We’re looking for an experienced Release Manager to take end-to-end ownership of vendor-led releases, patches and technology changes across our HR, payroll and wider people technology landscape.
Working across Technology, People teams, suppliers and operational stakeholders, you’ll bring together the moving parts of complex releases, ensuring integrations, dependencies, testing, approvals and deployment are effectively planned and managed.
You’ll have experience working with enterprise HR and/or payroll platforms, whether that’s Dayforce, Oracle, SAP or similar. We’re not looking for expertise in one specific system. What matters is that you understand how these environments connect, where risks and dependencies can arise and, importantly, you know the right questions to ask.
Role: Release Manager
Contract Type: Full time, Permanent
Location: Whitbread Court, Dunstable (Hybrid, 3 days per week)
Why You’ll Love It Here
Check out all our benefits here: https://www.whitbreadcareers.com/about-us/benefits/
What you’ll be doing:
Own the release from start to finish by coordinating the end-to-end release lifecycle, bringing together vendor releases, patches and internal technology changes from initial planning through to successful deployment.
Join the dots across systems and integrations and working closely with technical teams and suppliers to understand how changes connect, identifying dependencies, integration impacts and potential risks before they become issues.
Keep our suppliers on track by working side by side with our third-party vendors and technology partners, asking the right questions, challenging where needed and ensuring commitments, quality and timelines are met.
Make sure we’re ready to release by bringing together testing, assurance, approvals, deployment and rollback plans, ensuring releases are delivered safely and with minimal disruption.
Connect technology and the business as you’ll turn complex technical and vendor information into clear updates, keeping stakeholders informed of progress, risks and key decisions.
Learn from every release by working with teams to understand issues, incidents and lessons learned, turning these into practical improvements for future releases.
What you’ll need:
Strong end-to-end release management experience within complex technology environments.
Experience working with enterprise HR and/or payroll platforms, such as Dayforce, Oracle, SAP or equivalent.
A strong understanding of systems integration and dependencies, with the ability to identify impacts and risks across connected systems.
Strong vendor and supplier management experience, with the confidence to challenge constructively and drive delivery.
Experience of planning, managing and coordinating multiple environment releases across development, test, staging and production environments.
Good knowledge of ITIL-based change management and governance, including risk, approvals and Change Advisory Board processes.
Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technical information and keep technical and business teams aligned.
Be part of our Technology Team at Whitbread
Through collaboration, passion and hiring the smartest minds, our Technology team builds products and services that are used by 38,000 of us at Whitbread and millions of guests. Everything from an eCommerce website that handles £2 billion in transactions per year, applications that are scalable across our 1,200 hotel and restaurants, devices that enable our teams and guests to have a seamless experience, all whilst keeping data secure. Together we’re building the hotel of the future.
Whitbread PLC is the owner of the UK’s favourite hotel chain, Premier Inn, as well as restaurant brands, Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Table Table, Bar + Block and Cookhouse and Pub.
Whitbread employs more than 35,000 people in more than 1,200 Premier Inn hotels and restaurants across the UK and Germany, serving over five million customers every month.
At Whitbread we are committed to being a force for good in the communities in which we operate. Our Sustainability programme, ‘Force for Good’ is focused on enabling people to live and work well and is built around three pillars of Opportunity, Community and Responsibility.
Whitbread PLC is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100. It is also a member of the FTSE4Good Index.
