Nakivo

Overview of job

NAKIVO ships NAKIVO Backup & Replication on a quarterly Release Train. The Release Manager owns that train: the calendar, the entry criteria, and the gate. The core mandate is — no feature boards the Release Train unless it has passed all required testing, first on its feature branch and then on the product branch. Features that are not ready by the cutoff wait for the next train; the train always leaves on schedule.

1. Release Train ownership

● Own and publish the quarterly release calendar: feature-complete cutoff, feature-branch QA sign-off deadline, merge window to the product branch, regression window, code freeze, Beta and GA milestones.
● Run the release cadence — kickoff, mid-cycle checkpoints, readiness reviews, go/no-go — and keep all product-area teams aligned to the dates.
● Hold the line on the train model: dates do not move for individual features; features move to the next train.

2. Quality gate definition and enforcement
● Together with QA and Dev leads, define explicit, verifiable entry criteria for each gate: feature-branch test completion and QA sign-off, successful merge to the product branch, integration/regression results on the product branch, blocker/critical defect thresholds, documentation and upgrade readiness.
● Verify gate evidence directly — test execution status (Jira/Xray), build results, open defect counts. Sign-offs are based on data, not verbal assurances.
● Reject or defer features that have not cleared the gates, regardless of stakeholder pressure, and communicate the decision and the path to the next train.

3. Readiness tracking and reporting
● Maintain a single source of truth for release scope and per-feature status: which features are committed, at which gate, at risk, or deferred.
● Report release health to management on a regular cadence: scope, risks, slippage, gate failures.
● Flag at-risk features early so teams can recover before the cutoff rather than fail at the gate.

4. Branch and merge coordination
● Coordinate with Dev leads on the branching model in practice: when feature branches are eligible to merge into the product branch, merge order and windows, code freeze enforcement, and what (if anything) is permitted after
freeze.
● Manage exceptions — late critical fixes, scope changes — each with explicit risk assessment and recorded approval.

5. Go/No-Go and release execution
● Chair release readiness and go/no-go reviews with QA, Dev, PM and PjM
● Drive the release execution checklist through Beta and GA: final regression sign-off, release notes, upgrade testing, build promotion, support handoff.
● Run post-release retrospectives; trace escaped defects and hotfixes back to gate weaknesses and improve the process accordingly.
6. Patch / hotfix governance
● Apply a lightweight version of the same gating model to interim patch releases and hotfixes between quarterly trains.

The Nakivo team in Vietnam has been changing very fast in the recent years, we have grown from a group of 6 engineers to the current team size of 80 and we are expecting to grow even more in the next following years. 

We welcome and embrace people, regardless of their background, religion, nationality or gender, but focus on diversity, contribution, determination and work ethic. At Nakivo, we are trying to improve everyday, to become a competitive choice for talented people, by offering

• Flexible working hours: Office opens from 6.00 AM to 10.00 PM
• 13-month bonus & performance bonus
• 100% salary on probationary period
• Private health care package
• Healthcare package for family members
• Premium health care check
• Gift (cash/voucher) for every special occasion: New Year's Eve, Tet holidays, International Women's Day, International Children's Day, Mid-Autumn Festival and Birthday
• Up to 18 annual leaves/year, 5 sick leaves and additional leaves (up to 3 days)
• Team building
• Free and un-limited snack, tea, coffee and by-choice request.

Required Qualifications:

● 5+ years in software delivery (release management, technical program/project management, QA leadership, or build/release engineering), including 3+ years owning releases of a complex commercial software product.
● Demonstrated experience running a fixed-cadence / release-train model and enforcing quality gates — including concrete examples of deferring features under stakeholder pressure.
● Solid working knowledge of branching strategies (feature branches, integration/product branches, release branches), merge windows, and code freeze — and how testing maps onto them (feature-level testing vs. integration/regression on the shared branch).
● Understanding of QA processes: test planning, test execution and sign-off, regression scoping, severity/priority triage, defect exit criteria. Able to read and challenge test status, not just collect it.
● Sufficient CI/CD literacy to follow build pipelines, build status, and artifact promotion (Jenkins, TeamCity, GitLab CI, or similar).
● Outstanding stakeholder management: able to say "no" to senior engineers and product managers, escalate cleanly, and keep everyone informed without friction.
● Strong organizational discipline: calendars, checklists, criteria, follow-through.
● Intermediate level in English

Desired Qualifications:

● Prior background in QA or software engineering before moving into release/program management (QA background is a strong plus given the gatekeeping mandate).
● Experience releasing on-premises / enterprise software: installers, multi-OS builds, upgrade paths, long support lifecycles — not only SaaS.
● Experience with Early Access / beta programs feeding into GA.
● Familiarity with the backup, storage, or virtualization domain (VMware, Hyper-V, Proxmox, physical, cloud workloads).
● Certifications: SAFe RTE (Release Train Engineer), ITIL (Release & Deployment Management), PMP/PRINCE2.
● Comfortable using AI tools (e.g., LLM assistants connected to Jira/Confluence) to automate release reporting, with enough JQL and data literacy to define the metrics and validate the output.