What Youll Do:The Director of Application Release and Readiness Testing will provide strategic leadership for the organizations application deployment, validation, and production readiness programs. This role is responsible for establishing comprehensive frameworks to ensure applications meet quality standards before release, validating deployment readiness across environments, and implementing automated deployment practices that accelerate software delivery while maintaining stability.Primary Duties and Responsibilities:To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each primary duty satisfactorily.<ul><li>Partners with development and testing teams to deliver software releases to test and production maintaining highest possible standards of stability.</li><li>Oversees continuous improvement efforts by identifying and championing practical means of reducing time to market while maintaining high quality</li><li>Must be a willing self-starter, independent, and comfortable with a fast paced, dynamic environment</li><li>A team player who assists the team as required to achieve collective goals &amp; delivery milestones including knowledge-share</li><li>Drive automation of release validation processes to accelerate deployment cycles</li><li>Implement release quality gates and evidence-based certification processes</li><li>Collaborate with development, operations, and business stakeholders to define release acceptance criteria</li><li>Establish metrics and KPIs to measure release quality, testing efficiency, and deployment readiness</li><li>Lead post-release validation activities and coordinate resolution of release-related incidents</li><li>Oversee the creation and maintenance of test environments that accurately mirror production</li></ul>Testing and Validation Focus Areas<ul><li>End-to-end release pipeline validation</li><li>Automated regression testing for release candidates</li><li>Load and performance testing before deployment</li><li>Integration and API compatibility verification</li><li>Security and compliance validation</li><li>Business process validation and user acceptance testing</li><li>Data migration and transformation validation</li><li>Configuration verification across environments</li><li>Post-deployment smoke testing and validation</li><li>Production readiness reviews and checklists</li><li>Assists Production Support by prioritizing engineering workloads across the team</li><li>Designs and oversees departmental and new employee training</li></ul>Supervisory Responsibilities:<ul><li>Manage a team</li></ul>Qualifications:The requirements listed are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the primary functions.<ul><li>Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field</li><li>10+ years of experience in software testing, quality assurance, or release management</li><li>5+ years of leadership experience managing testing teams and processes</li><li>Strong understanding of test automation frameworks and continuous testing approaches</li><li>Experience implementing testing strategies for complex enterprise applications</li><li>Knowledge of DevOps practices and CI/CD pipelines</li><li>Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and containerized applications</li><li>Strong understanding of performance testing methodologies and tools</li><li>Experience with test management platforms and defect tracking systems</li><li>Excellent analytical skills and attention to detail</li><li>Outstanding communication and stakeholder management abilities</li></ul>Success Criteria<ul><li>Establish standardized release readiness assessment frameworks</li><li>Implement metrics-driven quality gates for all application releases</li><li>Achieve 99% deployment success rate through improved pre-release validation</li></ul>Technical Skills:<ul><li>[Required] Programming/scripting experience in languages like Java, Bash, Python or Go</li><li>[Required] Knowledge of Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) tools (examples - GitHub, Jenkins, Artifactory, Docker, Compose, K8s)</li><li>[Required] Java experience</li><li>[Required] Experience with high speed distributed computing frameworks AWS EMR, Hadoop, HDFS, S3, MapReduce, Apache Spark, Apache Hive, Kafka Streams, Apache Flink etc.</li><li>[Required] Experience with distributed message brokers Kafka, RabbitMQ, ActiveMQ, Amazon Kinesis, etc.</li><li>[Required] Experience with cloud technologies and migrations</li><li>[Required] Experience preferred with AWS foundational services like VPCs, Security groups, EC2, RDS, S3 ACLs, KMS, AWS CLI and IAM etc.</li><li>[Required] Expert knowledge of DevOps tools. Eg Terraform, Ansible, Jenkins, Maven/Gradle, Nexus/Artifactory and CI/CD pipeline etc.</li><li>[Required] Experience developing and delivering technical solutions using public cloud service providers like Amazon, Google, etc.</li><li>[Required] Familiarity with monitoring related tools and frameworks like Splunk, ElasticSearch, Prometheus, AppDynamics</li><li>[Required] Working knowledge of DevOps tools. Eg Terraform, Ansible, Jenkins, Kubernetes, Helm and CI/CD pipeline etc.</li><li>[Required] Experience following Git workflows</li></ul>Education and/or Experience:<ul><li>[Preferred] AWS certified solution architect/DevOps Engineer certification</li><li>[Preferred] Kubernetes, Kafka certification</li><li>[Preferred] Project/program management certifications</li><li>[Preferred] ITIL certification</li></ul>Certificates or Licenses:<ul><li>[Required] BS degree in Computer Science, similar technical field, or equivalent experience</li></ul>About UsThe Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) is the worlds largest equity derivatives clearing organization. Founded in 1973, OCC is dedicated to promoting stability and market integrity by delivering clearing and settlement services for options, futures and securities lending transactions. As a Systemically Important Financial Market Utility (SIFMU), OCC operates under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. OCC has more than 100 clearing members and provides central counterparty (CCP) clearing and settlement services to 19 exchanges and trading platforms. More information about OCC is available at www.theocc.com.BenefitsA highly collaborative and supportive environment developed to encourage work-life balance and employee wellness. Some of these components include: <ul><li>A hybrid work environment, up to 2 days per week of remote work</li><li>Tuition Reimbursement to support your continued education</li><li>Student Loan Repayment Assistance</li><li>Technology Stipend allowing you to use the device of your choice to connect to our network while working remotely</li><li>Generous PTO and Parental leave </li><li>401k Employer Match</li><li>Competitive health benefits including medical, dental and vision</li></ul>Visit <a href="https://www.theocc.com/careers/thriving-together" target="_blank">https://www.theocc.com/careers/thriving-together</a> for more information.Compensation<ul><li>The salary range listed for any given position is exclusive of fringe benefits and potential bonuses. If hired at OCC, your final base salary compensation will be determined by factors such as skills, experience and/or education. </li><li>In addition, we believe in the importance of pay equity and consider internal equity of our current team members as part of any final offer. </li><li>We typically do not hire at the maximum of the range in order to allow for future and continued salary growth. We also offer a substantial benefits package as noted on <a href="http://www.theocc.com/careers" target="_blank">www.theocc.com/careers</a> </li><li>All employees may be eligible for a discretionary bonus. Discretionary bonuses are based on various factors, including, but not limited to, company and individual performance and are not guaranteed.</li></ul>Salary Range$171,700.00 - $282,700.00Incentive Range23% to 30%This position is eligible for an annual discretionary incentive compensation award, for which the target range is listed above (see Incentive Range). The amount of such award, if any, will be based on various factors, including without limitation, both individual and company performance.<h3></h3>Step 1 When you find a position youre interested in, click the Apply button. Please complete the application and attach your resume.  Step 2 You will receive an email notification to confirm that weve received your application.Step 3 If you are called in for an interview, a representative from OCC will contact you to set up a date, time, and location. For more information about <a target="_blank" href="https://www.theocc.com/about/career-center/default.jsp">OCC</a>, please click <a target="_blank" href="https://www.theocc.com/about/career-center/default.jsp">here</a>.OCC is an Equal Opportunity Employer