How To Become A Release Engineer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a release engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Julie Brandis

Releasing a software product is not as easy as just building it and then throwing it into the wilds of the market. Luckily, the tech world has dedicated, intelligent release engineers that help shepherd a product through the final stages before its release.

Release engineers make sure that a product works perfectly before it is released. For example, by testing that software and hardware components work together as a cohesive unit, by checking that all code is in the correct version, and taking care of any other details. The release engineer coordinates with other team members, such as data analysts and QA engineers, to develop a schedule for release.

Dropping a product before it is ready could cause a sharp loss in profits and plenty of embarrassment for a company. Luckily, the release engineer is there to make sure that everything is working as it should. It shouldn't be a surprise that the demand for these talented employees is set to about 21%.

What general advice would you give to a release engineer?

Julie Brandis

Executive Director of Strategic Partnerships, Website

Oregon State University provides support in salary negotiation, also students can work with mentors who are familiar with company hiring practices and wage structures. If you have internship experience, that can help to boost your starting salary.

ScoreRelease EngineerUS Average

Salary

7.5

Avg. Salary $97,777

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.0

Growth rate 21%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.17%

Asian 29.75%

Black or African American 4.65%

Hispanic or Latino 8.42%

Unknown 4.86%

White 52.15%

Gender

female 20.60%

male 79.40%

Age - 38

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 38

Stress level

4.0

Stress level is moderate

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.9

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.6

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a release engineer

Explore release engineer education requirements

Most common release engineer degrees

Bachelor's

75.2 %

Master's

13.2 %

Associate

8.4 %

Start to develop specific release engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
GIT	7.16%
Python	7.14%
Jenkins	6.14%
Continuous Integration	5.53%
Java	4.68%

Complete relevant release engineer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New release engineers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a release engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real release engineer resumes.

Research release engineer duties and responsibilities

Manage safety, quality control and oversight of plumbing and mechanical projects.
Write scripts in perl and shell to automate the build process and packaging the product.
Manage all the bugs and changes into a production environment using the JIRA issue tracking tool.
Configure and manage SPLUNK for monitoring over existing platform.

Get release engineer experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become a release engineer. The most common roles before becoming a release engineer include build-release engineer, software engineer team lead and building engineer.

Prepare your release engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your release engineer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a release engineer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable release engineer resume templates

Build a professional release engineer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your release engineer resume.

Apply for release engineer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a release engineer job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do release engineers rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Release engineer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Sep 2020

Pros

I have always been a very organized person and have worked in customer service my entire life, first as a mechanical engineer and then in the fitness industry. As a build engineer/release engineer/DevOps engineer, I get to work between the people writing the code and the people using the code, which is the perfect balance for me. :-)

Cons

It's difficult to explain to my friends what I actually do. Even my wife isn't completely clear on where my responsibility begins and ends...