Software Infrastructure Release Engineer

About Viasat

One team. Global challenges. Infinite opportunities. Viasat is on a mission to deliver connections with the capacity to change the world. For more than 35 years, Viasat has helped shape how consumers, businesses, governments, and militaries around the globe communicate. We’re looking for people who think big, act fearlessly, and create an inclusive environment that drives positive impact.

• Oversee the planning, scheduling, and control of software releases, ensuring smooth transitions from development to production.
• Plan and schedule the release of project deliverables and manage the release lifecycle, coordinating schedules and resources.
• Act as liaison between development, testing, operations, and other teams to align and communicate the release process.
• Identify potential risks that could delay releases and implement mitigation strategies.
• Lead deployment activities, ensuring software is released according to the planned schedule and meets quality standards.
• Supervise progress of releases, find issues, and continuously improve the release process to enhance efficiency and effectiveness.

• Communicate key project commitments, plans, changes, and requirements to airline and relevant teams.
• Manage risks that may affect release scope.
• Ensure releases stay within budgets and requirements.
• Provide weekly updates on release activities.
• Resolve issues regarding release quality and schedule.
• Identify any project dependencies that could alter the course of release.

• Release Management Tools:
  Jenkins, Git Lab CI/CD, Azure Dev Ops, and deployment automation platforms.
• Project Management:
  Agile methodologies, Scrum, Kanban, and project coordination frameworks.
• Technical Understanding:
  Software development lifecycle, testing methodologies, and infrastructure concepts.
• Communication
  
  Skills:
  
  Stakeholder management, cross-team coordination, and executive reporting.
• Risk Management:
  
  Risk assessment, contingency planning, and issue escalation procedures.
• Process Improvement:
  Lean principles, continuous improvement, and metrics analysis.
• Compliance Knowledge:
  Regulatory requirements, audit procedures, and change management.
• Incident Management:
  Crisis communication, rollback procedures, and post-incident analysis.
• US Citizenship required.
• Ability to travel up to 10%.

• Coordinate release schedules across engineering, product, test, operations, and field teams.
• Manage release documentation including versioning, release notes, and certification artifacts.
• Track release readiness across multiple hardware/software configurations.
• Validate pre-deployment documentation and confirm all requirements are met before field installation.

• Implement rigorous version control and model management practices.
• Maintain configuration baselines for different customers and manage configuration drift.
• Understand A/B partition schemes for the modem and rollback procedures for the server.

• Coordinate with airline program team, PTE and third‑party manufacturing for retrofit and new‑factory software.
• Maintain traceability of features for software releases.
• Support regulatory audits with deployment records.

• Work with operations teams to understand and deliver deployment methods for OTA (SSLK, Config, Helm, MUD, etc.).
• Coordinate secure transmission of software packages for non‑OTA installations.
• Track deployment status across fleet installations.
• Manage phased rollouts and monitor for issues.
• Coordinate emergency patches and critical updates.

• Work with CE to align fixes for post‑release defects.
• Coordinate rollback procedures when issues are detected.
• Utilize staged rollout functionality to limit blast radius of issues when needed.

• Familiarity with OTA update mechanisms and secure firmware distribution.
• Knowledge of version control systems (Git) and branching strategies.
• Basic understanding of cryptographic signing and secure boot.
• Awareness of A/B partition schemes and failsafe update mechanisms.