Release Management Associate Director

Associate Director, Release Execution Management & AI Transformation

Are you ready to make an impact at DTCC? Do you want to work on innovative projects, collaborate with a dynamic and supportive team, and receive investment in your professional development? At DTCC, we are at the forefront of innovation in the financial markets. We are committed to helping our employees grow and succeed. We believe that you have the skills and drive to make a real impact. We foster a thriving internal community and are committed to creating a workplace that looks like the world that we serve. The Information Technology group delivers secure, reliable technology solutions that enable DTCC to be the trusted infrastructure of the global capital markets. The team delivers high-quality information through activities that include development of essential, building infrastructure capabilities to meet client needs and implementing data standards and governance.

Pay and Benefits:

• Competitive compensation, including base pay and annual incentive
• Comprehensive health and life insurance and well-being benefits, based on location
• Pension / Retirement benefits
• Paid Time Off and Personal/Family Care, and other leaves of absence when needed to support your physical, financial, and emotional well-being.
• DTCC offers a flexible/hybrid model of 3 days onsite and 2 days remote (onsite Tuesdays, Wednesdays and a third day unique to each team or employee).

The Impact you will have in this role:

The Associate Director, Release Execution Management & AI Transformation is responsible for leading enterprise release management operations, governance, compliance, and technology transformation initiatives. This role oversees teams supporting release execution, platform modernization, cloud migration programs, audit activities, and continuous process improvement efforts.

The successful candidate will serve as a strategic leader responsible for modernizing release and change management through the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI), automation, predictive analytics, and intelligent workflow orchestration. This individual will partner across Engineering, Infrastructure, Security, Risk, and Operations teams to drive operational excellence, reduce delivery risk, improve release velocity, and advance AI-enabled change and release management capabilities across the enterprise.

Your Primary Responsibilities:

• Lead enterprise Release Execution operations, ensuring the successful planning, coordination, and deployment of technology releases across distributed, cloud, and mainframe environments.
• Drive modernization of release management practices through AI-driven release intelligence, predictive risk assessment, automated validation, and intelligent release scheduling.
• Partner with application, infrastructure, cloud, security, and business teams to ensure high-quality, low-risk releases that support organizational objectives.
• Define release governance strategies that balance speed, stability, risk management, and compliance.
• Establish data-driven KPIs and operational metrics to continuously improve release quality, deployment success rates, and developer productivity.
• Lead the organization's AI-enabled Release Management strategy and roadmap.
• Identify opportunities to leverage Generative AI, machine learning, predictive analytics, and intelligent automation to optimize release and change processes.
• Drive implementation of AI-powered capabilities including:
• Release risk prediction
• Automated impact analysis
• Change recommendation engines
• Intelligent approval workflows
• Automated audit evidence collection
• Root cause analysis and trend identification
• Partner with enterprise AI, DevOps, and Platform Engineering teams to integrate AI capabilities into release workflows and governance processes.
• Evaluate emerging AI technologies and industry best practices to improve operational efficiency and decision-making.
• Measure and track business outcomes from AI initiatives, including reduction in manual effort, improved compliance, faster release delivery, and reduced operational risk.
• Lead audit readiness initiatives, ensuring accurate and timely collection of evidence for internal audits, external audits, and Management Control Testing (MCT).
• Leverage automation and AI-assisted controls to improve audit efficiency and governance effectiveness.
• Ensure release and change management processes comply with regulatory, security, and enterprise governance requirements.
• Partner with Risk, Compliance, and Audit organizations to remediate findings and strengthen control frameworks.
• Develop reporting and dashboards that provide risk visibility and compliance insights to leadership.
• Lead global teams supporting release management operations, governance activities, modernization initiatives, and AI transformation programs.
• Manage staffing, capacity planning, consultant utilization, and project prioritization.
• Build a culture of innovation, continuous improvement, and operational excellence.
• Coach and mentor employees, fostering growth in automation, AI literacy, cloud technologies, and modern release management practices.
• Develop succession plans and career development opportunities for team members.
• Lead resources supporting distributed platform modernization and cloud transformation initiatives.
• Collaborate with Engineering and DevOps teams to integrate CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and automated deployment pipelines into release governance processes.
• Drive adoption of release automation, deployment analytics, and intelligent operational tooling.
• Establish release strategies that support hybrid cloud and multi-platform environments.
• Partner with cloud migration teams to ensure effective governance, risk management, and operational readiness throughout transformation programs.
• Serve as business owner for Mainframe ChangeMan and associated release management capabilities.
• Lead modernization efforts that integrate traditional release management platforms with enterprise automation and AI solutions.
• Manage upgrades, enhancements, operational stability, and strategic roadmap planning for the ChangeMan environment.
• Drive continuous improvements in release quality, deployment efficiency, and operational resilience.
• Define standards and governance for ServiceNow release and change management workflows.
• Drive automation and AI enhancement opportunities within ServiceNow processes.
• Partner with stakeholders to improve workflow efficiency, user experience, and governance effectiveness.
• Support implementation of intelligent workflow capabilities, automated approvals, and predictive change management features.
• Manage strategic technology vendors, consultants, and service providers supporting release management and transformation initiatives.
• Evaluate AI, automation, DevOps, and operational tooling vendors against organizational objectives.
• Ensure external partners deliver measurable business value and support enterprise transformation goals.
• Lead contract planning, renewals, forecasting, and vendor performance management activities.

Qualifications:

• Minimum of 8 years of related experience
• Bachelor's degree preferred or equivalent experience

Talents Needed for Success:

• 8+ years of experience in Release Management, Change Management, DevOps, Technology Operations, Platform Engineering, or similar disciplines.
• 5+ years of leadership experience managing employees, consultants, and cross-functional technology teams.
• Experience implementing automation, AI, machine learning, or intelligent workflow solutions within technology operations environments.
• Experience driving cloud transformation, DevOps, CI/CD, or platform modernization initiatives.
• Strong understanding of ServiceNow governance, release management processes, and enterprise controls.
• Knowledge of AI technologies, Generative AI, Agentic AI, automation platforms, and operational analytics.
• Strong communication, stakeholder management, and executive presentation skills.
• ITIL Certification or equivalent IT Service Management expertise.
• Experience within financial services or other highly regulated environments.
• Experience leading AI transformation, operational intelligence, or enterprise automation programs.
• Knowledge of Mainframe ChangeMan administration and modernization strategies.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), DevOps tooling, and release automation technologies.
• Experience leveraging AI solutions for operational excellence, incident reduction, change management, or software delivery optimization.
• Familiarity with Agentic AI platforms, predictive analytics, and intelligent workflow orchestration frameworks.