Technology at Unite Students

Our core mission is to create a Home for Success and we are investing in evolving our architecture and engineering capabilities to be at the forefront of how we delight our customers and work with our partners.

Reporting to the Head of Strategy, Architecture and Engineering, the Release and Environment manager will be responsible for organising, directing and managing activities and environments for releasing and maintaining Unite Students multichannel environments.

It`s a really exciting time to join US and the technology landscape is in the process of transforming from a largely on-prem set-up to Cloud based Software/Platform as a Service based applications and integrations. As part of this role you will demonstrate the required skills and manage resources (both internal and external) needed to deliver the Release and Environments Service across a range of platforms, all seamlessly integrated within one another, hosted in a mix of Salesforce, Azure, AWS, on-premise and more.

What you`ll be doing

• Create a Release and Environments strategy, and own the Release Management lifecycle which includes scheduling, coordinating and the management of releases across the enterprise for multiple applications and platforms
• Be the primary contact and escalation point for stakeholders for anything related to Release or Environment policies and processes, as well as details of current and future releases in plan
• Maintaining consistency between environments, from development through SIT, UAT, pre-production and production
• Ensure delivery and assurance of all environments (production and non-production) to support the entire estate, including definition, provision and configuration of environments, plus assure automation excellence through CICD and DevOps best practices
• Ensure that any changes brought to CAB as its chair, are assessed for impact across other IT services / applications and follow the change through to its implementation
• Proactively identify and address release issues and risks and work with project, programme and delivery teams to resolve
• Evaluate scope and set priorities for release criteria and product quality requirements
• Continually work towards making improvements in the release process
• Work with multiple technical teams to ensure appropriate handover of any new service into the appropriate team takes place. Ensure suitable training and documentation exists to ensure a smooith transition to the each new service
• Lead and co-ordinate the Go-Live activities including the definition and execution of the deployment plans and checklists
• Develop scripts and automations using best practice tooling that will be used to build, integrate, and deploy software releases to various platforms - knowledge of Azure Devops is highly desirable
• Participate in service acceptance meetings to discuss release scope and/or roadblocks
• Maintain a release repository and manages key information such as build and release procedures, dependencies, and notification lists
• Oversee the overall co-ordination and management of all release and non-production environment activities, including internal resource and external suppliers
• Quickly understand and support in new technology patterns and technology, learning new technical skills where appropriate and watching external trends and opportunities that will benefit Unite Students

What we`re looking for in you

• You will have extensive experience in a similar Release & Environments Management role within a complex fast paced Technology landscape
• You are an experienced DevOps and CI/CD practitioner, with a proven track record in creating release strategies and seeing them through to business as usual through the use of automation tooling, CI/CD pipelines and data refresh processes. A lifecyle that can distinguish major change, from the small and incremental, is essential to the success of this strategy
• The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate an ability to manage complex environments, and have overcome complex programme interdepdendencies. Salesforce, Websites, Apps, Oracle, AWS and Azure are all highly desirable
• A great communicator, both verbal and written. You excel in the relationships you build with stakeholders, able to work across various teams

What You`ll Get in Return

• An annual bonus so you can share in the company`s success
• 25 days` paid holiday
• Pension - based on how much you save, we`ll contribute 1% more
• Flexible working opportunities
• Shared Parental Leave - 18 weeks full pay
• Other benefits include, ShareSave, Bike to Work, Charity Match, amazing discounts and more!

About Unite Students

Founded in 1991, Unite Students is a FTSE 100 business and the UK`s leading provider of purpose-built student accommodation. You can find us in 25 leading university towns and cities, with 74,000 students calling US home! We are driven by our values, culture, and a commitment to develop diverse and inclusive teams, filled with positive energy and new ideas.

Instinctive inclusion. We know that to create and maintain a happy healthy organisation, we have to work hard to ensure inclusion isn`t just what we do but who we are.

People make Unite Students. Employees, students and neighbours all contribute to building environments where we can all thrive.

Room for Everyone

We`re proud to be an employer that embraces individuality, and we`re passionate about building inclusive teams. We focus on creating a collaborative culture where you can be you, where your voice is heard, and where you can truly belong. We take great pride in being rated Gold Investors in People and are constantly striving to provide the highest standard of learning and development opportunities and professional pathways for our people. Building a home for success, for both our employees and students, requires exceptional people with a passion for creating room for everyone, doing what`s right, keeping US safe, and raising the bar. Join us as we build better experiences for students that live with us.

We are US.