QA & Release Manager

QA & Release Manager - remote - Romania (or any country in Eastern Europe) - global tech. / SaaS organisation!

• Have strong experience leading QA/release functions in SaaS or similar environments
• Can operate both strategically and hands-on
• Are comfortable working across distributed/global teams

Skills/experience

• 7+ years commercial experience in software testing and QA, including SaaS and/or scaling start-ups
• 3+ years in a QA Manager / Release Manager / similar leadership role managing multi-person distributed teams
• Demonstrable experience planning and leading major version upgrades for enterprise clients across UAT and Production environments — including upgrade roadmap, cutover, rollback, and post-upgrade validation
• Hands-on experience executing UAT and production deployments, gathering client requirements, and authoring client-specific test plans
• Proven experience owning release management end-to-end (Test, UAT, Production) across multiple parallel client streams or product lines S
• Solid experience with ITIL processes for Release, Change, and Configuration Management, and QA Strong technical background in software development (.NET / C# preferred) — able to read code and engage credibly with engineer
• Familiarity with Git branching strategies (release, feature, custom client, hotfix, integration) and how they map to environments
• Experience with TeamCity, Octopus Deploy, and Bitbucket — or equivalent CI/CD tooling
• Experience in Agile, DevOps, or continuous-flow environments with frequent releases
• Hands-on and directive experience with automated testing — Cypress, Playwright, Selenium, or similar
• Understanding of API testing and validation (REST, contract testing, Postman or equivalent)
• SQL literacy for investigative support and governance Proficient with Jira, Confluence, Xray, and Trello
• Experience implementing risk management strategies, conducting post-release reviews, and driving continuous improvement
• Direct client-facing experience — comfortable with senior escalations and governance-level communications
• Demonstrable track record of reducing production defects, improving coverage, and delivering measurable quality improvements through a team
• Experience using AI tools (generative AI, copilots, log-analysis assistants, LLM-based debugging) and leading AI adoption across a QA team
• Excellent written and verbal communication; able to chair senior meetings
• Relevant degree and/or certifications (Computer Science, Engineering; ITIL, ISTQB, or equivalent