Johannesburg: Release & DevOps Specialist (JHB) posted by DataFin Recruitment

ENVIRONMENT:

A provider of tailored Financial Solutions seeks a Release & DevOps Specialist who will be responsible for ensuring smooth, reliable, and repeatable software releases from development through staging to production. This role bridges the gap between Development, QA, and Operations by managing release processes, automating deployments, and maintaining stable environments. They will enable the Development team to focus on building features, while ensuring the business receives high-quality, production-ready software on time. Must-Have criteria include strong experience with CI/CD pipelines in Azure DevOps, hands-on experience with automated deployments for .NET / Blazor / SQL Server applications & expert understanding of source control (Git branching strategies).

DUTIES:

Release Management –

• Own and manage the release calendar, coordinating with Product Owners, Developers, and QA.
• Plan, document, and communicate release schedules and content.
• Ensure staging environments are aligned with production and release packages are validated before go-live.
• Triage bugs raised in staging and work with Developers/QA to resolve them efficiently.
• Facilitate go/no-go decisions with stakeholders.

DevOps / Automation

• Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines in Azure DevOps.
• Automate deployments to dev, staging, and production environments.
• Ensure reproducible builds and consistent deployment scripts.
• Manage environment configuration, secrets, and access control.
• Implement rollback and recovery strategies.

Environment & Infrastructure –

• Maintain dev, staging, and production environments to ensure parity and stability.
• Monitor environment health, performance, and resource usage.
• Work with IT Ops to align deployments with compliance and security policies.

Collaboration & Process Improvement –

• Act as the first line of investigation for staging issues (deployment/config/data), escalating true code defects back to Devs.
• Partner with QA to ensure test environments are production-like.
• Improve release processes to reduce lead time and increase deployment frequency.
• Provide dashboards and reporting on release readiness, success rates, and post-release stability.

REQUIREMENTS:

Must-haves –

• Strong experience with CI/CD pipelines in Azure DevOps.
• Hands-on experience with automated deployments for .NET / Blazor / SQL Server applications.
• Expert understanding of source control (Git branching strategies).
• Strong troubleshooting skills across code, config, and environment layers.
• Exposure to Release/Change Management processes in enterprise or regulated environments.

Nice-to-haves –

• Familiarity with monitoring and observability tools e.g. Seq.
• Knowledge of security practices for deployments (secrets management, access policies).
• Scripting experience (PowerShell, Bash, Python).
• Experience with infrastructure automation (e.g., containerization).

ATTRIBUTES:

• Structured & detail-oriented able to manage multiple moving parts in parallel.
• Problem solver investigates staging/production issues calmly and systematically.
• Collaborative works closely with Developers, QA, and IT.
• Ownership mindset treats release success as their personal responsibility.
• Continuous improver always looking for ways to make releases faster, safer, and more reliable.

While we would really like to respond to every application, should you not be contacted for this position within 10 working days please consider your application unsuccessful.