Lead Release Manager - Midnight

Who are we?

IOG, is a technology company focused on Blockchain research and development. We are renowned for our scientific approach to blockchain development, emphasizing peer-reviewed research and formal methods to ensure security, scalability, and sustainability. Our projects include decentralized finance (DeFi), governance, and identity management, aiming to advance the capabilities and adoption of blockchain technology globally.

We invest in the unknown, applying our curiosity and desire for positive change to everything we do. By fueling creativity, innovation, and progress within our teams, our products and services are designed for people to be fearless, to be changemakers.

About Midnight:

IOG's Midnight Tribe is a business technology provider and core contributor to the Midnight Network, a blockchain platform for developing decentralized applications that safeguard personal and commercial data. The Midnight Network is the first blockchain to offer programmable data isolation by leveraging zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs to enable selective disclosure of what information is visible on-chain and is designed to help developers implement necessary business policies, such as meeting regulatory requirements.

What the role involves:

We are seeking an experienced Lead Release Engineer to drive and coordinate the software release lifecycle for the Midnight platform - one of the most advanced, privacy-focused blockchain systems in the world. You will play a pivotal role in ensuring the robustness, reliability, and scalability of our multi-component architecture, collaborating closely with Quality Assurance, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), and Development teams.

This is a technically hands-on leadership role requiring deep expertise in CI/CD practices, deployment strategies, release tooling, and multi-platform build systems. You will act as the central hub for orchestrating all activities related to software delivery, including versioning, staging, validation, and production rollout. Most importantly, you will be someone who combines rigor and precision with initiative and adaptability, and who thrives in complex, mission-critical environments.

Key responsibilities include:

• Release Process Leadership
• Own and coordinate all aspects of the software release lifecycle from development to production.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for release-related matters across engineering, SRE, and QA.
• Define and refine release workflows to support regular, reliable, and secure deployments.
• CI/CD Pipeline Management
• Design, implement, and optimize CI/CD pipelines (primarily in GitHub Actions) across multiple codebases and languages (Rust, TypeScript, WASM).
• Automate testing, building, packaging, and deployment tasks to reduce lead times and increase reproducibility.
• Manage and streamline build artefacts, Docker image publishing, and npm distributions.
• Multi-Component Coordination
• Align versioning and dependency management across a complex ecosystem, including the node, ledger, wallet, SDKs, and smart contract modules.
• Oversee monorepo and workspace strategies using Yarn and package managers.
• Coordinate releases for cross-platform compatibility and ensure successful integration across components.
• Testing Strategy & Quality Assurance
• Embed robust test automation, coverage metrics, and quality gates into the release process.
• Collaborate with QA to ensure E2E, integration, performance, and regression testing are fully integrated into pipelines.
• Conduct post-deployment validation, monitoring, and rollback procedures when needed.
• Deployment Strategy
• Design and implement staged release pipelines across Devnet, Testnet, and Mainnet environments.
• Lead operational readiness activities, ensuring observability and real-time health checks during rollouts.
• Documentation & Communication
• Produce comprehensive and accurate release notes, technical documentation, and stakeholder communications.
• Maintain updated API documentation and artefact metadata across systems.
• Troubleshooting & Continuous Improvement
• Lead incident resolution and root cause analysis during release-related issues or failed deployments.
• Identify and implement optimisations to reduce build times, enhance test coverage, and increase system resilience.