Staff Release Engineer

Are you a systems thinker who thrives on creating seamless, scalable software delivery workflows? Do you enjoy partnering across engineering teams to build robust pipelines that enable high-velocity and high-quality releases? Are you passionate about developer experience and eager to optimize how code gets to production safely and efficiently?

As a Staff Release Engineer at Ridgeline, you will own and evolve the systems, tools, and processes that underpin our software delivery lifecycle. Your work will drive efficiency, reliability, and visibility across engineering, making you a force multiplier for product delivery. You'll collaborate closely with Infrastructure, SRE, and Engineering teams to architect resilient CI/CD pipelines, implement automated quality gates, and reduce friction across all deployment paths. Leveraging cutting-edge technologies—including AI tools like GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT—you’ll help accelerate delivery while reducing risk and complexity.

At Ridgeline, how we work matters as much as what we build. Ridgeliners act like owners, choose growth over comfort, and communicate with transparency. We assume positive intent, bias toward action, and bring solutions—not just problems. We celebrate wins, learn from setbacks, and thrive in a resilient, collaborative, high-performing culture. If this excites you, we’d love to meet you.

You must be work authorized in the United States without the need for employer sponsorship.

The impact you will have:

• Design, maintain, and optimize CI/CD systems to enable scalable, repeatable, and safe delivery
• Establish and enforce release standards such as artifact validation, test coverage thresholds, and dependency checks
• Collaborate with SRE and Infrastructure teams to create automated and consistent release workflows
• Implement observability and rollback capabilities to improve release visibility and safety
• Develop systems to prevent risky changes and support faster mean time to recovery
• Create self-service tools that empower developers and reduce deployment friction
• Define and report on release metrics that drive transparency and continuous improvement
• Champion a product mindset for internal tools by deeply understanding the needs of developer teams

What we look for:

• 4+ years in Release Engineering, DevOps, or Site Reliability Engineering roles
• Expertise with CI/CD systems such as GitHub Actions, Jenkins, ArgoCD, or Spinnaker
• Strong scripting or coding skills (e.g., Python, Go, Bash) and IaC experience with tools like Terraform or Helm
• Deep understanding of release strategies (blue/green, canary, rolling) and artifact/versioning systems
• Passion for automation, testing, and scalable system design
• Experience with Kubernetes and modern cloud-native infrastructure
• Familiarity with observability tools and release health metrics
• Excellent communication and problem-solving skills
• Serious interest in having fun at work

Bonus:

• Experience in high-availability or regulated environments such as finance or healthcare
• Familiarity with Google SRE principles or equivalent operational excellence models
• Background in driving the adoption of DevOps metrics (DORA, MTTR, deployment frequency)

About Ridgeline

Ridgeline is the first front-to-back system of record for investment managers. Founded by visionary entrepreneur Dave Duffield (co-founder of both PeopleSoft and Workday), the company was created to modernize an industry held back by outdated, disconnected technology. Powered by a single, real-time data set and embedded AI, Ridgeline helps firms automate complexity, accelerate collaboration, and deliver tailored client experiences at scale, without added headcount or risk. Ridgeline is headquartered in Lake Tahoe, with offices in New York, Reno, and the Bay Area, and is recognized by Fast Company as a “Best Workplace for Innovators,” by Frost & Sullivan as a “Technology Innovation Leader,” and by The Software Report as a “Top 100 Software Company.”

Ridgeline is proud to be a community-minded, discrimination-free equal opportunity workplace.

Ridgeline processes the information you submit in connection with your application in accordance with the Ridgeline Applicant Privacy Statement. Please review the Ridgeline Applicant Privacy Statement in full to understand our privacy practices and contact us with any questions.

Compensation and Benefits 

The cash compensation amount for this role is targeted at $174,000 - $220,000. Final compensation amounts are determined by multiple factors, including candidate experience and expertise, and may vary from the amount listed above. 

As an employee at Ridgeline, you’ll have many opportunities for advancement in your career and can make a true impact on the product. 

In addition to the base salary, Ridgeline employees can participate in our Company Stock Plan subject to the applicable Stock Option Agreement. We also offer rich benefits that reflect the kind of organization we want to be: one in which our employees feel valued and are inspired to bring their best selves to work. These include unlimited vacation, educational and wellness reimbursements, and $0 cost employee insurance plans. Please check out our Careers page for a more comprehensive overview of our perks and benefits.

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