Environments & Release Manager Full Time

The Environments & Release Manager is responsible for the end-to-end governance and optimization of IT environments (non-production and production) supporting Reinsurance IT systems.

This hybrid role combines environment strategy with release coordination to ensure environments are fit for purpose, sufficiently provisioned, production-like, and cost-effective. You will act as the single point of accountability for defining minimum environment standards, lifecycle management, and controlled releases — enabling predictable, high-quality delivery while reducing friction, risk, and unnecessary infrastructure/cloud spend.

You will move the organization away from shared or under-provisioned environments that compress testing timelines, towards a standardized, reliable model where development, QA, and project teams have the capacity they need to deliver effectively.

What You’ll Be DOING

What will your essential responsibilities include?

• Define and enforce minimum environment standards for each application, covering number, type, sizing, configuration, data refresh, and access requirements across Dev, Test, QA, UAT, Pre-Prod, and Production.
• Own the overall environment strategy and lifecycle (provisioning, refresh, reuse, and decommissioning), including temporary/project-specific environments that can be spun up and torn down efficiently.
• Maintain an accurate environment inventory with purpose, ownership, utilisation, and cost transparency.
• Prevent environment-related bottlenecks by ensuring non-shared, adequately provisioned setups that support both Agile and waterfall delivery models.
• Actively monitor and optimise environment costs (cloud and on-prem), identifying and eliminating under-utilised or redundant environments.
• Embed cost-conscious practices into environment requests and project planning while balancing quality and delivery needs.
• Partner with Finance, Architecture, and Platform teams for transparency and forecasting.
• Own and coordinate the release management process for Reinsurance IT systems, ensuring controlled, predictable, and low-risk deployments.
• Manage release calendars, cross-team/vendor coordination, release readiness (including environment availability), approvals, and rollback plans.
• Improve release reliability by reducing conflicts, failed deployments, and unplanned outages.
• Collaborate early with project managers, product owners, delivery leads, and vendors to understand and plan environment requirements.
• Question unnecessary or inefficient environment requests and provide visibility of constraints/risks.
• Continuously improve environment and release processes, reducing manual effort and increasing reliability.
• Work with DevOps, Platform, and Engineering teams to drive automation in provisioning, refreshing, teardown, and deployments (IaC, CI/CD pipelines).
• Establish and track meaningful KPIs, including environment utilization, cost per environment, release success rate, deployment frequency, change failure rate, and mean time to recovery (MTTR).
• Serve as the primary interface between Reinsurance IT, central platform/infrastructure teams, and external vendors.
• Ensure environment and release activities align with contractual, security, and compliance requirements.
• Provide clear reporting and governance updates to senior IT stakeholders.

You will report to Head of Applications – UW, Pricing, QA & Testing.

What You Will BRING

We’re looking for someone who has these abilities and skills:

Required Skills And Abilities

• Proven experience in a hybrid environment management and release management role (or firm background in one with solid exposure to the other) within a complex enterprise setting.
• Deep understanding of SDLC, Agile/DevOps principles, and the difficulties of shared/under-provisioned environments.
• Demonstrated success in defining environment standards, optimising non-production environments, and coordinating releases across multiple teams/vendors.
• Effective stakeholder management skills with the professionalism to influence decisions and question constructively (e.g., justifying adequate environment provisioning over short-term cost savings).
• Practical experience with cloud environments, cost awareness, and process governance.

Desired Skills And Abilities

• Background in insurance/reinsurance IT, testing/QA, or infrastructure management.
• Hands-on familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible, etc.), Kubernetes, and automated provisioning tools.
• Experience working with global teams and multiple vendors.
• Exposure to financial management, budgeting, or chargeback models.
• ITIL knowledge, particularly in Release & Deployment Management.

Who WE Are

AXA XL, the P&C and specialty risk division of AXA, is known for solving complex risks. For mid-sized companies, multinationals and even some inspirational individuals we don’t just provide re/insurance, we reinvent it.

How? By combining a comprehensive and efficient capital platform, data-driven insights, leading technology, and the best talent in an agile and inclusive workspace, empowered to deliver top client service across all our lines of business − property, casualty, professional, financial lines and specialty.

With an innovative and flexible approach to risk solutions, we partner with those who move the world forward.

Learn more at axaxl.com

What We OFFER

Inclusion

AXA XL is committed to equal employment opportunity and will consider applicants regardless of gender, sexual orientation, age, ethnicity and origins, marital status, religion, disability, or any other protected characteristic. At AXA XL, we know that an inclusive culture and enables business growth and is critical to our success. That’s why we have made a strategic commitment to attract, develop, advance and retain the most inclusive workforce possible, and create a culture where everyone can bring their full selves to work and reach their highest potential. It’s about helping one another — and our business — to move forward and succeed.

• Five Business Resource Groups focused on gender, LGBTQ+, ethnicity and origins, disability and inclusion with 20 Chapters around the globe.
• Robust support for Flexible Working Arrangements
• Enhanced family-friendly leave benefits
• Named to the Diversity Best Practices Index
• Signatory to the UK Women in Finance Charter

Learn more at axaxl.com/about-us/inclusion-and-diversity. AXA XL is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Total Rewards

AXA XL’s Reward program is designed to take care of what matters most to you, covering the full picture of your health, wellbeing, lifestyle and financial security. It provides competitive compensation and personalized, inclusive benefits that evolve as you do.

We’re committed to rewarding your contribution for the long term, so you can be your best self today and look forward to the future with confidence.

Sustainability

At AXA XL, Sustainability is integral to our business strategy. In an ever-changing world, AXA XL protects what matters most for our clients and communities. We know that sustainability is at the root of a more resilient future. Our 2023-26 Sustainability strategy, called “Roots of resilience”, focuses on protecting natural ecosystems, addressing climate change, and embedding sustainable practices across our operations.

Our Pillars

• Valuing nature: How we impact nature affects how nature impacts us. Resilient ecosystems – the foundation of a sustainable planet and society – are essential to our future. We’re committed to protecting and restoring nature – from mangrove forests to the bees in our backyard – by increasing biodiversity awareness and inspiring clients and colleagues to put nature at the heart of their plans.
• Addressing climate change: The effects of a changing climate are far-reaching and significant. Unpredictable weather, increasing temperatures, and rising sea levels cause both social inequalities and environmental disruption. We’re building a net zero strategy, developing insurance products and services, and mobilizing to advance thought leadership and investment in societal-led solutions.
• Integrating ESG: All companies have a role to play in building a more resilient future. Incorporating ESG considerations into our internal processes and practices builds resilience from the roots of our business. We’re training our colleagues, engaging our external partners, and evolving our sustainability governance and reporting.
• AXA Hearts in Action: We have established volunteering and charitable giving programs to help colleagues support causes that matter most to them, known as AXA XL’s “Hearts in Action” programs. These include our Matching Gifts program, Volunteering Leave, and our annual volunteering day – the Global Day of Giving.

For more information, please see axaxl.com/sustainability.