SANJAY PATEL
Summary
Release Manager with 18 years of experience in Release Management, leading cross-functional geographically diverse teams in fast-paced, high availability and dev-ops environments.
Successful track record of managing the release of software in both Agile and Waterfall delivery models in complex release environments, creating release calendars, creating, and establishing processes, collaborating with technology and business teams, software configuration management, transitioning to live service / operational acceptance, and stakeholder management. Experienced in risk management, metrics, reporting, ITIL, Azure, AWS, Dev-ops, CI/CD, agile delivery, deployment planning, Scrum, Kanban, governance, testing, audits, security, global teams, business readiness, continuous service improvement, engineering best practices, Service Now, JIRA, Confluence and Azure Dev-Ops.
Overview
23
23
years of professional experience
Work history
Programme Manager
Department of Environment, Farming & Rural Affairs
London
04.2023 - 08.2023
- Collaborated with other managers and senior programme stakeholders, providing leadership and clear direction.
- Implemented a gated end-to-end release process including service transition in Azure
- Coached ten project teams in refining Agile and utilizing QA testing as part of project delivery
- Established new test environments and an integrated end-to-end test approach, recruited new test resources, and introduced risk-based test planning
- This resulted in improved product quality and a decrease in production incidents
- Introduced UAT across multiple projects with key end customers, which led to feedback being incorporated into product delivery.
- Facilitated programme-level discussions and workshops to achieve clear direction on key issues and priorities.
- Assessed, formulated and proposed changes to ongoing programmes, providing strategic directions for clients and stakeholders.
Release Manager
Fiserv
London
04.2021 - 03.2023
- Release Management across both a Data Analytics platform and a Digital platform, managing all issues, risks, dependencies, and deployment planning for releases for major banking clients
- My team were based in Poland, India, the UK, Ireland, and the USA
- Improved Release Quality through process design, proactive management of risks, and issues and establishing Security scanning of code and implementation planning
- Improved Project Delivery by improving change backlog mapping and managing technical dependencies
- Coached delivery teams across Europe in the transition to Agile
- Managed the implementation of continuous deployment tools which reduced deployment time by 70%
- Managed the implementation of a Snowflake database.
Release Manager
NHS
London
12.2020 - 03.2021
- Improved delivery for the NHS Covid-19 App by breaking down silos and creating transparency
- The environment was Azure
- Established processes, created visibility, created cutover plans, and managed cross-team technical dependencies
- Successfully managed incremental delivery of the NHS Covid-19 App to the App Store, Play Store, and public, and the same for QR codes and posters
Agile Delivery Manager
Civica Digital
London
01.2019 - 05.2020
- Scrum Master (client-facing), Delivered projects for the public sector using the Agile or Waterfall approach as appropriate
- Managed project timelines, budgets, and resources
- Risks, dependencies, and reporting
- Civica is a Microsoft-accredited gold partner and uses Azure
- Achievements
- Created minimum viable product (MVP) in 12 weeks by implementing an agile (scrum) software development process, increasing visibility for the Bank of England of the liquidity position of the UK banking sector
- Managed a project to help Civica achieve Cyber Essentials plus security accreditation
- Change and Release Manager (client-facing)
Sage Pay, Sage Group
London
06.2012 - 12.2018
- Designed and established a new Change Management and a new Release Management process using the ITIL methodology, resulting in a 92% first-time release success rate
- Helped transform from one release per month to delivering up to five releases per day
- Matrix managed geographically diverse teams in a fast-paced continuous delivery environment, delivering releases with a 99.98% system uptime target
- The environment was regulated financial services and PCI DSS Level 3 certified
- Managed the full SDLC in an agile environment working with many different teams
- Managed all issues, risks, dependencies and cutover plans
- Chaired CAB meetings and release go / no-go meetings
- Implemented a Scaled Agile framework, leading geographically diverse scrum teams
- Responsible for managing, scheduling and all relevant communications for over 100 software releases and 25 hardware changes per month
- Developed, implemented, and drove continuous improvement across an Agile Release Train
- Introduced and promoted the dev-ops methodology which fostered collaboration, and improved product quality and solution delivery
- In January 2017, I established cross-functional teams to build upon the dev-ops culture
- This had a large positive impact on product quality and solution delivery
- Implemented Lean Process Improvements to improve processes
- Managed the development and automation of release verification plans
- Helped transition to the cloud with AWS
Senior Release Manager
Total Systems Services, TSYS
York
10.2007 - 04.2012
- Managed complex software deliveries and created cutover plans to meet commercial deadlines for banking clients and compliance changes for Visa and Mastercard
- Some of the products were SaaS-based
- Achievements
- Implemented a Release Management process working with Geographically diverse teams
- Reducing UAT issues reported by clients from 162 to only 4 over 12 months
- Generated £500K+ in additional revenue by fixing damaged relationships with customers
- Transitioned to Agile Delivery before Agile became fashionable
Change & Release Manager and Risk Manager
British Telecom
Leeds
09.2000 - 09.2007
- Implemented ISO 20,000-compliant Change Management and Release Management processes
- Designed and implemented a Risk Management framework
- Resume
Education
BA (Hons) - Business Studies
Certified Scrum Master -
QA
Prince 2 Practitioner APM Agile Project Management Practitioner ITIL Foundation Certificate v3 - undefined
Skills
- Teamwork and collaboration
- Effective communication
- Agile project delivery
- Risk, issue and dependency management
- Analytical problem solver
- Strong commercial awareness
- Client care
- Technical process improvement
- Technology planning
- Cloud technologies
- Managing releases
Timeline
Programme Manager
Department of Environment, Farming & Rural Affairs
04.2023 - 08.2023
Release Manager
Fiserv
04.2021 - 03.2023
Release Manager
NHS
12.2020 - 03.2021
Agile Delivery Manager
Civica Digital
01.2019 - 05.2020
Sage Pay, Sage Group
06.2012 - 12.2018
Senior Release Manager
Total Systems Services, TSYS
10.2007 - 04.2012
Change & Release Manager and Risk Manager
British Telecom
09.2000 - 09.2007
BA (Hons) - Business Studies
Certified Scrum Master -
QA
Prince 2 Practitioner APM Agile Project Management Practitioner ITIL Foundation Certificate v3 - undefined
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