily
• Real compliance stakes: FedRAMP Moderate, CMMC 110/110, Azure Gov multi-tenant SaaS - your governance work matters
• PE-backed (Arlington Capital Partners) with resources to invest and the urgency to execute
• Mission impact: securing collaboration infrastructure for the Defense Industrial Base

Exostar - The Company:

Exostar's cloud-based platforms create exclusive communities within the Aerospace and Defense, Life Sciences, and other highly regulated industries where members securely collaborate, share information, and operate compliantly. Within these communities we build trust. By analyzing community data, we provide insights and intelligence, enabling organizations to make better, timelier decisions, to mitigate risk, and operate more efficiently.

• We believe in employee development: we promote internally and provide training and educational assistance
• We provide a fun, engaged workplace, with social and community-building events
• We offer comprehensive benefits and flexible time off plans

Exostar is an Equal Opportunity Employment Employer. The company provides equal employment opportunities to all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, disability status or genetic information. Exostar is committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all persons in all facets of employment including recruiting, hiring, compensation, promotion, training, benefits, transfers and working conditions.