How to hire a senior release engineer

Senior release engineer hiring summary. Here are some key points about hiring senior release engineers in the United States:

There are a total of 4,071 senior release engineers in the US, and there are currently 232,671 job openings in this field.
The median cost to hire a senior release engineer is $1,633.
Small businesses spend $1,105 per senior release engineer on training each year, while large companies spend $658.
It takes between 36 and 42 days to fill the average role in the US.
It takes approximately 12 weeks for a new employee to reach full productivity levels.
HR departments typically allocate 15% of their budget towards recruitment efforts.
Atlanta, GA, has the highest demand for senior release engineers, with 5 job openings.

How to hire a senior release engineer, step by step

To hire a senior release engineer, you should clearly understand the skills and experience you are looking for in a candidate, and allocate a budget for the position. You will also need to post and promote the job opening to reach potential candidates. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to hire a senior release engineer:

Here's a step-by-step senior release engineer hiring guide:

Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
Step 3: Make a budget
Step 4: Write a senior release engineer job description
Step 5: Post your job
Step 6: Interview candidates
Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new senior release engineer
Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

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Identify your hiring needs

Before you post your senior release engineer job, you should take the time to determine what type of worker your business needs. While certain jobs definitely require a full-time employee, it's sometimes better to find a senior release engineer for hire on a part-time basis or as a contractor.

Determine employee vs contractor status

Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

A senior release engineer's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, senior release engineers from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

This list presents senior release engineer salaries for various positions.

Type of Senior Release Engineer	Description	Hourly rate
Senior Release Engineer	Software developers are the creative minds behind computer programs. Some develop the applications that allow people to do specific tasks on a computer or another device... Show more	$41-73
Developer	Developers are usually system or application developers in a company who work on specific projects related to networks or applications from conception to implementation. They attend planning sessions to ensure that the program is feasible... Show more	$36-62
Software Development Engineer	A software development engineer is responsible for designing and developing software systems and applications based on clients' specifications and business needs. Software development engineers manage operating systems and analyze network codes to maintain the compatibility of the software applications and control systems... Show more	$38-70

Create an ideal candidate profile
Common skills:
- Jenkins
- Python
- GIT
- Continuous Integration
- Java
- Windows
- AWS
- Cloud
- PowerShell
- C++
- Release Process
- Jira
- Linux
- Release Management
Check all skills
Responsibilities:
- Upgrade Jenkins and manage build projects and plugins.
- Manage RF servers and performing network troubleshooting and preventative maintenance on network elements.
- Monitor SCCM platform health and mitigate issues as needed.
- Customize and create new TFS work items and new TFS work item queries.
- Create analytical matrices reports, dash boards for release services base on JIRA tickets.
- Install and configure all the Linux servers in the network per specifications of clients.
More senior release engineer duties

Make a budget

Including a salary range in your senior release engineer job description is one of the best ways to attract top talent. A senior release engineer can vary based on:

Location. For example, senior release engineers' average salary in hawaii is 33% less than in california.
Seniority. Entry-level senior release engineers 43% less than senior-level senior release engineers.
Certifications. A senior release engineer with certifications usually earns a higher salary.
Company. Working for an established firm or a new start-up company can make a big difference in a senior release engineer's salary.

Average senior release engineer salary

$115,988yearly

$55.76 hourly rate

Entry-level senior release engineer salary

$87,000 yearly salary

Updated January 22, 2026

Average senior release engineer salary by state

Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
1	California	$137,911	$66
2	Washington	$116,240	$56
3	New York	$111,674	$54
4	Massachusetts	$109,148	$52
5	New Jersey	$105,444	$51
6	Wisconsin	$104,539	$50
7	Texas	$100,839	$48
8	Virginia	$100,356	$48
9	Pennsylvania	$100,101	$48
10	Minnesota	$99,767	$48
11	Illinois	$98,695	$47
12	Georgia	$98,276	$47
13	North Carolina	$96,952	$47
14	Florida	$95,567	$46
15	Tennessee	$94,199	$45
16	Missouri	$91,808	$44
17	Arkansas	$88,456	$43

Average senior release engineer salary by company

Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
1	ICE Mortgage Technology	$151,318	$72.75
2	The Walt Disney Company	$150,955	$72.57	219
3	Apple	$150,314	$72.27	539
4	Bloomberg	$145,116	$69.77	208
5	Vista Equity Partners	$139,854	$67.24	1
6	Macy's	$137,462	$66.09	8
7	LendingClub	$136,293	$65.53	7
8	Veeva Systems	$134,000	$64.42	115
9	ServiceSource	$133,445	$64.16
10	Walmart	$131,903	$63.41	460
11	TIBCO Software	$131,438	$63.19
12	Broadcom	$131,368	$63.16	57
13	Tesla	$128,452	$61.76	9
14	Hotwire	$127,070	$61.09
15	Hoffmann-LA Roche Inc	$126,487	$60.81	1
16	Blue Shield of California	$126,180	$60.66	6
17	ICES Education	$125,699	$60.43
18	Cybersource	$124,246	$59.73
19	Shutterfly	$123,879	$59.56	9
20	Splunk	$122,274	$58.79

Writing a senior release engineer job description
A senior release engineer job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. Below, you can find an example of a senior release engineer job description:
Senior release engineer job description example
Mattermost is an open source platform for secure collaboration across the entire software development lifecycle. Hundreds of thousands of developers around the globe trust Mattermost to increase their productivity by bringing together team communication, task and project management, and workflow orchestration into a unified platform for agile software development.

Founded in 2016, Mattermost's open source platform powers over 800,000 workspaces worldwide with the support of over 4,000 contributors from across the developer community. The company serves over 800 customers, including European Parliament, NASA, Nasdaq, Samsung, SAP, United States Air Force and Wealthfront, and is backed by world-class investors including Battery Ventures, Redpoint, S28 Capital, YC Continuity. To learn more, visit www.mattermost.com.

We value high impact work, ownership, self-awareness and being focused on customer success. If these values match who you are, we hope you'll learn more about working at Mattermost and apply!

We are looking for a talented Senior Platform Engineer with passion for open source, who excels at infrastructure and automation. You will help to build and own the vision of CI/CD framework and Release Engineering practices at Mattermost. We are invested in AWS and Kubernetes, making the most of these abstractions. One of the core values of Mattermost is to be open and here you can find the areas of responsibilities of the team.
Everything you build with us will be open source.

If that sounds like you, then apply to learn more!
Responsibilities include:CI/CD framework and Release Engineering at scale for self-served teams Building out scalable and automated Cloud platform on preferably AWSExperience in infrastructure automation tools (Terraform/Pulumi) Containerisation technology and various orchestration platforms e.g. Docker, KubernetesBuilding out tools and automations to move towards self-served teams eg. CI/CD blueprints, ChatOpsBuilding out observability and SLOs for the services the team provides Participate in code and design reviews to maintain our high development standards
Nice to have:Experience with Site Reliability EngineeringExperience with software supply chain security practices eg. SLSAExperience with GitOps practices at scale Experience working in open source communities
Required Background/Skills:Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related fields, or significant professional software development experience5+ years of previous experience as a Platform EngineerPassionate about automating everything with DevOps mindset Strong experience with or an ability to quickly become an expert in at least portion of our technology stack: Go, Terraform, AWS, Kubernetes, Github Actions, GitLabA passion for solving problems and providing workable solutions Ability to work independently in an asynchronous team environment
Mattermost is a remote-first company with staff living and working across the globe. We are currently hiring staff in these countries/regions:

Australia - Brazil - Bulgaria - Canada - Chile - Colombia - Finland - Georgia - Germany - Greece - India - Ireland - Mauritius - Mexico - Norway - Pakistan - Philippines - Poland - Portugal - Spain - South Korea - Suriname - Turkey - Uganda - Ukraine - Uruguay - United Kingdom - United States

We are constantly working towards adding more countries/regions to this list, but first we need to make sure we are compliant with local laws and regulations, which takes time.

Mattermost is made up of people from a wide variety of backgrounds and lifestyles. We embrace diversity and invite applications from people from all walks of life. We don't discriminate against staff or applicants based on gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, race, religion, age, national origin, citizenship, disability, pregnancy status, veteran status, or any other differences. Also, if you have a disability, please let us know if there's any way we can make the interview process better for you; we're happy to accommodate!
Post your job
There are various strategies that you can use to find the right senior release engineer for your business:
- Consider promoting from within or recruiting from your existing workforce.
- Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
- Attend job fairs at local colleges to find candidates who meet your education requirements.
- Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to reach potential job candidates.
Post your job online:
- Post your senior release engineer job on Zippia to find and recruit senior release engineer candidates who meet your exact specifications.
- Use field-specific websites.
- Post a job on free websites.
Interview candidates
Recruiting senior release engineers requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.
It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.
Sometimes, it's not enough to interview senior release engineer candidates, so you can ask them to do a test project. If you are not a technical person and don't know what a test project should be, you can use these websites:
- TestDome
- CodeSignal
- Testlify
- BarRaiser
- Coderbyte
The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.
Send a job offer and onboard your new senior release engineer
Once you've selected the best senior release engineer candidate for the job, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, this letter should include details about the benefits and perks you offer the candidate. Ensuring that your offer is competitive is essential, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and you should be open to discussion. After you reach an agreement, the final step is formalizing the agreement with a contract.
You should also follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that you've filled the position.
To prepare for the new employee's start date, you can create an onboarding schedule and complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9 forms, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Human Resources should also ensure that a new employee file is created.
Go through the hiring process checklist
- Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
- Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
- Define job responsibilities and requirements
- Establish budget and timeline
- Determine hiring decision makers for the role
- Write job description
- Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
- Promote the job internally
- Process applications through applicant tracking system
- Review resumes and cover letters
- Shortlist candidates for screening
- Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
- Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
- Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
- Conduct background checks on top candidates
- Check references of top candidates
- Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
- Extend offer to top candidate(s)
- Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
- Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
- Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
- Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)
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How much does it cost to hire a senior release engineer?

There are different types of costs for hiring senior release engineers. One-time cost per hire for the recruitment process. Ongoing costs include employee salary, training, onboarding, benefits, insurance, and equipment. It is essential to consider all of these costs when evaluating hiring a new senior release engineer employee.

You can expect to pay around $115,988 per year for a senior release engineer, as this is the median yearly salary nationally. This can vary depending on what state or city you're hiring in. If you're hiring for contract work or on a per-project basis, hourly rates for senior release engineers in the US typically range between $41 and $73 an hour.

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Updated January 22, 2026

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How to hire a senior release engineer